Gateway to the friendly flavours of the East

3:23pm Wednesday 7th July 2004

SIAMESE traditions of opulence and natural good ingredients make Thai food a treasure bomb, designed and primed to explode all over the tastebuds.

To check out the latest local offering, I stepped through the unsuspecting gateway to the East to meet the owners of Anong Thai, a small restaurant and take-away tucked up in the developing west end of Wycombe at 256 Desborough Road.

Paul Robinson met his partner Kai in Thailand, having kissed goodbye to London's legal world and embraced a culture that is sure, strong and life-loving. On their return to England, they found few places serving a traditional homely diet.

"The idea for a restaurant was to introduce the food you'd find in homes across Thailand," Paul explains, "but for a style that's labour intensive and has no generic taste, it's easy to cut corners to affordability."

Anong Thai's tenet is authenticity. The chefs are Kai's sisters, who are armed to the teeth with recipes tried and tested over generations of family dinners. Sauces and pastes are made fresh every two days and all mixing is done by hand to give the exact texture of home-cooked food.

While some restaurants compromise dishes for western tastes, the approach here is "change the people, not the food". Though they'll ask just how much chilli you can handle before cooking!

Representing a different style of food is not all easy, no matter how delicious. Everyone has preconceptions and different tastes. "We want people to learn about dishes so they can order Thai in faith. For newcomers, we like to gauge tastes and suggest some options. It's good fun and an excellent icebreaker."

There's a strong sense of respect reflected in Thai customer service, stemming from their traditions. Each morning food is offered to Buddhist monks at local temples to give thanks for a delicious bounty. At New Year in April food offerings are again made, for good luck. As with all aspects of Thai life, the notion is reciprocal. The better food you bring, the luckier returns you can hope for.

Serving food is a national pastime, and a common greeting you hear in Thailand is "gin khao yung?" meaning "have you eaten?" It's polite to say you haven't, to give your host an opportunity to share with you. When I'm offered a bite, I can't resist one of the crispy fried starters. In minutes a creation arrives of minced prawn, spring onion and coriander delicately wrapped around sticks of chunky sugar cane, coated in breadcrumbs, deep-fried, and served with a sweet chilli sauce... and in minutes is gone again!

Seafood and rice are fundamental to the diet since they grow in water, the source of all life. With fresh fruit and vegetables all year round, and healthy fish swimming in the surrounding warm waters, it's no surprise that Thai cooking is culinary art gone wild.

Instead of letting a cookbook dictate what goes into a meal, the foods in season and the mood of the moment are the deciding factors for a Thai dinner table. Flavours and feelings are fused together, transformed by fire and alchemised into an edible gold. The resulting synergy makes the final dish much more than a sum of its parts.

But finishing a dish is not the sole aim, the process of "getting there" is equally important and vitalising, symbolic of our journey through life. Cooking is a process of living and Thai people believe the things we do should be sanuk', meaning fun and pleasurable. This isn't a shallow, hedonistic view it's a penchant for finding positive expression. To find the best in every moment and savour life's pleasures. It's only natural that cooking and sharing food is sanuk for many Thais.

"If you're in a bad mood, it's better not to cook," Kai explains. "Good Thai food can only be made with love and care, to make it tender and crisp. A good medicine for your body." Keeping the spirit of home alive is a key ingredient to the recipe. Daily offerings are made to shrines inside the restaurant while outside, incense is burned and a prayer is said to wish good luck and health for both staff and business.

So what would be a good choice for a special occasion? Kai suggests Lahb Gai, minced chicken on seasoned toasted rice with salad. "It's cooked for good luck or celebrations, like a house-warming party." For a taste of eastern opulence, Paul advises: "It's in choosing something less common for us to eat, like the fillet of sea bass, which brings the wealth of the experience.

"The best bit is introducing the food with a life-loving attitude. Our aim is to help build the reputation of Thai food as a fresh-faced alternative for eating out. The west end of a modest industrial town is an excellent place to start work."

Certifications for quality don't cut the mustard with Paul and Kai. "Considering you can pay for some of these awards, we're not buying. The reward for us is when we see the same faces coming back with their friends. That's what Thailand is about: sharing the smiles and the flavours that make this life worth celebrating."

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