Every column written by Praew Praewpailing Boopsiri is beyond the compound of letters, because the way she writes can magically make foods become alive. Today, we will be having an interview with her through 7 questions in order to get to know her better than a food columnist.
What did you do before becoming a columnist at BKKMENU?
I used to write at the Seventeen Thailand Magazine and the traveling magazine namely Barefoot Magazine. Then they shut down in 2016. Due to the digital transformation, I decided to come back to the writing platform again for BKKMENU, the lifestyle related website that can gain massive access from people. This platform allows me to develop broaden my writing styles.
What can be the correlation between food writer and food taster?
In my opinion, food taster often gets to happily eat delicious stuff and share that to like-minded people. Being a food writer or critic, it might partly come from how you love to eat. At the same time, like me, I became a food writer because I have interest in diverse eating cultures, and I think that food is a gateway for me to get connected with people. Because if you take deeper consideration, you will see that there are so many elements behind the deliciousness of each dish.
This include ingredients, cooking method or even the design and decoration that indicate the unique identity of each menu. It’s a tangible charisma that can be experience through your sensory organs. So, I think somehow there’s a correlation between food writer and food taster. However, the most important thing of being a food writer is the ability to express the story that is more than
tasting the food to the people. It’s about expressing the passion and experience of the food that we discovery through a written presentation.
Do you think how the eating trend of Thai people has changed?
Earlier, most of the feedback from audiences was cafe, especially with those where they serve food and ambience that look alike overseas such as the Korean style cafe, Korean BBQ and the bubble. This comes and goes fast. However, the current trend is more diverse and goes bat to the basic, the presentation of authenticity. Many restaurants are trying to create the combination of Thai authenticity and international cuisine. There are more stories and the selection of local ingredient sourcing served in a creative manner. I think the eating trend these days has neither specific nor unique patterns though in the high-end Michelin stars down to the street foods. This is
due to the free flow of information on the social media platform where it’s full of the diverse dimension of taste and ambience being told. Therefore, I think this diversity can also be defined as the eating trend of people at the moment.
What is your opinion about a Food Trend Setter, and do you consider yourself as one?
The timeliness of social media platform in sharing information is the emerging cause of a Food Trend Setter and there are so many of them nowadays. The trend of food is quite similar to the trend of fashion. Once it becomes diverse, there’s no specific trend anymore. It’s more about the preference of individuals. I personally think that I am not a Food Trend Setter at all because every
food review I did was never been based on the expectation that audiences would follow to eat what I wrote about. It’s undeniable that there’s a competition going on via the online platform where we must catch up with the trend and make people like and share our content. However, it goes back to the code of conduct that as a reviewer, you must be neutral as much as the need to be able to present the alternatives to people in order for them to make decision freely. This is the job of us as a modern media platform where we can maintain our standard, while keeping the uniqueness of BKKMENU alongside.
Have you discovered any interesting case regarding source of ingredient behind your writing work?
In fact, there are many of them. One of the cases is at Sorn, the fine southern Thai cuisine where chef selects the rare indigenous ingredients to create main dishes. They have their own ingredient sourcing team in many provinces and apply the local cooking method together with the modern cooking style. This is to ensure the taste at its finest. For example, the use of the 6-year-old dairy
cow’s meat raised by the Muslim in Pattaloong province because this is the softest beef that can be melted in your mouth. Another example is the dessert menu of the Soymilk ice cream which the syrup is made from the seaside planted Nipa palm only. This is to have the syrup which tastes alike the sea salt caramel naturally. After realizing these stories of each menu, I have learned the
dedication of the chef and that makes the foods magically tastier that I would like to share its deliciousness to the people who read my work.
If you were not a writer but instead just one consumer, what do you like to tell the restaurants?
I want every restaurant to emphasize on the quality of foods both taste and cleanliness aspects as much as the quantity and good services alongside. These elements play the most vital role in attracting people to enjoy at your place. Other than that, you can then further develop the idea of decoration
and ambience later.
Could you please write a 2-sentence review on what you called “food”?
Food is something that people eat to cope their hunger though the method of cooking from diverse sets of ingredients both vegetables and meats. It gives good taste as much as the nutrition to your body.
The important role of the writer is to pass on stories that can inspire life of the people. Despite the fast changing of eating trend, its nutrition and ingredients are still the elements that make each dish to have its own meaning. Especially when it’s a healthy trend these days, people pay closer attention to whether what they eat are safe or not. This affects the farmers in operating more
sustainable agriculture than in the past. Even though a job as a writer and farmer may sound irrelevant, but at the end there’s a correlation that tie these two things together. We believe that Praew is also one of the writers who contributes her writing to make the phenomenon chain of consumer to farmer happened through her written piece.
Author
Nattaporn Pinpech
Creative / Story teller
Interviewee
Praew – Praewpailin Boopsiri
Columnist of BKKMENU