How this chef has been bringing authentic Thai flavours to Souris

This is Part 2 of a three-part series in May Asian Heritage Month about people who have been bringing Asian flavours to rural Prince Edward Island.You can find Part 1 here.

Gas Anusorn loves it whenever he can buy lots of ripe, sweet mangoes fora good deal in Charlottetown. He said when he's able to do that, hetakes them back to his restaurant in Souris, makes large batches of mango sticky ricea popular Thai dessert and then givesitawayto customers who order anything from the restaurant.

It's his way to let people in the community know more about Thai food, Anusorn said.

"People here love it."

Anusorn is the owner and chef of Souris Thai Food. He opened the restaurant last year, and since then, he's been hearing lots of good feedback about Thai food from people in the community, he said.

'Happy that we represent Thailand'

It wasn't always that way. The restaurant struggled a lot at first as not many people in Souris knew about the cuisine and were hesitant to try, said manager Thi Arunvipas. But over time, things have changed.

"People here didn't know about Thai food yet the first week of opening the business," he said. "And when they taste it, they're just like, 'Wow, Thai food is amazing.'"

A favourite dish with his customers, Arunvipas said, is the mango sticky rice, or khao niaow ma muang,made with glutinous rice boiled with coconut milk, giving the rice a rich flavour and an aromatic coconut scent.

The cooked rice is served with a sweet coconut milk sauce, and what makes it special is that the sauce is boiled with somepandan leaves a tropical plant used in many Asian countries to bring out a sweet, soothing aroma, said Arunvipas.

The final touch is slices of juicy ripe mangoes on top or on the side.

"When we mix it together and eat with the sweet mango, it will have the aroma, the taste of [sweetness], the smell of coconut, of the pandan leaves. It's very delicious," he said.

Another popular dish ispad thai. Arunvipas said the chef tries to make the dish as authentic as possible, sticking to the four key flavours of Thai cuisine: sweet, sour, salty andspicy.

The salty flavour comes from fish sauce, the sour from tamarind and lime, and the spicy from ground dried chilies, although the chef tends to make pad thai less spicy as he's found many locals cannot eat spicy food, said Arunvipas.

And for the sweetness, the chef uses palm sugar, which is much better than refined white sugar, he said, as it is not only sweet, but also has a nice aroma and a butterscotch-like taste.

People in Sourisand neighbouring communities are giving good feedback about the restaurant's Thai dishes in person and through social media, saidArunvipas.

"It kind of makes me happy that we represent Thailand and Thai food."

'People here are really nice'

For owner Gas Anusorn, opening the restaurant wasnot only because of his passion for cooking, he said, but also because ofhis love for rural P.E.I.

He and his family arrived in Halifax in 2007, where he worked for 10 years as a cook, Anusorn said. Then, he moved to a few other provinces before settling down in Souris where his wife got a job with a local company.

Before, he didn't feel safe living in large cities whereas now he's been enjoying the sense of community in Souris, Anusorn said.

"Souris is a small town, people [are] really nice. You walk on the road and people say hello. People here are really nice than big cities."