• 2 months ago
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Transcript
00:00My restaurant's quite small, loud, and I still cook outside.
00:29But no one comes to Jay Fai's place for the ambiance.
00:40They're here for the taste.
00:41They come because the food is delicious.
00:59When people think of Bangkok, they may think of a hot, steamy city full of tuk-tuks and
01:04endless traffic.
01:06But above all, they think of street food.
01:16Street food is one of the most important aspects of life in Bangkok.
01:21Street food is something that people can talk over, discuss.
01:24This is my favorite place.
01:25Oh, you're crazy.
01:26That's my favorite place.
01:28Everyone can join in.
01:31Always like a feeling like there's a party going on.
01:34It's a kind of unifier, one of the most democratic parts of Thai life.
01:43At a time when class lines are getting more widened and everyone's on their phone and
01:49kind of in their own world already, street food is like one of the few things left that
01:53glues people together.
01:56They want noodles on the way home or a takeaway hurry.
02:02But a couple of years ago, the government decreed that street food would be restricted.
02:09They said the vendors were encroaching on taxpayer space and called the vendors leeches.
02:16But the vendors are there because the people want them there.
02:21So it's funny that at the same time the government is trying to say vendors are just these parasites
02:27on society.
02:28There's somebody like Chae Fai.
02:32Chae Fai is probably the most famous street food chef in the world.
02:35And she has long been the queen of street food on the Thai scene.
02:39She takes these common street food dishes and elevates them into something that they
02:45weren't before.
02:47People line up to try her tom yum, drunken noodles, and especially crab omelet.
02:53In fact, she's known as the omelet lady among some people.
02:59She's a 73-year-old woman who manages to grind it out day after day.
03:06People are not doing her a favor by allowing her to take up the sidewalk.
03:12She's doing people a favor by cooking for them.
03:37Even as a kid, I woke up thinking about work.
03:43I'd do it every day if I could.
03:54Every day, I wake up at 10.30 in the morning.
04:04My staff arrives around noon to help.
04:13I'm old, but I always remind them,
04:18you may be younger, but I'm stronger.
04:25By 2.30 in the afternoon, I start preparing myself.
04:30When I walk into my station, I have to be focused.
04:34I'm meticulous about every dish that I serve.
04:37Everything must be flawless.
04:46No matter how tired I am, no matter what's going on,
04:49I cook every dish myself.
04:55I want it to be perfect.
04:57I cook every dish myself.
05:03I want it to be the best.
05:06Because I'm not just a street cook.
05:10I'm a chef.
05:28Bangkok is sort of at the crossroads.
05:32It's poised to become more modern.
05:36So the city is trying to clear the sidewalks.
05:41Street food vendors in a lot of neighborhoods
05:44are getting told to move elsewhere.
05:48This is kind of rupturing an ecosystem
05:51that's been in place for decades.
05:54My older brother was the first one
05:57to open our noodle stall on Sukhumvit 38 Road.
06:01Back then, over 30 years ago,
06:04the place was surrounded by bars.
06:07After the party-goers finished very late at night,
06:10they would come to eat here.
06:13I was the first one to open a noodle stall
06:16on Sukhumvit 38 Road.
06:18We would sell until 4 or 5 in the morning.
06:25Last year, the landlord suddenly shut us down.
06:32Most of our fellow vendors quit
06:34and moved back to their hometowns.
06:37But our customers kept calling.
06:40They wanted to eat here.
06:43They wanted to eat here.
06:45But our customers kept calling.
06:48Hello? Hello? Where are you?
06:50Will you start selling again?
06:58My brother suggested reopening the stall near my house
07:01so it would be convenient.
07:07Our customers missed us so much
07:09that they took taxis out to see us.
07:16The noodles cost 60 baht.
07:18The taxi costs over 300 baht.
07:22They were so happy to come out here and eat.
07:24We were so happy to see them.
07:27They used to serve egg noodles with a crab claw,
07:30but the new clientele can't afford the crab.
07:33Now it is deep-fried and barbecued pork.
07:37And the egg noodles are silky and buttery
07:39with wontons and greens, and it's still delicious.
07:45They would be considered the lucky ones.
07:47Their customers overcame every possible obstacle
07:50to get them to cook for them again.
08:06I grew up in a slum,
08:10in a bad neighborhood behind a market.
08:13My mom sold rice porridge and chicken noodles at the market.
08:16She had to sell a lot of it.
08:21My dad was an opium addict.
08:24Sometimes he ran away. We didn't know where he was.
08:27So I became a seamstress.
08:31I cut fabric all day, rolled them up,
08:33and sewed dresses all night.
08:37I made sure we had food on the table.
08:40I spent 10 years as a seamstress.
08:44Time flew by when I did this sort of work.
08:48I was content.
08:52But then one day I was sewing.
08:56Boom! A stairway near me collapsed and fire erupted.
09:03Everyone shouted, run!
09:05I ran outside, looked back, and everything was gone.
09:11I had nothing left.
09:27After everything burned down,
09:29I had no one to turn to.
09:32After everything burned down,
09:34all I had were the pajamas on my back.
09:41My sewing machine was gone.
09:43All my tools were gone.
09:46I was in my 20s.
09:49I didn't know what to do.
10:01We used to see each other often.
10:06We were so close to each other.
10:11We were like two hearts.
10:25We used to see each other often.
10:28♪
10:35After that, I watched my mom sell noodles
10:37from across the market.
10:39♪
10:43I helped her out back then.
10:45One day, I noticed how slowly she cooked.
10:49Four or five customers were just standing there
10:50waiting for their food.
10:53And I didn't see anyone else.
10:56I told her I wanted to cook.
10:59She told me I couldn't do it.
11:03Okay, you don't think I can do this?
11:10That night I grabbed the wok.
11:13I started stir-frying noodles.
11:16I practiced by myself every night,
11:19ate that food every night.
11:22At one point I poured oil into a wok
11:25and forgot about it.
11:28When I saw the oil burning,
11:31I dumped it all out.
11:34I got so mad,
11:37I threw noodles into the pan
11:40and stirred them furiously.
11:43The heat alone browned them nicely.
11:46I didn't need any oil.
11:50They had a wonderful taste and aroma.
11:53The next day,
11:56I asked Mom for her wok.
11:59She let me have it.
12:02It was all up to me.
12:08When I started to cook,
12:11the customers saw I had talent.
12:14Right then I began to see my path.
12:17Right then I began to see my path.
12:48I love every dish that I cook.
12:51I have no preference or prejudice.
12:54You have to love them to cook them properly,
12:57down to every detail,
13:00especially Tom Yum.
13:03The stock must be rich and tasty,
13:06that's important.
13:09You start with lots of bones
13:12to make the broth
13:16and keep adding bones,
13:19bird's eye chilies,
13:22fish sauce and lime juice.
13:25Do you know how delicious it is?
13:40Tom Yum is this wonderful mix of
13:43fresh herbs and natural acidity.
13:46I feel like you haven't really had Thai food
13:49until you've had Tom Yum
13:52because that's a quintessential Thai dish.
13:55It's spicy, it's salty, it's tart,
13:58and Jay Fai's Tom Yum
14:01is one of the best in Thailand.
14:04It's got fist-sized prawns,
14:07juicy cuttlefish,
14:10but what makes Jay Fai different
14:13is that she doesn't just make great Tom Yum soup,
14:16she goes even further.
14:19Jay Fai came out with dry Tom Yum,
14:22which is basically the Tom Yum without the broth
14:25but with all the aromatics infused with the Tom Yum flavor.
14:28The first time I had it was the first time I went to Jay Fai,
14:31and it blew my mind.
14:34It had never been done before.
14:37She makes it into something really unique.
14:56Selling street food isn't complicated.
15:01They're just out there cooking late into the night.
15:05Just like me when I didn't have a permanent shop house.
15:10By the time I was in my 30s,
15:13I was responsible for my whole family.
15:18I was right on the street.
15:24Chicken noodles, that's all I sold.
15:29We cooked a lot.
15:32We worked until 4 or 5 a.m. and went to bed at dawn.
15:39Life was very hard.
15:44I had to put all my tables out on the sidewalk.
15:49Sometimes the authorities would chase us off.
15:54On nights when it rained or they didn't let us put out tables,
15:57we were doomed.
16:03I was trying hard to make money,
16:06but I was facing a dead end.
16:11I realized I had to do something.
16:18So I took a risk.
16:23I borrowed some money
16:26and I bought some prawns.
16:29Very fresh tiger prawns.
16:32I set the price at 120 baht.
16:35One guy said,
16:38oh, it's just Pad Thai.
16:41I told him these prawns were totally different.
16:44Don't compare it to anyone else's.
16:50He ate them once,
16:53and when he kept coming back,
16:56he ate them again.
16:59I knew the dish was a success.
17:04I started to look into expensive things like seafood.
17:09Higher quality ingredients meant higher prices.
17:14That's how I got the money to rent my shop house.
17:17That's it.
17:27In Bangkok, curry is essential.
17:30It's a staple.
17:33It's something that everybody has their own recipe for.
17:40Out on the street, everyone's eating it,
17:43and it's like the perfect comfort food.
17:47No matter where we go, the journey begins with curry.
17:57Jack Pui was my father.
18:02He learned how to make curry
18:05when he came here from China.
18:08When my father could cook curry,
18:11his relatives told him to bring his family to Thailand
18:14and start a new life.
18:17We've been here for over 70 years.
18:20He worked hard developing his recipe.
18:23Sometimes he got it right, sometimes wrong,
18:26but he kept at it.
18:29At 13, I started helping him out.
18:34My father only sold pork and beef curries.
18:38I created our other dishes myself.
18:45We've added green curry with meatballs or chicken
18:48and pork penang.
18:52When customers loved them, that meant the recipes were right.
18:57Jack Pui makes a really comforting, mild curry.
19:01It has garlic, shallots, chili.
19:05Very few people make it from scratch anymore
19:08because it is labor-intensive.
19:22That cart, it's a really important part of the community.
19:25There's usually a line of people sitting on red stools
19:29with these bowls of rice and curry
19:32perched precariously on their lap.
19:37For everyone who lives in the neighborhood,
19:40Jack Pui makes people think of childhood.
19:45Everyone loves that curry on the corner.
19:51It's a really good curry.
20:07Back when I moved into my restaurant,
20:11back then I called myself a street cook.
20:15I opened in the evening.
20:18My customers came from bars and gambling joints.
20:23The ones who really loved to eat
20:26would gather around to watch me cook.
20:31I saw an opportunity.
20:34Anyone could stir-fry pad thai.
20:40I wanted to do something great.
20:44I loved crab omelets.
20:48But with that dish, I wanted to make something different, too.
20:55So I taught myself to make Japanese omelets.
21:00I added a lot of crab, nearly a pound.
21:06I flattened and rolled them.
21:10When I took my first bite,
21:14oh, it was so beautiful. I'd done it.
21:19Now I had something special to sell.
21:25People are surprised by how important
21:28omelets are to Thai food, but it's a staple dish.
21:32Jay Pai makes it into something
21:35that is fantastic and expensive.
21:39With technique, the woks are volcanically hot.
21:44So the omelets are really light.
21:48I stuffed full to bursting with chunks of crab meat.
21:53People started to talk about my food.
21:56They came by.
21:59The gambling houses started calling in lots of orders, dozens at once.
22:03We were serving so many omelets.
22:07Sometimes we ran out of eggs.
22:19From that point on,
22:22I started to build a whole new menu.
22:27New dishes just came to me.
22:31Big shots and politicians began showing up.
22:35They'd ask for special things.
22:39They'd say,
22:42you know,
22:45there are definitely over a hundred dishes.
22:49We have a lot on the menu.
22:53I'm proud of my boldness,
22:57and I never regretted it.
23:16At some point,
23:19she became known as
23:22the best street food cook in the city.
23:26She created destination food
23:29from common dishes.
23:45For 40 years,
23:48I worked almost every day.
23:52And then one day,
23:55I got a call.
23:59It was a call from a friend of mine.
24:03He said,
24:06I have a new menu.
24:10He said,
24:13and then one day, I got a call.
24:16Somebody was hosting a gala dinner.
24:19I don't like to close my restaurant for anything,
24:22but I took the day off for the party.
24:27All of a sudden, my daughter said,
24:30Mom, they called your name.
24:33I won the award,
24:36the Michelin star.
24:39Right then, it seemed like I couldn't breathe.
24:42I was happy, the happiest.
24:46But the next day,
24:49there was a big crowd in front of my restaurant.
24:53Everyone wanted to take my picture.
25:02People had to start reserving tables.
25:06My daughter quit her job to help me manage it all.
25:13She didn't need the star.
25:16She knew herself that her food was the best.
25:20The Michelin star showed the rest of the world
25:23what a great, wonderful chef she was.
25:28When chefs started coming to my shop to eat,
25:31they called me chef.
25:36Wow, I'm a chef, me?
25:40I can't describe how proud I was.
25:45J5 represents a possible outcome
25:48for some street food vendors.
25:51If you're good enough, you can bring people
25:54to your place on your terms.
25:57That success surprised the government
26:00because they continuously underplay
26:03how important street food is,
26:06not just to Thai people, but in Thailand's image.
26:12Street food is for everyone.
26:15Something purely Thai,
26:18purely Bangkok, and purely our own.
26:36I've been cooking for a long time.
26:42Whenever anyone asks, I say I'm not tired.
26:49I know my strength.
26:56I have faith in charcoal fires
26:59and I know I can do it.
27:03I have faith in charcoal fires and iron walks.
27:12They taught me to be clever.
27:18They taught me to be brave.
27:23So if I still have the strength, I'll continue cooking.
27:26Who thought this is me?
27:56I'm a chef, me?
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