Lanna Kitchen Words: Pots, Jars and Kitchenware

In Kham Mueang the kitchen is called tao fai (เตัาไฟ, Kham Mueang reading tao fai, literally "the fire stove") or huean fai (เริอฯรไฟ, "the fire house"): the whole room is named after the hearth in its middle. For all the Lanna kitchenware inside it, people have two easy catch-all phrases: tuai wan chan chon (ถ้วฯยฯหวฯานฯจานฯช้อฯร, "bowls, plates and spoons") and mo hai ta lai pak (หํมฯอฯมฯอฯไหตไหลฯพากฯ, "pots, jars, trays and ladles").

This article gathers Kham Mueang words for the kitchen from the Moradok Lanna dictionary: the hearth, the sticky-rice gear, pots and mortars, jars and clay pots, and serving dishes and baskets. It ends with a little puzzle: why the "rabbit" coconut grater of central Thailand is a "cat" in the north.

Tao fai: the hearth and the cooking place

Lanna kitchens used to cook over a wood fire, with the pot resting on three lumps of earth or stone. Later came small clay stoves that could be carried around. Above the hearth there was often a rack for drying things in the smoke.

The sticky-rice gear

Sticky rice is the staple of the Khon Mueang, so this is the set of kitchen things with the most detailed names: for soaking the rice, washing it, steaming it, cooling it and keeping it ready to eat.

Pots, mortars and cooking tools

These are the things used to cook every day, and many of them are hard to guess from central Thai. A wok, for example, is a mo khang in Kham Mueang, because woks used to be made of cast iron, which the northern dialect calls khang (ขางฯ).

Jars and clay pots: for water and for keeping

Jars and clay pots held drinking water and pickled food that had to last. The dictionary names them clearly by shape and by what goes inside.

Serving dishes and baskets

A common slip for learners: tuai in Kham Mueang means a bowl, while a flat plate is a tuai baen or chan. A Lanna meal is laid out on a khan tok, and baskets have separate names for each shape and use.

Why the "rabbit" coconut grater is a "cat"

In central Thai, the coconut grater with a little seat is called a kratai khut maphrao, a "coconut-grating rabbit". The dictionary explains that the seat was originally carved in the shape of a rabbit. In Kham Mueang the same tool is a maeo (แมวฯ), "cat", or maeo khut ba pao, and in some places a ngong (งอฯง). Grating a coconut is khut ba pao (ขูดบ่าฯพ้ลฯาวฯ).

Summary

• The kitchen in Kham Mueang is tao fai or huean fai; everything in it is tuai wan chan chon or mo hai ta lai pak.
• The sticky-rice gear comes as a full set: mo khao chae, sa huat, mo nueng, hai khao, ko khao and kong khao.
• Words unlike central Thai: mo khang (wok), khok (mortar), pak (ladle), chon (spoon), mai kip (chopsticks).
• Tuai in Kham Mueang is a bowl; a flat plate is tuai baen or chan; nam ton is the Lanna clay water flask.
• The central Thai "rabbit" coconut grater is a maeo ("cat") or ngong in the north.

Look up more kitchen words in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), read about the food cooked in these kitchens in Khong Kin Khon Mueang and Kin Lam Kin Lam, or learn the words for a trip to the market in Going to the Kad.

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai): เต๋าไฟ · ไหเข้า · หม้อขาง · น้ำต้น · ขันโตก
• All photos are from Wikimedia Commons as credited under each picture. Some were taken in Laos or central Thailand; they illustrate the words and are not presented as Lanna objects.