Southeast Asian Cooking

Southeast Asia is a cook's paradise, and an eater's as well. The food is truly art: tastes mingle with subtle complexity, and presentation is spectacular. The region stretches east from India and Bangladesh to the southern border of China, encompassing the mainland countries of Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and the island countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Each country has its history cooked into its dishes. For example, in Indonesia and Malaysia the prevalence of Islam has virtually eliminated pork from the diet; Vietnamese food retains the flavors of centuries of French occupation; and Filipino food enhances a local palate with Spanish and American accents. While the countries maintain distinct identities, they also have a great deal in common, and their cuisines share histories as well as many staple ingredients and methods of cooking.

The food of any region is not only the result of what ground and climate will produce, but also of who has been there, what powers have influenced it, how poor or wealthy the people are, and what its sensibilities prefer. The major influences on Southeast Asian cuisines have been exerted by China from the east (the wok, noodles) and India (curries) from the west. Perhaps the most profound impact on the region's cooking was made in the 16th century, when the Portuguese brought the chile from the Americas. Today the fiery chile provides signature heat in a Southeast Asian meal.

A standard Southeast Asian meal has no courses. All the parts of a meal are presented at once and eaten together. As in Chinese cuisine, the cook (who is, in most homes, a woman) strives for a harmonious balance of textures, temperatures and flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter. In Thailand, people eat with a spoon, knife, and fork; in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, people eat with their (right) hands, and spoons are used for serving. Vietnam is unique in the region for eating with chopsticks.

Except in the Philippines and Singapore, desserts, as they are known in the West, are rare. Meals are followed, perhaps, by fresh fruit; heavy, sweet foods are not served at mealtimes except on special occasions.