Thailand Creative and Design Center
Today, I went to the Thailand Creative and Design Center, located in Phrom Phong, on the 6th floor of the Emporium Shopping mall. They had two interesting exhibitions going on: What’s in My Noodle and Design for Better Eating. You just can’t avoid the topic of food here in Thailand. With all the street food vendors, it’s all food, all the time, even in design exhibitions!
There was an interesting history of phat thay, with fake plastic phat thay to illustrate. So, for all those people in NYC who though it was served straight on a plate, this appears to not be the case, as I’ve had my noodles wrapped in an thin egg omelette two out of three times.
An excerpt from the exhibit:
During World War II, Thailand’s economy was largely dependent on rice exports, but conditions during this time forced then Prime Minister Field Marshal P. Pibulsongkram (1938-1944) to urge his people to consume less rice and eat noodles instead. Previously noodles were seen as Chinese food. To help overcome this perception, the Field Marshal invented pad thai, or “Thai stir-fry”, based on the name of the country. The flavorings and ingredients used in the dish — dried prawn, bean sprouts, tofu, banana flowers and the noodles themselves — were all locally produced. Because of its mild taste, many diners add other spices and condiments to this “patriotic” dish.
The other exhibition, Design for Better Eating was an interesting curation and categorization of clever made-on-the-fly tools street vendors use everyday, common problems they share, and even rags to riches stories of street vendors who made it big.
All the ways you can use a banana leaf to package food! It’s supposed to be eco-friendly, but apparently, there are not enough banana trees to supply all the street food vendors with enough leaves. Sadly, they resort to plastic bags, so there’s growing trash problem. Also, not all of the trash gets picked up so 20% or so is unaccounted for. Who knows where it goes!
I actually hoped to see some design solutions to these carts, but you know what? Some things are better left unchanged!
