Thai Night cooking

[jackm2211]

We use to have privilege to be able to cook at MU. That gave us a lot
of flexibility and control of the quality and costs of the dishes we
prepare for our "guests" (we call our customer "our guests" to let
them know that they are more important). This was our way to cook
lunch for Thai people working at MU or other places before the event.
The cost would be included in ingredients we bought and what we pay
MU--Kitchen rental, 2-3 cooking staffs, 1 kitchen supervisor,
utensils, 5-8 servers, 1 event supervisor, etc. Bad part was that we
have to scarify our men power for purchasing, preparing, and cooking
the food.

Then, new regulations came in. They required us to gave MU the fixed
recipes and the MU people will cook for us. It was good because only
one to two people got involved with the preparation and supervising
the MU cooks. Drawbacks were (1) the Quality of the food--they don't
know what they supposed to do even we told them what to do--Hey, what
do you expect, they are not Thai, (2) No lunch for Thai people, (3)
Cost--about 60-80% higher, (4) take a look again at (1), and (5) we
have not other choices--it is required if you want to have an event at
MU. We can have the Thai Night somewhere else (like, lighthouse church
near Taco bell) and cook at home or order from Thai restaurants)
also, but it will not to elegant, not even comparable to the Great
Hall at MU. I recommend the Great Hall...

Things to do:

Make a contact:
(1) Reserve the Great Hall... Do it about 6-12 months in advance to
make sure you have the date you want... Normally we do it around
February (I think second week) ... Go to Administrative Offices at MU,
Third floor, Rooms 3610-3644 or go to http://www.mu.iastate.edu/maps.php?page=staffDirectory
to look for event coordinators

(2) Talk to MU Kitchen (see above web link) about what you need as far
as the food goes. This is just to let them know that they need to
provide servers for us at the date we want. They will tell you to
prepare recipes.

Preparation of recipe:
(1) choose what you like to cook... Be mindful that your food will
have to be either extremely hot or cold (10 degree C) after they are
done with the cooking which is about 2-3 hours before they are served.
This is due to Food safety regulation
Avoid ผัดผัก -- it tends to become dark and wilted --- it does
not look good at all
Avoid noodles (pad-thai) -- the noodles tend to stick together
even though it looks good in the beginning
Avoid Crispy fried things -- after 3 hours in the heat, it
will be rubber
Avoid beef and pork -- you can still cook 1 dish out of 5
dishes
Avoid ลอดช่อง -- it looks like worm
Don't add cilantro later right before serving; store cilantro
in cooler
Try Cold salad dishes (like Yum Yai) -- it works better
Try using Lobo premix because the MU cook are not Thai...They
don't know a lot about Thai cooking at all.
Serve "Kaw Kreb Kung" for appetizer -- you can store it at
room temperature. We serve this in every Thai Night. It gave
relaxation to our guests who waited anxiously for the food. Put it on
every dinning table at the beginning of the event...
Serve Thai Tea with half&half and water all the time (no need
to provide lemon--we've tried that already)

(2) Prepare small potion at home first. Invite a few people to try and
comment. Prepare again and prepare the recipe for 10 people with
detail cooking instruction so that the MU can calculate the things
they need to buy and write a procedure for the cooks.

(3) After MU prepare the final recipe, ask them if you can inspect
it.

What we have done in the past that rocks?

(1) Thai tea with half&half to be added later (the half&half boxes are
put in a cold ice bowl to be added to a cup by the guests). MU has
recipe for this. After you make it, taste it to see if it has enough
tea taste and sweetness. It should be more sweet that usual since you
have to add ice and half&half later. For 500 guests, you should use
about 6-8 1-lb Raw Thai Tea packages.

(2) Tom-Ka-Khai or Tom-Yum Khai

(3) Yum-Yai with shaded chicken breast

(4) ทับทิมกรอบ -- red ruby from water chestnut and yellow from Jack
fruit (Hey--That's my fruit !)

(5) หมูทอด พี่เจี๊ยบ

(6) ผัดกะเพราไก่ - we added a bit of basil when cooking and add more
right before serving. Store basil leaves in cooler room. Make sure
that MU cook know that they are not suppose to chop the basil
leaves!!! Last time, they did... :-(

(7) BBQ spare rib --Thai-styled

(8) BBQ park -- Thai-styled: we use pork shoulder blade for the
pork... It is more fat... Pork fat rules!!!