"If there were no sticky rice in the world, I think some people wouldn't be able to survive. I feel like the sky would literally fall," Phanuphon Bulsuwan, the top chef who runs Blackitch Artisan Kitchen in the Nimmanhaemin neighborhood of Chiang Mai, says and opens the food documentary Tasteful Thailand with this opinion in front of the camera.
Co-produced by WeTV, the overseas version of Tencent Video, and DOClabs Beijing and supported by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the documentary is currently airing on Tencent Video in China, and WeTV in overseas markets.
As the first international attempt by renowned food documentary director Chen Xiaoqing's team to systematically delve into a complete foreign culinary system, the series uses 10 Thai flavors as "keys" to unlock 10 new discoveries about Thailand, aiming to provide contemporary young audiences with an in-depth culinary travel guide to Thailand.
In the show, Phanuphon not only shares his obsession with sticky rice, but also reveals the cultural roots behind this ingredient. Having lived in Chiang Mai for 40 years, he loves the cool climate of the rainy season there. To him, sticky rice is the foundation for growth and the primary source of energy for the people of Northern and Northeastern Thailand.
He explains that the flavors of Northern Thai cuisine are mostly salty, spicy and bitter, with almost no sweetness, and the distinct sweetness of sticky rice balances out these flavors.
In Phanuphon's restaurant, he is dedicated to passing this cultural energy on to his diners, even transforming sticky rice into different forms like rice paste and rice noodles, allowing guests to inadvertently complete their tasting of "rice".
He says: "If the food we rely on for survival disappears, culture will disappear, and cultural and living traditions will also cease to exist."
Based precisely on this logic of "food as the foundation of culture", the documentary's producer Zhu Lexian believes that food is the most basic entry point into a foreign culture.
"It is one of the most fundamental ways for humans to perceive the world," he says, noting that this intuitiveness lies in the fact that when food chemically reacts with the protease enzyme in the mouth, that shock "doesn't need someone else to translate for you".
Tasteful Thailand adopts a first-person narrative, inviting 10 top Thai chefs to serve as spokespeople for their hometowns and their ingredients. Zhu emphasizes that the team deliberately constructed a multi-dimensional Thailand during the planning phase: the "streets" as commercial spaces, the "family" as an emotional anchor, and the "countryside" symbolizing the nation's roots.
The program focuses its lens on these three core scenes. In the old streets and alleys of Bangkok, the streets are not only commercial spaces but also the "living rooms" and "cafeterias" of ordinary Thai people, carrying what Zhu calls the "philosophy of street life".
When filming these street scenes, the crew deliberately avoided internet-famous "check-in" spots, turning instead to old Bangkok neighborhoods and early morning markets to capture the authentic, vibrant atmosphere of this everyday street culture.
Zhu specifically mentioned yen ta fo, a signature Thai pink noodle soup in Bangkok's Chinatown. This dish, created by the fusion of red fermented bean curd brought by Chinese immigrants with local flavors, vividly demonstrates the alienation and subsequent rebirth of flavors during the migration process.
He says: "Once a flavor leaves its hometown, it will find its own way in a new land." This reflects a profound immigrant culture, proving that the world has produced "so many wonderful new things" through communication and exchange.
