Thai Hotel

Want to enjoy the tantalizing taste of Asian food at home? Invest in a wok! Stir-frying is one of the easiest ways to create a delicious, healthy dinner in minutes. Learn to prepare meals the Asian way: light on meat, heavy on the vegetables, and quick-cooked on high heat to retain vitamins and flavors. A few basics is all you need to get cooking!

Purchase your wok. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on state-of-the-art cookware. A standard, stainless-steel wok, purchased for less than $50, will serve its purpose well. The heavier the wok, the better it will retain heat. This is important because you must cook at a high temperature to avoid stewing or steaming your ingredients.

Season your wok. Before you use your wok for the first time, you must season it. Seasoning the wok is a way to “break it in” to ensure even heat-distribution during stir-frying, and helps lock in the flavors of the food as it’s cooking. When you remove your wok from its packaging, you may notice a greasy film on the surface. Wipe this film away, and wash your wok in warm, soapy water. To season your wok, put it on the stove over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Add a drop or two of oil, and swirl it around to coat the surface evenly. Remove from the stovetop to let cool for a bit, and then use a paper towel to wipe out the oily residue. You may want to season your wok once more before you begin cooking with it.

Gather your utensils. Professional chefs use a mesh ladel to toss meat and vegetables around in the wok, but if you don’t have one of these, a wooden spoon will do just fine. Place several large, clean bowls and plates on the counter next to your wok so you can set your cooked items aside as you prepare them in batches. Other items you’ll need: a chef’s knife, cutting board, and several bowls of different sizes to store liquid mixtures and chopped herbs and vegetables.

Cut and dry food prep. The most time-consuming part of stir-frying is preparing the ingredients. You’ll want everything portioned out and cleaned, chopped, sliced and diced in advance. The actual stir-frying is fast and furious (you’ve probably heard those pans rattling like mad while waiting for your Chinese takeout!) so meat, vegetables, noodles, spices and oils should be ready and within reaching distance so you can grab and get on with it. Chop everything into bite-sized chunks to ensure quick and thorough cooking. Make sure there’s no extra water or other liquid in your wok while stir-frying meat and vegetables. As mentioned earlier, liquid in the wok will cause your meal to stew instead of lightly fry.

Stir-fry in batches. Properly stir-fried food retains its crisp, firm exterior and tender, juicy inside by cooking small portions at a time. Heat the wok, drizzle in enough oil to coat the surface, and add enough small cuts of beef, pork or chicken to just cover the bottom. Fry on medium-high heat, tossing the entire time. When your first batch of meat is thoroughly cooked, remove from the wok and drain on paper towels. Fry the second batch in a little more oil, and then set aside. Oil the pan once more, toss in a few cloves of crushed garlic and/or ginger, and stir-fry the vegetables, adding the thicker ingredients like potatoes and carrots first, and then tossing in quicker-cooking ingredients like scallions and mushrooms at the end. When the vegetables are done, return the meat to the pot with the vegetables, and finish with your liquid sauces and seasonings. Give everything a quick toss, simmer for a few minutes and then remove from heat.

Learn the flavors. Thai cooking is immensely popular right now; similar to Chinese, but with its own exotic spices and flavorings, some of which take their cue from Indian cuisine. Malaysian, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean fare all boast their signature recipes as well. With practice, you’ll learn which spices and sauces go with what and how to identify their flavors. You can buy most of what you need at an Asian specialty store.

Always have some Asian cooking staples on hand: soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce. Fresh ginger, garlic, chillies, galangal, Asian shallots, scallions, kaffir lime leaves, cilantro and lemongrass. Green or red curry paste, shrimp paste. Noodles and rice. And of course… plenty of fresh meat, fish, tofu and vegetables. Pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, prawns, scallops. Onions, carrots, broccoli, snow peas, bok choi (Chinese cabbage), mushrooms (regular, oyster mushrooms, shitake mushrooms).

There really is no limit to what you can do with a wok, an assortment of meats, vegetables, spices and sauces. If you’re the creative chef, feel free to experiment. If you’re a “by the book” cook, go out and purchase a stir-fry cookbook which will explain each technique in detail as well as familiarize you with the exotic ingredients. Above all: know that stir-frying is a healthy way to prepare and enjoy the foods you love in the comfort of home.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto.

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The Thai Labour Museum is housed in a modest single story
red building by the railway line near the Makkasan railway
station. The building used to be the railway police station, then
the railway labour union office, before being converted to a
museum on 17 October 1993.

The monument outside the Thai Labour Museum signifying
the “Dignity of Labour” shows a man and a woman pushing a
huge wheel, the wheel of history.

The museum captures the 300-year history of the Thai labour
movement from the days of slavery to the present, tracing the
evolution of the Thai labour.

Latest News - Thai Labour
Museum faces demolition

On 18 November 2005, the State Railway of Thailand
announced plans to repossess land currently occupied by the
museum to build a transport complex linking the city to the
new Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

If this goes through, the old building in Makkasan would be
demolished. The Labour Museum Committee is petitioning
Parliament to allow the museum to stay put. We hope that
their efforts will be successful.

Slavery

The journey in the Thai Labour Museum starts with the period
of slavery. Since the 1700s slaves and commoners or Phrai
worked without wages. The Phrai were tattooed with their
names of the area of abode and their masters.

The advent of paid labour

The Bowing Treaty in 1855 in the reign of King Rama IV
opened up trade and pressure for reform. Increased labour
demand was met by the influx of Chinese immigrants. This was
the advent of paid labour though conditions were abysmal.

Reform - the abolition of slavery

In 1873, King Chulalongkorn or King Rama V abolished
slavery, a watershed in the history of Thai labour fittingly
recorded in the Thai Labour Museum. All men were free to
seek employment for a fair wage.

Political reform and the labour
movement

The early 1920s had no clear government policy on labour.
Labour had no right of organization. Industrial disputes and
strikes were frequent. Intellectuals, the pioneers of the labour
movement, tried to raise awareness to this growing problem.

The 1932 coup brought hopes of improvement. The Thai Tram
Workers Association, the first labour union was formed. A
nationalist economic policy required Thai ownership of
companies, registration of unemployed and recognition of
workers’ rights.

World War II and the Cold War

The Japanese occupation in World War II put a halt to things,
causing unemployment, inflation and severe hardships. Many
workers joined the underground resistance movement.

Thai labour’s setback continued during the Cold War. Military
dictators, who were staunchly anti-communist and anti-labour,
clamped down on labour as workers’ rights and unions were
considered unfavourable to investment.

The turbulent 1970s to the end of the century

Widespread discontent forged an alliance of workers, farmers
and students that boiled over in 1973. The video in the Thai
Labour Museum gives a detailed account of the events leading
up to the bloodbath on 14 October 1973.

Other problems were that of abuse of child and women labour
and gross neglect of workers’ safety. In 1993 188 workers,
mostly women, perished when a fire burnt down the Kader
Doll Factory. The 1997 economic crisis was another bitter pill.

Thai labour and Songs for life

The last stop in the Thai Labour Museum is a fitting finale as it
embodies the spirit of the politically disenchanted, the
exploited and neglected. The labour movement took their
plight to the people through music.

Hardships and toil are expressed through songs with poignant
images of broken dolls and tearful children mourning the loss
of their mothers in the Kader Doll Factory fire.

Current issues facing Thai labour today

Issues still facing Thai labour today are a fair minimum daily
wage, the privatization of state enterprises and workers’ safety.
Will a new page be written in Thai labour history for inclusion
in the Thai Labour Museum?

To get to this museum by the railway, please see map to the Thai
Labour Museum.

Review the 300-year history of the Thai labour movement at
the Thai Labour Museum
when you next Tour Bangkok Legacies.
The author Eric Lim, a free-lance writer, lives in Bangkok
Thailand.

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Muay Thai Kickboxing is often referred to as the science of 8 limbs. The reason for this title is the fact that you use nearly every body part as a weapon. You can strike with your forehead, elbows, fists, Knees, Shins and feet. Muay Thai Kickboxing was invented over 2000 years ago and is recognized as one of the oldest martial arts known to man. Although records of Muay Thai fights only date back to 700 years ago, there is a general consensus that Muay Thai originated over 2000 years ago in the part of Asia that is now inhabited by China.

Muay Thai is known as the martial art of “kings” because in 1411 when a king by the name of Sen Muajng Ma died, his sons literally fought to the death for his throne, using the techniques of muay thai. Many kings were known to not only train in the martial art of Muay Thai but also to compete. The only problem is that it was viewed as improper to touch an emperor much less strike one. So a king by the name Phra Buddha Choa Sua used to enter various Muay Thai tournaments dressed as a peasant in order to fool both the audience and his opponents. He not only won all his matches, he eventually defeated the national champion.

The majority of the world refers to Muay Thai as Thai boxing. Although Thai boxing’s most recent claim to fame is from John Claude Van Dam and other various movies, this martial art is regarded as one of the most brutal forms of self defense. Thailand has been known to hold open challenges pitting other forms of standup fighting against their Thai boxers. Most Thai fighters are heavily out weighed in these matches but still manage to destroy their opponents due to the various ways of attacking. No other martial art trains you to use every limb to attack and most other martial arts limit their striking area to above the waist. In Thai boxing you are allowed to kick, punch and knee your opponent’s legs. Many opponents who are unaccustomed to receiving leg kicks literally lose the match due to the excruciating pain as a result of the technique.

Thai boxing is not known as the most vicious martial art for no reason. Thai boxers train their kicks in a manner that when you are struck by them it literally feels like someone has swung a baseball bat. Thai boxers tend to focus on a few effective techniques and master them rather then wasting energy on some of the flashier techniques found in other martial arts. In addition to being an effective martial art and the official self defense system of the Thai national army, Muay Thai is one of the best cardiovascular workouts you will ever partake in. Many aerobic studios incorporate Thai boxing techniques into their workouts. As you can see if you want to kill two birds with one stone by both learning how to defend yourself and getting yourself into great shape, Thai boxing is a martial art that’s definitely worth taking a look at.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Martial Arts

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