LET’S TALK ABOUT FOOD, LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Focus: Cultural

The Family-Run Thai Market That Feeds LA's Eclectic Food Scene

Los Angeles is home to the largest Thai community outside of Thailand. This week, Thai-Americans are celebrating the traditional three-day water festival called Songkran to mark the new year. And many of them regularly shop at LA's landmark Bangkok Market, the first Thai food store in the U.S.

Here, you can buy temple bells and alms bowls for monks. But there's so much more. The aisles are stocked with rows of fresh Asian produce, noodles and fish sauce. There are coconut milks, curries and sriracha imported from Si Racha, Thailand. And there are astonishing varieties of rice: brown, black, purple, jasmine, even so-called "forbidden" rice — forbidden, explains chef Jet Tila, "because only the royalty in Asia could eat it." At Bangkok Market, you can buy a 5-pound bag of it for $4.

Tila shows us around the market he grew up working in, before he became a top chef. For four decades, his family's store has sold inexpensive ingredients that are key to Thai cuisine. He says many of California's best chefs have shopped there.

This was the only place where they could get lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, curry paste, fish sauce, where they weren't getting gouged for it," he explains. "They knew their suppliers. And when I became a fine-dining chef, that was my in. Everyone was like, 'Oh, you're the kid who used to pack my groceries and deliver stuff to my restaurant.' "

Tila's parents opened Bangkok Market in 1972, having moved to Los Angeles with a wave of Thai immigrants in the 1960s.

"Usually we shopped at Chinatown, but they didn't have the ingredients the way Thais cook, " says Tila's mother, Marasri Tilakamonkul. "My husband saw the opportunity, so he decided that we should open the market right now."

Bangkok Market soon became a de facto community center and a trading post. In the early days, before they began importing items, the family asked friends immigrating here to bring cases of curry paste and fish sauce. They relied on California farms for produce that was only available in the spring and summer. Tila says his family began growing vegetables themselves in the warmer climate of Mexico.

"It was specifically two regions: Nayarit and Sinaloa," says Tila. "To this day, a majority of your Asian produce in the winter come from there. And nobody knows this. My dad literally hand-carried seed — I don't know how legal it was back in the day. But, uh ..."

Bangkok Market is in a windowless beige building in East Hollywood, an area once home to rival street gangs. Tila says that though the gangs all tried to claim territory, they left the market alone "because they shopped here, and their moms shopped here."

Tila says the market has survived where others did not. In April 1992, when he was a senior in high school, "The riots popped off. About 30 of us stayed here for three days straight — barricaded the doors with rice sacks, jumped on the roof with whatever guns we could bring just to defend our store."

Today, to get ingredients from around the world, all sorts of people shop at the market: Asians, Latinos, hipsters and exciting new chefs like Louis Tikaram — a Fijian-Chinese-Indian-Australian who moved here to open the hot new restaurantEP/LP.

Tikaram makes Southeast Asian dishes, with ingredients he buys at the Bangkok Market. "I walked in the door, and the intoxicating smell hit me of all the beautiful produce," Tikaram says. "And [I] walked down the aisles and I knew I could get everything: All of my jasmine rice from Thailand, yellow bean paste, palm sugar ... it was the saving grace of this restaurant. So you can thank Bangkok Market."

Like Tikaram's intriguing menus, Bangkok Market has come to represent some of the most diverse flavors of Los Angeles.

So what does it mean, "sem lenço e sem documento"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmK9GylXRh0

http://letras.mus.br/caetano-veloso/43867/

If you translate this word by word, it would mean “going out without a handkerchief or your driver’s license.

That probably would not make sense to any English speaker. You've got understand what is behind this expression. It means going out without any planning, on the spur of the moment. It also has another meaning in the context the song I had used as an example was written.  During the sixties, Brazil was under a very repressive military regime and many songs had a political message, a sort of disguised protest. So Caetano cleverly plays with the words, because back then going out without your ID meant you could be arrested randomly, and even be accused of being a “subversive”. Torture was a common way to quiet down the unruly youth…many people were sent to jail, and many others went missing. So if you do want know more about Brazilian culture, an the Portuguese language, please contact me.

Eliane

Á toa = without  plans, care-free

“Estava á toa na vida, o meu amor me chamou, para ver a banda passar cantando coisas de amor”  (Chico Buarque)

Music is a great way to learn a language! You can improve your vocabulary, pronunciation, pitch and tone, and all of that having fun! Try to seek classics, such as Bossa Nova, MPB or even older tunes with a slower beat. The goal here is to be able to hear the words, and internalize them as you go. Besides, you can learn about the Brazilian culture and have a “conversation starter” with natives the next time you need one!

Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZWcpEgJZAY

Nada como música para nos ensinar sobre qualquer cultura! Se você quer saber mais sobre a música Americana (sem ser comercializada,diluída), da uma olhada neste site. Também é muito bom ouvir radio para aprender a língua em si. Aprenda Inglês se divertindo!

http://www.kclu.org/programs/american-routes/