Braised Chicken with Spices (Ook Kai, อุ๊กไก่) is Northern Thai treat, which is unfamiliar here in Tokyo. Thai restaurants aboard typically serve Central Thai food, and often Chinese-Thai, reflecting the origin of the owners.
In Bangkok where I was born and raised and in central Thailand generally, the dishes are based on seafood and coconut. But in the cooler land-locked north of the country, fresh shrimp, crab, ocean fish and others seafood are not easily obtainable. There meat, freshwater fish and vegetable predominate. Coconut is reserved mostly for desserts.
