Kai Pan (Crispy Seaweed)

Dear all,

How are you? Hope you are fine.

At 08.30 a.m., Friday, I watched a TV programme on TPBS channel “Asean Focus”, presented by a Japanese man—Hiro Sano. Or, most people call him Khun Hiro. He is good looking and he speaks Thai very well.

The programme was about Asean food. Khun Hiro visited Brunei and Laos to try famous food. Unfortunately, I did not remember the Brunei food he recommended, but I learnt about one type of Lao food he discovered at a local market.

This food is called in Lao “Kai Pan” (ไคแผ่น)—crispy seaweed. It is the same type as Japanese seaweed sold in our country. Let’s imagine of a crispy sheet of seaweed topped with white sesame. Khun Hiro bought one bag of Kai Pan. It cost kip 20,000. I think its net weight was around 1 Kg.

Later, he dropped in a Kai Pan shop to see how the seller made the Kai Pan recipe.

It was so easy. The seller (who was the lady) brought a sheet of dry Kai Pan topped with white sesame to soak in a bowl of tamarind juice. Then, the Kai Pan was set aside. Next, she poured some oil into a pan. She heated a pan and fried the Kai Pan. When it was served, Khun Hiro tried it. He said it was crispy and yummy.

Learning from the programme, the Kai Pan is a kind of seaweed growing in the shallow river, which is clean and free from pollution. The Laotians use a fishing net (or known in Thai “Sa Wing”) to catch the Kai Pan. Then, the fresh bunch of the Kai Pan is exposed on the boulder. Next, the Kai Pan is beaten by a round-bamboo stick to keep it flat. Last, it is exposed again.

As Nong Air said last week, Asean Economic Community will be established in 2015. I hope Thailand will import lots of food from Asean group.

Thank you for the helpful information from TPBS channel “Asean Focus” broadcasted on Friday 6^th July 2012.