Chicken in the Mango Tree: Food and Life in a Thai-Khmer Village

by Jeffrey Alford

* Winner of the Best Asian Cuisine from Books Outside Asia at the 2016 Gourmand Cookbook Awards! *

In the small village of Kravan in rural Thailand, the food is like no other in the world. The diet is finely attuned to the land, taking advantage of what is local and plentiful. Made primarily of fresh, foraged vegetables infused with the dominant Khmer flavours of bird chilies, garlic, shallots and fish sauce, the cuisine is completely distinct from the dishes typically associated with Thailand.

Best-selling food writer and photographer Jeffrey Alford has been completely immersed in this unique culinary tradition for the last four years while living in this region with his partner Pea, a talented forager, gardener and cook. With stories of village and family life surrounding each dish, Alford provides insight into the ecological and cultural traditions out of which the cuisine of the region has developed. He also describes how the food is meant to be as an elaborate dish in a wedding ceremony, a well-deserved break from the rice harvest, or just a comforting snack at the end of a hard day.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2015

Reviews

[Bookfanatic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Books like this always make me wonder what happened in the long-term relationship of the author that ended prior to the move to a foreign country. This author like the author of "Eat, Pray, Love" had a relationship with a partner who seems, at least on paper, to be decent and rational, but ends the relationship, goes to a far off place and writes a book about life in the foreign land. Jeffrey Alford was partnered with a woman with whom he wrote several highly regarded, James Beard award winning books. He broke up with her from what he wrote in the Introduction. I can't help wondering what this author will do as he ages (he is 58 at the time of the book) and his health declines or what if his visa isn't renewed (every two months or so he has to go to Cambodia and return back to Thailand to renew his visa). Will he and his Thai partner move to Canada where he lived? Will she be comfortable there? But I'm digressing and that's not what this book is about.

Jeffrey Alford has written a book that's not a cookbook or a memoir. It's a narrative of a small part of his life in northeastern Thailand near the Cambodian border. The food there is not the familiar Thai food of pad thai and red chicken curry. The food is closer to Sri Lankan food. So think hot and hotter. The people also look more Indian than Thai. His partner "Pea" is a very hard-working, ethnic Khmer woman with a twelve year old daughter from a previous relationship. Jeffrey lives with Pea and her mother's family in a small wooden house in one of the poorest areas of Thailand. It helps that with thirty years of traveling in Southeast Asia, he has picked up Thai well enough to speak it with his new relatives. I wish he wrote more about what they think of him as a foreigner or as a foreigner living with their relative. I felt he glossed over certain things that the reader would like to know. I have roots in South Asia. I know it to be a conservative place. Shacking up isn't done and certainly isn't done in poor villages where people like Pea forage for crickets, frogs and snakes to eat for dinner. Yes, there are recipes here for all three of those. I wouldn't make most of the recipes because either the recipe is far too hot for my taste or calls for ingredients like frog or crickets that I can't find. You're not going to find a single pad thai or spring roll type recipe here. It's not that kind of book. It's about the inventive cooking done by people who have to forage for their meals. They eat ant eggs, all kinds of fish, edible tree leaves, baby frogs, scorpion but noodles, mushrooms, rice as well. The food looks tasty in the photographs. The book has an abundance of great photographs. You really get a sense of the village and village life.

I was fascinated by this book. It would be a great addition to some sociology class or ethnic studies class. It gave me greater insight into an aspect of Thai cooking I didn't know much about. Yet I felt something was lacking in the story. I had in mind something else when I bought this book, so it fell short in that respect.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. In searching for Thai children's books for my son and Thai cookbooks for myself, I came across this absolute gem. Alford manages to incorporate his amazing experiences as a farang (foreigner) assimilating in Thai village culture, his experiences with farm to table food prep (sometimes side of the road or pond to table food prep), his fantastic personal stories, cultural information about the Khmer inhabited area of Thailand, and minor language lessons (both Thai and very little Khmer). This creates an absolutely magical AND practical handbook for life in my home, where we have 2 native Thai-born family members, one Canadian-born Thai-speaking and living farang and myself: the whitest American farang ever to walk the earth!

This book has allowed me to connect with my Thai family on a new level of understanding and appreciation for the outstanding and beautiful Thai culture, Thai lifestyle and cooking methods.

A fantastic book for anyone interested in Thai cooking, Thailand living or an adventurous traveler.

[Lilly Tao · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoyed the Alford and Duguid books. The stories from their experiences as respectful visitors and observers of Asian cultures were balanced with the well researched recipes. So finding that they had gone their separate ways was sad but that is their private story. Alford ended up in Thailand living with a partner, Pea, in her home village. Chicken in the Mango Tree chronicles his life there. It's part diary, part local foraging guide as Pea and others find "free food", and yes it's a cookbook, but for the adventurous (insects, frogs, lots of chilies). It's not comprehensive or scholarly, it is slices of life in a village that you're unlikely to experience otherwise. He writes about planting orchids, building structures from thatch, farming rice & frogs & crickets, going to market, a family wedding, and of course what they eat. Sadly, Alford passed away from liver failure earlier this year. Duguid continues to travel and write about what people eat.

[Amuse · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir with recipes. Interesting to learn about the region. Not a lot that I would try because most of the recipes are meat-based. Good writing.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book not only has recipes but a detailed look at the author's new lifestyle in a small village in rural Thailand with glimpses of the people in this stage of his life. I won't be making use of the recipes but I did enjoy the rest of it.

[Priscillia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice, light read. Brought back some of the memories when I was in parts of South East Asia.

[Marilyn Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is beautiful and the text very interesting. The only thing I didn't like was the light print. Sometimes it was hard to read

[Manon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anecdotical stories about living in Thailand with a few recipes. Really interesting, very different way of life.