How the Portuguese influenced Thailand’s cuisine

reader · April 7

The Santa Cruz Church is located in Kudi Chin, a neighborhood in Bangkok that's also known as "Little Portugal."

From National Geographic

Bangkok’s Kudi Chin neighborhood, in Thonburi on the western bank of the Chao Praya river, is a sleepy one; a jumble of narrow alleys and old houses, some on stilts. It is sometimes called Little Portugal, as it is home to a number of Thais descended from the Portuguese, who had settled here in the late 18th century.

The Portuguese were the first Western nation to contact the ancient Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya in 1511. They soon became a prominent trading partner, and introduced a number of fruits and vegetables, which are now staples in Thai cuisine. As Edward Van Roy writes in Siamese Melting Pot, tomatoes, chillies, peanuts, potatoes, and maize came to Thailand via Portugal. Some of the Thai names for vegetables reflect their imported origin; for example, potatoes are called man farang, or Western tubers, while the Thai name for papaya, malakor, is derived from Malacca, the Portuguese trading outpost from where they first traveled to Thai shores.

The Portuguese also introduced new cooking techniques. “They taught Thais their sauces and stews,” says Navinee Pongthai, who runs Bangkok’s Baan Kudichin Museum about Thailand’s Portuguese history. “Meat stew, chicken stew, these are dishes that came from the Portuguese. The Portuguese-inspired Thai stews often have more sauce and stew compared to the Chinese style stews.” Baking, deep-frying, roasting, and stuffing were also introduced, all of which are now part of Thai cooking.

Thai dessert-making was also transformed by the Portuguese. At the time, Thai desserts were mainly made of rice flour, palm sugar, and grated coconut, perfumed with jasmine blossoms or pandan leaves. Eggs were introduced in desserts by the Portuguese, as was the use of coconut cream to substitute for dairy, as cows were considered sacred.

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PeterRS · April 8

The Portuguese Embassy, the oldest in the Kingom, is situated on the river and easily seen as it is next door to the large Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel. It was a gift from Thailand in return for assistance the Portuguese had given the country during the late 1700s war against the invading Burmese who had sacked the capital at Ayutthaya. Only a couple of decades or so ago, it leased part of its extensive land down to the river to the hotel so that it could expand what had earlier been the hotel's much smaller pool area.

Photo: Chaiyawat Chaiyachote, TIme Out Bangkok

The Portuguese were the first traders to make serious inroads culturally in Asia. They had captured their first Asian base in Goa only the year before they appeared in Thailand. In this same year they took over Malacca which quickly became their primary base for further exploration and expansion in the continent. In 1517 they made their first commerical contacts with China, eventually leasing from the Ming Dynasty the tiny enclave of Macao on the western side of the mouth of the southern Pearl River in 1557. The terms of the lease meant an annual payment to the Emperor of 19 kgs of gold.

Before that agreement with China, they had ventured north-east and started a small trading base at Nagasaki in 1543. The triangular trade in Chinese silk, porcelain and gold with Japanese silver was remakably successful for the time and soon became a monopoly. The Portuguese also brought guns which were of particular interest to the Japanese. As in all western expansion, it only took a few years for Catholic Church missionaries to follow, in this case those from the Jesuit order. To a certain extent this was tolerated by China but not in Japan. Within only a few decades, the Japanese kicked out the missionaries and very soon thereafter the traders. The arrival of the Shoguns as the absolute rulers of Japan meant the end of Japanese influence.

China was different. It recognised the value of an association with the Portuguese who soon gained access to Chinese markets, especially silk, tea and porcelain. The Chinese valued the knowledge of science, mathematics and astronomy the Portuguese brought with them. As importantly, the Jesuits gained a foothold in the Chinese court. Perhaps surprisingly, the Jesuits efforts to integrate Christianity with strongly held Confucian values also gained a degree of acceptance.

One Jesuit in particular gained the trust of the Emperor. Matteo Ricci was a Jesuit priest who had landed in Macao around 1580. Unlike most, he learned both to speak and write Chinese. He became the first European to enter Beijing's Forbidden City in 1601. He died in Beijing a few years later. Although he never met the Emperor, he did have the Emperor's patronage and was to meet and associate with a large number of his officials, also establishing the first Catholic Church in the city which remains today. Ironically this burgeoning relationship between an Empire and the Catholic Church was ended not by China, but by the Pope in Rome. In the early 18th century Pope Clement XI considered millennia-old Chinese socio-cultural rituals to be dangerous idol worship. He ordered all priests out of the heathen kingdom. The Portuguese then departed, but many of their ideas remained.

The influence of Portugal within Asia as a whole in so many ways cannot be underestimated.

bkkmfj2648 · April 8

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

The influence of Portugal within Asia as a whole in so many ways cannot be underestimated.

I saw the influence and legacy that the Portuguese left in Songkhla - in southern Thailand. It was very obvious in the old-town section in the architecture.