The Development of Local Food Sets in Promlok Subdistrict, Promkiri District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province

Abstract

This research aimed to study and collect the name list of local food, including developing the local food sets in Promlok Subdistrict, Promkiri District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. Participatory action research (PAR) was employed in this research. The qualitative data were collected from 30 persons consisting of the experts, entrepreneurs, sage villagers in local food, members of the tourism club organized by the Promlok community, members of Wat Promlok community, Bann Ni Suan community enterprise (Promkiri Thai House), and Sufficiency Economy Learning Center and New Theory Agriculture in Ban Huai Teng.            The research tools included in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, brainstorming, and trials. These tools were employed to collect the names of the local food synthesized by the experts. After that, the local food names were returned to the community members to have a part in developing this local food to become the local food sets. The research showed that the local food dishes that people in Promlok Subdistrict, Promkiri District, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province mostly ate for a long time were composed of 104 names. These 104 dishes could be found typically and have been the favored food for local people for a long time. These local food dishes had unique characteristics and used local ingredients to cook, especially the outstanding seasonal ingredients: Look Pra, mangosteen, banana, and Torch ginger. These outstanding seasonal ingredients could be cooked to have different menus and make these menus outstanding for each season. The researchers developed the local food sets using people’s participation in the community by considering the food types, and the match between food tastes to gain seven food sets. When considering the seasonal ingredients, the local food could be divided into three periods. Each period consisted of three food sets that could be the guideline to promote the local food, and the outstanding ingredients could be developed to become three menus. It can be seen that when the community has local food knowledge, the people in the community can apply this knowledge to increase their income. It is also the way to recognize the importance of the ingredients only found in the locality that can be applied to increase the value-added of local food wisdom. Moreover, knowledge transfer from generation to generation is a meaningful way to carry on the local food culture.