WHAT MAKES US… US?
Thailand – it’s food and culture
Long Chim literally translates from Thai as “come and try” – a phrase often heard in Bangkok as diners share street food in a family format.
Authentic, integrity, fun, vibrant, commitment, family, sharing, balance, inclusive,
The Long Chim culinary repertoire currently extends to about 300 separate menu items and we are continuously expanding this range. To better illustrate how our menu has evolved, we will again go back to explore a little more of the history of Thailand that drives it culinary diversity, and what drives the set up of our kitchens now.
Thai cooking is at odds with the modern world, where speed and simplicity are paramount. Thai is not an instant cuisine, prepared with the flick of a knife and finished with a toss of a pan. It needs the cook’s attention, it expects time and effort to be spent and it requires honed skills, but it rewards with sensational tastes.
Thai cooking is a singular cuisine that is easily distinguished even from its nearest neighbours. Yet this distinctiveness is not the result of an insular, accommodating attitude that refuses novel ideas and dismisses new ingredients. Throughout Thailand’s long history, the resilience of the culture has allowed it to accept the unfamiliar without fear of compromise. The incorporation of the chilli into the cuisine is a most potent example of this. In Europe, it took 200 years for the tomato to be considered anything more than a poisonous apple, yet Siamese cuisine completely absorbed the chilli within a century. And now Thai cooking is inconceivable without it.
The true genius of Thai cuisine is its ability to incorporate the unfamiliar, whether it be ingredient or technique, and absorb it so completely that it becomes and an integral component; to ‘Siam-ese’ it to a degree that it becomes indistinguishable from the indigenous. The history and character of the Thai have afforded this extraordinary synthesis of cooking, ingredients, and circumstances to create a vital cuisine that is the embodiment of a remarkable people and their culture.
Thai food is intertwined with all aspects of Thai culture. Since ancient times, dishes have been offered into the many gods and spirits that inhabited the Thai world and the Thai psyche. Such offerings placated the deities and ensured their aid in times of uncertainty. Today no celebration is complete without a meal, and the offering of food to monks is a sure way to obtain merit. Food offers more than nourishment alone; it is sustenance for the country and the soul.
The diverse terrain of Thailand imposes its own marked characteristics on the cooking. The many physical barriers - uplands, mountains, deep ravines, rivers, and ragged coastlines - are set in a landscape that was, until only recently, sparsely populated. These factors have inevitably led to vast regional differences in culture and cuisine. Only in the late nineteenth century did the idea of a united country begin to develop; before then, Thailand was the sum of its many parts.
Rice – A special mention
Rice has always sustained people in Thailand and formed a close bond with their way of life for over 5,000 years. It not only fed people throughout the land but also plays a very significant role in the history, culture, society, and economy of the Thai nation. According to the Thai government: “In an agricultural society, rice, as a cereal, is the stuff of life and the source of traditions and beliefs; it has played an important role in Thai society since time immemorial, providing a strong foundation for the evolution of all aspects of society and culture. Rice is regarded as a sacred plant with a breath (spirit), a life, and a soul of its own, just like that of human beings. To the Thai people, rice is guarded by the goddess phosop, who acts as its tutelary deity, and rice itself is considered a "mother" keeping guard over the nation's young and watching over their growth into adulthood.
Thailand is home to one of the world's oldest rice-based civilizations. Rice is believed to have first been being cultivated in there around 3,500 B.C. Evidence of ancient rice agriculture includes rice marking found on pottery fragments unearthed in graves unearthed at non noktha village in khon kaen province in northeast Thailand that have been dated to be 5,400 years old and rice husks found in pottery in the north, at pung hung cave, mae hong son dated to be around 5,000 years old. People that lived in a site called khok phanom di in Thailand between 4,000 and 3,500 year ago practiced rice farming and buried their dead facing east in shrouds of bark and asbestos fibers.
Much of the impressive economic growth recorded by Thailand in the 1970s and the early 1980s was owed to the steady expansion of the agricultural sector. This sector provided adequate food for the rapidly growing population and produced substantial surpluses of some commodities for export.
The Thai farmer's ability to adapt to changing market conditions contributed to the country's agricultural success, but even more important was the availability of large areas of virgin land for cultivation. Between 1950 and 1980, agricultural holdings nearly doubled to an estimated 22 million hectares, of which about three-quarters were farmed annually, and much of the rapidly growing population was absorbed in the expansion.
The Kitchen and its sections
In all cuisines, the methods used to cook are determined by the available fuel, equipment and utensils. Thai cooking uses simple equipment. It is important to appreciate this in order to understand the techniques employed, which are the logical outcome of circumstances. The evolutions of Thai recipes has always been tempered by the constraints of environment, culture and technology.
The traditional Thai kitchen was once a small room - often separate from the main house and usually faced auspiciously to the north, taking advantage of a full day’s sun. It was well ventilated, as the walls were made from slatted bamboo or rattan; they could be rolled up during cooking, ensuring that even the most pungently explosive fumes did not overwhelm the cook.
The main piece of equipment was the stove (mae dtow). This consisted of a large clay cooking surface positioned over burning embers of charcoal or wood; two large holes allowed two dishes to be cooked simultaneously. The clay stove-top was also a perfect place to keep food warm before serving. Alternatively, a smaller ‘single’ stove was used - and these can still be seen today, at street and market stalls and occasionally in homes. Poorer households used clay pots supported by metal tripods instead of a stove, with hot embers underneath. The poorest households would cook over an open wood fire.
The position of the stove in the kitchen was determined by the day of birth of its owner, according to the traditional manuscript of Thai lore, sawatdi raksa. The correct placement of the stove ensured happiness and prosperity for the cook and the household.
To ensure popularity for those born on Sunday, the stove should be to the west. A stove to the north-west guaranteed happiness for those born on Monday, while for those born on Tuesday, the south conferred protection. Prosperity and abundance was assured to those born on Wednesday should they also place their stove to the south. South-west, and peacefulness would descend on those born on Thursday. Friday’s child would be less full of woe if the stove were in the north-west. An easterly direction would further the career of those born on Saturday. Such placements squared one with the world.
The kitchen of Long Chim certainly has its share of modern equipment, be it commercial fryers of combi ovens, but the lifeblood remains the pestle and mortar, where pastes are pounded, the stove, where curries are finished, the grill, where live fuel chars and perfumes our food, and the woks, where stir fried dishes are tossed to perfection. It is not about technology, but technique, a respect for authenticity, and an integrity that demands we stay true to the food of Bangkok and beyond.
ATF ‘The Factory’ and its importance to the food of Long Chim
In our restaurants, you may hear reference to ‘the factory’, particularly among the chefs. They will usually be referring to Aaharn Thai Foods (ATF). While this is accurate for production of some of our ingredients such as our curry pastes and concentrates, it perhaps paints an unfair picture of what we actually do at Aaharn Thai Foods. As mentioned earlier our operation includes the farming and sourcing of authentic Thai ingredients and the processing and distribution of selected food products, working with farmers, smallholders and producers of authentic products, to ensure the raw materials we work with in the restaurants are exactly how you would find them in Thailand and second to none.
The role that this part of our business plays in the menu at Long Chim, cannot be overstated. Thailands extraordinary land, soil and climate makes for some of the best fresh produce in the world, and products that we do not believe can be replicated elsewhere, particularly in some of our partner territories, such as the UK and Dubai. As such, the work done by the incredible team, based in Bangkok, who work with David on procurement and production, translates directly to the experiences of the guests in our dining rooms the world over.
In Sydney and Perth, in one year, we will use 3500 litres of fish sauce, 6 tonnes of palm sugar and 1000 bottles of sriracha all sourced in Thailand and shipped direct to our restaurant. Perhaps a more impressive stat is that those restaurants sell almost 100,000 curries a year, and every bowl that gets to the table will have an element that has been created by ‘the factory’.
Four times a year, the senior chefs of each venue will calculate how much of each product they will need for their restaurants in the months ahead, and will then place an order to ATF. Once the order is confirmed, the team in Bangkok have around 50 days to source, prepare, package and ship. So for the green curry, they will source thai garlic, shallot, fish sauce, lemongrass, long green chillies, scud chillies, galangal, shrimp paste, kaffir lime, coriander root, turmeric, mixed spices, wild ginger and lastly the best and freshest coconut cream. These ingredients are then assembled and cooked out in strictly controlled conditions, before being packaged and loaded on to trucks to head to the airport or the docks, to make their way in to our chef hands.
You will find lots of detail in the product glossary later in this document, look for products like our Palm Sugar or the sriracha we source from koh loy in the sriracha province.
Service style- How we roll
An experience at Long Chim should feel effortless. From the moment our guests walk in our door, to the time they leave, they are guests in our house and for that time are the centre of our universe.
Long Chim places warmth and humility ahead of formality and refinement. We share our knowledge and passion through provision of choice and thoughtful guidance to best suit the the pallet and preferences of our guests. We recognise that delivering a truly effortless experience, requires the greatest level of effort from our team and a constant dedication to observing and reading the needs of our guests.
Our restaurants and their clientele are truly international, with different pallets and preferences. Our commitment to authenticity can sometimes conflict with their demands or their understanding of Thai food. While we accept that the customer is not always right, we also recognise the need to find alternatives or to guide them to options that work for them and their specific tastes.
There may be times when the simplest answer would be to say no to people’s requests, to tell them it is not how it should be, or that it’s a poor choice. But at Long Chim we avoid ‘No’ at all costs. We don’t preach, or force education upon people, but rather we guide choices by finding alternatives and guiding them to something they will love. Having said that, if our guests want to learn and be informed, we are fountains of information, and never stop learning our craft and cuisine.
OUR VOICE / OUR PERSONALITY / WHAT DO WE LIKE / WHAT DON’T WE LIKE
Long Chim is a fun and relaxed environment, but that doesn’t mean we are laid back in our approach to service.
Long Chim doesn’t take itself too seriously, but is seriously committed to brilliance
Long Chim is inclusive, we love everyone, no matter their gender, race, sexual orientation, we provide pure hospitality without judgement. Discrimination of any kind is unwelcome here.
Long Chim is Thai food, as eaten by Thais in Thailand. We do not dilute or adapt to the detriment of our integrity and authenticity. How we explain that to guests is an art, an art that we will help you to master.
Long Chim is not fine dining, but dining at Long Chim is mighty fine!
