★★☆Thai Treat is a Sweet Bite of History
2015年08月12日 ★★☆, As It Is, VOA, 未分類.
Read and understand the story. If you may have any difficult words to pronounce and words you cannot understand, always ask your teacher.
*Teachers will divide the article into 2-3 paragraphs to help you understand and check the pronunciation of the difficult words.
Vocabulary
*Read the words carefully.
- church/ˈtʃɚtʃ/(n)
- snack /ˈsnæk/ (n.)
- cakes /ˈkeɪk/ (n.)
- crispy /ˈkrɪspi/ (adj.)
a Christian religious center
a treat; a small piece of food eaten between meals
a sweet food that is normally cooked with dry heat
having a firm, dry surface, but one that can break easily
Article
Thai Treat is a Sweet Bite of History
* Read the text below
(click right and save)
(1) The Chao Phraya River is an important part of daily life in Thailand. The Chao Phraya flows through Bangkok on its way to the Gulf of Thailand. Years ago, many immigrants from Portugal and China set up homes along the river in what is now the Thai capital. Their lives soon changed in their new country. But one sweet food they enjoyed has remained much the same over the years.
(2) The Santa Cruz Church has been a well-known building in Bangkok for hundreds of years. Nearby, in the narrow streets behind the building, you can still find khanom farang kutii jiin. In Thai, that means the “foreigners’ snack of the Chinese church.”
(3) The way to make the little Portuguese dry cakes is simple. They contain duck eggs, sugar, wheat flour, raisins, and are covered with syrup and persimmon
(4) Cooking the popular treats is not easy. The equipment used at the Thanusingha Bakery is a trade secret.
(5) But at the competing Larn Mae Pao bakery, there is no secret. Everything is out in the open. The muffins are baked on small stones. They are heated by gas from below and coal above.
(6) This Thai woman says, “What makes kanom farang kutii jiin special is that it is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. But we never make them too crispy.”
(7) Kanom farang kutii jiin is also made without baking powder, yeast, or other additives. People say it really tastes like it did centuries ago.
(8) The owner of the bakery says, “If someone from the 16th century tried these, they would say they’re similar to those of that time. Some Portuguese who have traveled here say they do taste like what their parents and grandparents made.”
(9) The sweet little food of the Portuguese Catholic settlers is still making people happy.
(10) This man says, “It’s my first time having this. I will come back!”
(12) The bakers of Bangkok hope people will enjoy their tasty treat for many years to come. It remains a link to the Portuguese soldiers, businessmen, and religious workers who first traveled to the Kingdom of Siam 500 years ago.
Discussion
*Let’s talk about the article base on the questions below