DISCOVER THAI FOOD & INGREDIENTS
Hi. My name is Susan Slater. I was born in Balmain, Sydney, Australia and moved to Tokyo, Japan around 40 years ago.
According to records, the first Thai restaurant in Australia opened in Melbourne in 1978. That was around the time I arrived in Japan. Within a few years, there were hundreds of Thai restaurants all around Australia.
With over 3,000 Thai restaurants, Australia currently has more Thai restaurants per person (outside Thailand) than any other country.
Thai cuisine now outranks Chinese, Italian and Japanese as the most popular foreign food in Australia. Even our famous meat pies have a Thai green curry version.
Thai ingredients were scarce years ago in Australia, however there are now many more Thai vegetables, herbs, spices, pastes and sauces available - particularly in the main cities and at Asian stores.
Likewise, when I first came to Tokyo, not many people (including myself) were familiar with Thai food at all. The first Thai restaurant to open in Tokyo was a very tiny restaurant in Yurakucho, by the name of Chiang Mai. It opened in 1979 and I was fortunate enough to have eaten there a few times. By the time Chiang Mai closed its doors (30 years later), the popularity of Thai food had expanded greatly. Another famous landmark in Tokyo is the Ban-Thai Restaurant, located in the Kabuki-cho district of Shinjuku, which opened in 1985 and is still as popular as ever. By coincidence, that was where I first had Thai food and fell in love with it.
When I first arrived in Tokyo, I was studying the language in the mornings and working at one of Japan's largest construction companies (Taisei Corporation) in the afternoons. After work became full time, I became interested in Thai food, however Thai cookbooks in English were difficult to find at that time. I had heard that there was a Thai student studying at the same language school that I had been studying Japanese at and asked to meet her. I asked her if she would think about teaching me Thai cooking and eventually she agreed. We were able to set up a group class and that was the start of my Thai cooking experience.
Her name was Takeshita Vasana and she taught our class from May, 1988 to May, 2003 at her residence. She also started other classes and they became so popular that she ended up publishing two Thai cooking books in Japanese. She has now returned to Bangkok, where she still teaches Thai cooking.
Thai vegetables, spices, herbs and sauces are now much more accessible in the Tokyo area than they used to be, although there is still room for improvement - we usually have to travel to the main ethnic shop areas such as Okachimachi (Ameyoko Street and also the basement of Ameyoko Centre Building), Okubo, Shin Okubo, Kinshicho (Thailand Store), Shinjuku (Asia Superstore), or buy online.
I am still obsessed with eating and researching Thai food and the language and visit Thailand every year (on my annual trip home to Sydney) to enjoy the food and culture and meet friends.