drug addicts” once cherished Thai weed so much that they’d pay triple the price of Mexico pot, so say U.S.
This shift isn’t just affecting prisons and courtrooms. It’s also influencing cuisine — and the effects have reached a restaurant called Baan Lao Ruang .
Yet, practically every dish coming out of her kitchen is seasoned with what was, before 2021, a “class-five” narcotic.
Catching a little buzz is nice, she said, but what really intrigues her is the plant’s taste.
Munching cannabis leaves is like eating wheatgrass — earthy, not too pleasant — but when the leaves or stems are minced and added to food, it brings out the umami.
All of those foods are high in glutamic acid, the chemical key that unlocks umami’s magic.
Her customers skew older: families, uncles and aunties, grandmas downing spoonfuls of pork curry.
Recreationally smoking marijuana buds is still illegal in Thailand but, since 2019, Thai doctors have been allowed to prescribe cannabis oil that contains THC.
“I used to see ganja as illegal stuff no one should mess with.
In decades past, cannabis was doled out by village herbal medicine doctors — and cooks would even sprinkle it into certain dishes.
Then, a DEA-inspired pot crackdown came to Thailand in the 1980s, helping push cannabis cuisine into the shadows.
“Everyone focuses on the bud of the plant but the leaves and stems also have interesting qualities,” she said, citing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.