98 FEBRUARY 2021
ROWING UP, I was lucky that my best friend’s mom also hap-
pened to be my mom’s best friend. I met Pichy when I was 5 at
Wat Thai of Los Angeles, a temple and Thai school where kids
came to learn the Thai alphabet, traditional dancing, and how
to meditate. Both my mom and Pichy’s mom, Oranij Promsatit—
whom I lovingly refer to as Kru Nid, which translates to “teacher
Nid,” her nickname—were volunteer instructors who wrangled
unruly Thai-American youths each weekend.
You have to have grit, perseverance, and a love of teach-
ing when it comes to imbuing young Thai Americans with
the importance of their language and culture. Kru Nid, whoemigrated from Thailand when Pichy was only
5, has all of these qualities and more. Though
strict in the classroom—she gave me plenty of
tough love when I neglected my Thai homework or disrupted class with
my antics—Kru Nid also has an infectious laugh, a zest for adventure, and
a hidden gentleness that makes her a wonderful teacher both in and out
of the classroom.
Having my best friend’s mom also be my mom’s best friend made asking
for playdates and sleepovers a lot easier. As a quartet, the four of us would
spend days in Santa Monica, where Pichy and I swam in the Pacific Ocean
and rode the boardwalk roller coaster. We took turns having slumber par-
ties: At my house, we’d splash in the pool and go on bike rides around the
neighborhood; at Pichy’s place in the Valley, we’d hunch over her laptop
playing games or give her oversize beagle, Lucky, a bath (and generally
annoy him). And when we weren’t engaging in shenanigans, we were
stuffing our faces with Thai food.
Kru Nid had a repertoire of dishes she would always make, which also
happened to be some of Pichy’s favorites. These were the dishes I always
looked forward to: plates of slick pad see ew; bowls of kai pa lo, or Chinese
five-spice soup with boiled eggs; and, most memorable of all, breakfasts of
khao tom. This simple rice porridge is a traditional dish in Thailand and is
the perfect way to stretch dwindling rice supplies. It is comfort food at its
best—a warm and filling bowl that functions as a blank canvas for a variety
of sweet, salty, dried, and crunchy toppings.
Khao tom is commonly served with pickled mustard greens, dried
shrimp, pork floss, Chinese sausage, and stir-fried morning glory laced
with fiery Thai chiles. Sometimes gently poached fish with chopped cilantro
and fried garlic makes an appearance, or savory ground pork sprinkled
with white pepper plus an egg. At Kru Nid’s
house, however, khao tom was always served
with bacon: fatty strips cut into two-inch slices
and fried until crispy and glistening with oil.
The concept was foreign to me. In my house,
bacon was for American breakfasts with pan-
cakes and fried eggs. But Pichy was a slightly
picky eater when we were kids. Pickled mus-
tard greens, one of my personal favorite top-
pings, were out of the question for her rice
porridge, but a mound of crumbled salty bacon
was perfect.
Though it confused me the first time I was
served bacon with khao tom, after trying it I
never turned back. The crispy and meaty flavor
of the bacon serves as the perfect foil to the soft
and subtle flavor of the rice porridge. Though it
wasn’t the only topping we ate with our khao
tom, it was our favorite.
Bacon and khao tom, to me, is the perfect
marriage of Pichy’s and my Thai-American
identities. It’s a bowl of nostalgia we can
both easily revisit, despite living on different
coasts and being on completely different career
paths. And now, it’s become a staple in my
own household, something my mom adopted
after I begged her to serve her khao tom with
bacon—just like Kru Nid.The
Teacher
G
BY KAT THOMPSONOranij Promsatit, aun-
tie to writer Kat
Thompson, in front of
her Los Angeles home
OPPOSITE: Khao Tom, a
rice porridge, topped
with bacon and pickled
greens (recipe p. 100)PHOTOGRAPHY: ALICIA CHO