Kitchen Stories : GREAT HOME COOKS : Home Cooking, Palace Style

Pipatpong Israsena knows one sure way to get great Thai food in Los Angeles: He cooks it himself.

Israsena, 28, makes every dish imaginable--from refined royal dishes to simple everyday foods.

Like father, like son might describe his cooking style. Israsena’s father, Paron, cooks constantly. He duplicates dishes he’s tasted in restaurants or overseas and he never works from written recipes. The food in the Israsena home in Bangkok is so good that the family rarely eats out.

Home in Bangkok is a 100-year-old European-style structure near the Grand Palace. On his father’s side, Israsena is descended from King Rama II, and a great-grandfather was a minister in charge of the palace under King Rama VII. Paron Israsena is a senator, appointed by the current king, Rama IX, and until January was president of Siam Cement Ltd., Thailand’s largest industrial company.

Home in Southern California is an Alhambra apartment complex where Israsena shares most of his meals with a fellow Thai who also lives in the building. Israsena almost always prepares a three-course dinner, but it’s usually a meal of light dishes, maybe mieng kwayteow , which is a sort of noodle salad, and kai toon , a bowl of delicate steamed eggs topped with ground pork.

Mieng kwayteow looks and tastes spectacular, despite its diet food nature. Israsena cuts a sheet of fresh rice noodles into strips and piles these on a plate. Another plate holds thinly sliced pork tenderloin, and small bowls contain roasted peanuts, dried shrimp and a bold sauce that is sweet, hot and loaded with garlic. The centerpiece is a glorious heap of greens--the healthiest, freshest, most beautiful lettuce that Israsena can find, along with fat sprays of mint and red-stemmed basil and gleaming white bean sprouts.

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The procedure is to top a lettuce leaf with a rice noodle, a slice of meat, a couple of peanuts, some shrimp and bean sprouts, then spoon on some sauce. You fold the lettuce into a bundle and bite into a wonderful accumulation of flavors, eating the herbs on the side. It’s easy to fill up on this dish, consuming mostly greens.

Kai toon is very light because the eggs are beaten with a lot of water, and a serving consists of less than one egg and only an ounce of meat. The highly seasoned pork that goes on top is cooked separately.

These dishes alone could suffice for a meal, but Israsena volunteers to show how he makes a sumptuous royal dip called lon tahu yee. And he produces a fish soup and a dessert as well.

The “dip,” which looks a little like chowder, blends an amazing assortment of tastes--shrimp, pork, coconut milk, tamarind, cilantro, garlic and pepper. Tofu that is packed in a vibrant red sauce goes in at the end to warm up the color. Texture is as important to this dish as taste. You spoon a little of the creamy, soft sauce over a bit of crisp raw vegetable and rice and eat the three together. Israsena had spent an hour carving the vegetables into pretty shapes, because fancy decoration is as important to royal cuisine as the food. Crisp, deep-fried fish slices go with this dish too.

All lovers of Thai food know the hot and sour soup tom yum goong. But what about tom som ? It’s an exotic combination of thick fish slices and a sweet broth perfumed with ginger and tamarind. Broth Israsena saves from cooking the pork for mieng kwayteow comes in handy for this dish.

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After so much food, it seems impossible to eat anything more. But Israsena brings out a dessert that is too tempting to pass up. More Vietnamese than Thai, the bowl of tapioca pearls floating in coconut sauce is topped with melon balls and frozen melon pulp. The frozen fruit replaces ice cubes as a means of chilling the tapioca.

Israsena cooks in as traditional a style as is possible in this country. For example, he sautes seasonings in thick coconut milk rather than in oil--to get pure flavor. When cooked down, coconut milk exudes its own oil, he points out. He’s had to compromise by using canned coconut milk, though. “We never believe something in a can is going to do anything good for the food,” he says.

Israsena has spent five years in Los Angeles earning master’s degrees in public administration and business administration from USC and working as an accountant in a Unocal training program. He returns to Thailand next month.

Israsena says he’ll spend some time relaxing at the beach when he returns home, but undoubtedly he’ll soon be cooking. Tastes in Thailand are changing, he says. The food is becoming sweeter and no longer as fiery hot as he likes it. No matter, Israsena knows he can always cook for himself.

MIENG KWAYTEOW 1 (2- to 3-pound) pork tenderloin 2 tablespoons palm sugar 1 tablespoon granulated sugar 2 tablespoons fish sauce 2 tablespoons lime juice 4 to 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped 5 tiny Thai chiles, chopped 1 (16-ounce) package uncut fresh rice noodles Lettuce leaves, such as romaine or other leafy lettuce Bean sprouts Red-stemmed basil sprigs Mint sprigs 1/2 cup roasted peanuts 1/2 cup dried shrimp

Place pork in large saucepan or Dutch oven. Cover with water. Simmer until fully cooked, about 30 minutes. Cool and refrigerate.

Combine sugars, fish sauce and lime juice in small saucepan. Boil until sugars are dissolved. Cool. Add garlic and chiles. Turn into sauce dish. Cut rice noodles into 3x1 1/2-inch rectangles and place on serving plate. Arrange lettuce, bean sprouts, basil and mint on large platter. Place peanuts and shrimp in separate bowls.

To eat, tear large lettuce leaf into smaller pieces. Top with 1 noodle rectangle, opened flat. Place few peanuts, couple shrimp and slice pork on top of noodle. Add spoonful sauce. Top with bean sprouts and herbs. Fold lettuce into bundle and eat. Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about: 384 calories; 218 mg sodium; 55 mg cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 57 grams carbohydrates; 24 grams protein; 0.73 gram fiber.

LON TAHU YEE (Red Bean Curd Dip With Shrimp and Pork) 1 (2-ounce) package frozen cilantro roots 5 cloves garlic 1 1/2 teaspoons white or black peppercorns 1 (13 1/2-ounce) can coconut milk, unshaken 1 cup ground pork (about 1/2 pound) 1 cup finely chopped raw shrimp (about 1 pound in shell) 2 cups sliced shallots 2 teaspoons salt 2 tablespoons palm sugar 7 tablespoons granulated sugar 1/3 cup Tamarind Water 1/4 cup canned wet bean curd in red sauce Assorted raw vegetables, such as red cabbage leaves, sliced cucumber, radishes, green onion frills Steamed rice

Combine chopped cilantro roots, garlic and peppercorns in mortar and pound to paste. Set aside 1 tablespoon. Reserve remainder for tom som or other use.

Spoon about 1/3 of coconut milk, taking thick part at top, into saucepan. Cook and stir until thick and oily. Add 1 tablespoon pounded mixture and saute slowly to make very thick mixture. Add pork and stir, then add shrimp. Add shallots and remaining coconut milk.

Simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes, stirring often to keep from sticking. Add salt, palm and granulated sugars and Tamarind Water. Cook until sugars are dissolved. Stir in bean curd and heat.

Place in bowl and serve with assorted raw vegetables and steamed rice. To eat, place small portion vegetables on rice, top with sauce and eat together. Makes 1 quart.

Each 1/2 cup serving without rice or vegetables contains about: 280 calories; 687 mg sodium; 83 mg cholesterol; 13 grams fat; 25 grams carbohydrates; 17 grams protein; 1.51 grams fiber.

Note: Wet bean curd, or bean sauce, is processed with salt, wine and red rice. It is stocked in Chinese markets.

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Tamarind Water

3 tablespoons seedless tamarind pulp

1/2 cup boiling water

Combine tamarind and water in bowl. Mash and mix thoroughly to extract color and fdlavor from pulp. Strain. Makes about 1/2 cup.

TOM SOM 6 cups water or pork broth 1 large shallot 1 tablespoon pounded cilantro-garlic-pepper paste 1 teaspoon Thai shrimp paste (kapi) 2 thick crosswise slices firm fish, such as sea bass, swordfish, halibut or cod 1 (3-inch) piece ginger root, cut in fine julienne 1/2 cup Tamarind Water 1/2 cup palm sugar 3 tablespoons granulated sugar Leaves from few sprigs cilantro

Heat water in large saucepan. Pound shallot in mortar. Add cilantro mixture and shrimp paste and pound together. Add to water. Add fish. Simmer gently, stirring. Do not boil soup or fish will break up. Slices should remain whole. Reserve some ginger for topping. Add remainder to soup. Add tamarind water, palm sugar and granulated sugar. Cook until dissolved.

Keep hot until ready to serve. Spoon fish slices and broth into tureen. Top with reserved ginger and cilantro leaves. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Each serving contains about: 143 calories; 181 mg sodium; 23 mg cholesterol; 1 gram fat; 30 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 0.56 gram fiber.

KAI TOON 3 eggs 1 1/2 cups water 1 teaspoon fish sauce 2 tablespoons oil 2 teaspoons chopped garlic 1/4 pound ground pork 1 tablespoon chopped Chinese preserved vegetable Dash white pepper 1 tablespoon thin soy sauce 2 teaspoons Golden Mountain soy sauce or Maggi liquid seasoning 1/2 teaspoon black soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon sugar Chopped green onion tops

Beat eggs in bowl. Beat in water and fish sauce. Set bowl in steamer over simmering water. Cover steamer and cook 20 minutes.

Heat oil in skillet. Add garlic, then pork and preserved vegetable. Cook until pork is browned. Add pepper, thin soy sauce, Golden Mountain soy sauce, black soy sauce and sugar. Cook until meat has absorbed seasonings.

When eggs are done, spoon pork mixture on top. Sprinkle with chopped green onion tops. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about: 161 calories; 581 mg sodium; 174 mg cholesterol; 12 grams fat; 2 grams carbohydrates; 10 grams protein; 0.14 gram fiber.