In the past few months much of my work have been in the south of Thailand. People who watch my television show have commented that I have been to the south quite often. I am sure they all want to know why. As a matter of fact I have just been back from Pattani, you know the city in the far south that the newspaper made it out to be a very dangerous full of separatist insurgents. In reality, the south of Thailand is very peaceful and colorful. If we look at the number of killings and incidences that occurred in Pattani in one year and compare it with other cities the same size all over Thailand I am sure you will find that there are hundreds if not thousands of towns that have more killings than Pattani.

                  The fact that this province is in the extreme south of the country and the majority of people down there are not Buddhist and dress differently from the rest of the country make people perceive these differences that they don’t understand as dangerous or threatening. I just want to remind fellow Thais that people in the south especially in the five southern most provinces are also Thais. They love our country and our King as much as the rest of us. They have lots to offer the rest of us and have much to contribute to the growth of our economy. Once we replace mistrust with understanding and mutual respect people in the south will start feeling like part of the rest of the country.

                  Pattani has the largest fishing port in the country and yet not to many investors are willing to come down here and build factories because of misunderstanding and mistrust. I for one would like you all to invite all of you to visit these five southern most provinces, which has a long and great history. Here I go again going off on a tangent. Let’s get back to the food. Near the Province of Yala there is a town up a long and winding road over the mountains call Baytong where the environment is very clean with fresh with clear running streams and it is here at Baytong that the Chinese food of this An An Lao restaurant comes from.

                  Baytong is known for its chicken Baytong. Basically a free ranging chicken that has been poached or steamed and then de-boned and served with a sauce made of soy, herbs and lots of other secret ingredients. It is served cold or at room temperature while the sauce is usually warmed and poured over the chicken. The meat of the free ranging chicken is not tough but does not melt in your mouth. You are able to chew it and taste the true sweetness and flavor of the chicken meat. It is quite delicious and not at all fattening. The skin of the chicken is very lean, as is the meat.

                  This is definitely a signature dish from Baytong. The next signature dish of Baytong is stir-fry watercress with oyster sauce. In the olden days up until recently, watercress can only be found in Baytong and known only to the locals. Thais call it Pak Nam which translate to Water lettuce. Watercress has to be grown in cleaning running streams and the temperature has to be fairly cool. Baytong is in the southern mountains, a perfect environment for watercress to grow. Most Thais are not familiar with watercress until about 10 years ago when the royal projects in the north of Thailand started growing it but the rest of the country did not know what to do with it. They thought it was a Farang lettuce so I guess they will have to cook it farang way.

                  Chinese restaurants in Baytong have been stir-fry them for years! It is delicious and crispy if you do not over-cook it. It taste better than our morning glory and easier to eat than our Thai counter part. They do it very well at An An Lao on Soi Thonglor. The next signature dish from Baytong would have to be Kao Yoak or braised pork belly with taro. The pieces of thickly sliced pork belly is braised in soy and other Chinese herbs until everything is very tender and all the flavors seeps into the meat and taro. The layer of fat becomes almost like jelly and one does not feel that this dish is greasy at all but rather rich and very flavorful. The last Baytong signature dish is the stir-fry noodles.

                  Homemade fresh Chinese egg noodles are cooked and then stir-fried with pork, squid or seafood and seasoned with herbs and spices. A little egg is added to the pan and mixed in with the noodle for added richness. The resultant dish is very taste. The noodle has the scent of nuttiness from the partially burnt strands of noodles. Some salty pickled vegetables are added for crunchiness. There are other standard dishes in the Chinese cuisine repertoire such as the steamed whole fish, which they do very well or the home-style tofu, which comes in a hot pot. A test for a good Chinese restaurant is how well they do their fried rice and An An Lao passes the test. The rice kernels should be separate not stick together. It should neither be too wet nor too dry. It should be oily enough but not greasy and most importantly it should smell the smokiness of the flames from the pan. I suggest if you do not dare go to Baytong because you are afraid of the south hospitality you should atleast go try it at An An Lao on Sukhumvit Soi 55.

An An Lao Restaurant,
331/1-3 Thonglor, Sukhumvit 55,
Klong Tun, Wattana, Bangkok 10110
Telephone number 0-2392-6447, 0-2712-6860