A Hint of Thai
and a Pinch of Soul
Twenty-two
year-old Lia Pugh has a mother who is Thai and a father who is African
American. Just like her heritage, the food she loves is very blended. But Pugh still has her favorites.
“Although
I am biracial, I identify more with being an African-American woman, from the
music to the food,” Pugh said. “I love soul food.”
When Lia’s family has
time for family dinners, her father, William
Pugh, 42, is the one in the kitchen. He typically cooks soul food. Collard greens, hot water corn bread, candied
yams, baked chicken and sweet potato pie is a typical menu. But when Lia’s
mother, Deena Daranai, 41, is cooking, she normally makes something on the order
of beef ribs and fried rice. Some form of rice is served in all Asian meals.
Daranai came to
Memphis when she was 4 years old and does not remember much about her home land.
“I do not speak the language," she said. "I wanted to give my girls a piece
of their heritage and I did that thru food. I’ve also allowed
my children to embrace the part of them that is African American. My husband
cooks the food he grew up eating, as do I."
"We are our own melting pot.”
The Thailand culture does
not have many holidays so Lia’s family, celebrates American holidays
with Thai foods. Thanksgiving is one of the holidays this family uses to blend
their cultures.
“We normally have fried rice with egg rolls, curry chicken, and
a spicy papaya salad,” Lia said. “And every other Thanksgiving my uncle, Gerapond
come to visit.”
Gerapond
Daranai is a chief in Orlando, Florida and when he visits his family he always
brings something interesting and different to eat. Last Thanksgiving he brought octopus.
He marinated the octopus overnight in lime juice, basil, olive oil and chili sauce. He
let the octopus marinate overnight and grilled the octopus in the morning. Lia,
her siblings and her father did not try the grilled octopus but her mother did.
“It was not nasty, it was
different,” Daranai said with a laugh. “I think no one else ate it because it
looked like a headless octopus. We have had calamari but calamari does not look
like that.”
The
grilled calamari was not a hit at the Pugh home but there is a traditional Thai
dish that they all love.Its called
Laab.
Laab
is a simple spicy dish and Daranai makes during different holidays like this:
Ground beef is marinated
in lime juice overnight, however any meat can be used in place of it. Then the
ground beef mixture is cooked in a skillet until well done. After draining the
beef, it is mixed with cilantro, fish sauce, shallots, green onions, ground
chili powder, olive oil, and more lime juice. Serve the mixture over rice.
