Here we are in the 21st Century, the time where every little thing you do will end up triggering someone - things that are supposed to unify us, ended up tearing us apart; religions, literatures, songs and even arts. Modern society is divisive, we are extremely busy labelling ourselves and others.
Take Bangkok for instance, it’s amazing how gaps can grow enormously in such a dense city; between the rich and the poor and the not very rich and the very poor. They basically live in different worlds, they go to very different theaters to watch the same film, they go to very different hospitals with very different bills. It seems like the only time you can see a rich man and a poor man standing in the same line is when they’re waiting for foods on the streets.
And that’s the beauty of it.
Bangkok is like many big cities around the world, is a melting pot - but we like to think it’s the most delicious pot of all. It may sound nationalistic but Bangkok street food is the best and it means to us more than just good food.
Thanks to our pre-historic education system, we didn’t learn much in school, especially about any other cultures. Most of the credits go to street food and street food culture; we know best fried chicken is from Hat Yai, we know Somtam will not be good if they don’t sound E-san and we don’t buy Roti from a Chinese-looking guy.
More credits go to our centralised economic growth, everyone from every city has to come to Bangkok for jobs so everyone’s here and food is the only thing can make them feel like home.
failed governance but great for authentic taste.
The rise of the middle-class changed the mainstream way of enjoying food drastically, they order food to consume social acceptance which can now be calculated by numbers of likes.
No reports about it yet but it’s pretty obvious average Bangkok bourgeois consume more truffles than those in Italy - same goes for uni, wagyu and foie gras, that’s their interpretation of being gastronomic, maybe it’s right, according to the 214 likes they got.
Gastronomy is about good food and good food doesn’t mean you can include expensive ingredients and voilà! - it doesn’t work like that, good food is about passion, the memory it brings, the family recipe they carry on for generations - Bangkok had enough of food selfies.
- let’s go back to the real meaning of gastronomy.
