The Flying Kangkong
By Admin - Wednesday, Jul 27, 2011
Phitsanulok, Central Thailand
I thought our teh tarek was cool, till I met the flying kangkong…yes, kangkong as in sambal, flying as in Superman.
On a recent trip up in Thailand recently to photograph the elaborate Hadseo villager’s monk ordination ritual, our guide Dom recommended the flying kangkong before dinner. I thought it was a Thai slang for some unique bungee jumping that reeks of ethnic historical origins. But as it turned out, it was just that…flying kangkong, from wok to plate. For 30 bahts (S$1.40), these trained cze-cha chefs will whip up a fire storm in their wok and lightly sear the fresh kangkongs over the soy bean sauce. He then nonchalantly saunters to the roadside, hot wok still in hand and launches it off the wok, over his shoulders twelve feet above …onto the roof of a truck. His server, precariously perched atop the truck on a platform, expertly catches the dish in a plate and promptly serves you. The spectacle is worth every baht especially when all this takes place al fresco and by the Nan riverside on Puttabucha in Phisanulok. Just ask the samlor (tricycle rider) for the Flying Kangkong Restaurant.
When asked how long it took to perfect the task, chef Chai revealed ” three months and about ten kilos of kangkong a day.”. Could he fly a fish dish? “Too expensive to practise!”, came the pragmatic reply.
This roadside cze-cha has a good reason to serve about 300 plates of this vegetable a day as they have been at it for the last ten years. They boast among their celebrated diners, popular Thai actors and singers and their grand VIP, the Thai Crown Princess Mahachakri Sirindhorn, who caught a plate of their flying kangkong in 1998.
