Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: It was midnight when the smugglers entered the harbor, drifting
Speaker 1: silently between the larger vessels anchored along the docks. Passing
Speaker 1: beneath the bridge, they pulled up alongside a rickety pier
Speaker 1: and got to work unloading their contraband within minutes the
Speaker 1: wharf was groaning from the weight of large wooden crates.
Speaker 1: The smugglers worked quickly and had almost completed the task
Speaker 1: when pandemonium erupted. A shrill whistle blast pierced the night
Speaker 1: that A small army of police constables poured onto the docks,
Speaker 1: surrounding the smugglers. Those who tried to run at the
Speaker 1: end of a cudgel, a stack of crates toppled, smashing
Speaker 1: against the dock and spilling their contents over the wooden planks.
Speaker 1: One of the constables knelt, reaching down to reverently touch
Speaker 1: the snow white contraband. The crates were not full of
Speaker 1: drugs or weapons or stolen jewelry. They contained something even
Speaker 1: more valuable. This was pont de laisson, a type of
Speaker 1: needle point lace crafted by carmelite nuns from southern France.
Speaker 1: Dubbed the Queen of Lace for its beauty, it was
Speaker 1: among the most desired fabrics in the world. It wasn't
Speaker 1: the material involved that made the lace so valuable, but
Speaker 1: the artistry, craftsmanship, and labor that went into every hand
Speaker 1: stitched piece. A single square centimeter took seven hours to
Speaker 1: create and involved the labor of eighteen craftswomen. The fact
Speaker 1: that it was both beautiful and difficult to create made
Speaker 1: it incredibly popular among European aristocracy, who had been adorning
Speaker 1: themselves a needle point for years. They used lace in
Speaker 1: all their clothing too, but especially their sleeves and oversized collars.
Speaker 1: The incredible popularity of lace eventually caught the attention of
Speaker 1: the French government. The Finance minister was startled by the
Speaker 1: exorbitant sums their nobles were spending on foreign lace, and
Speaker 1: became determined to keep that money within the country. He
Speaker 1: started by heavily investing in the French lace making school,
Speaker 1: then banning foreign lace so that nobles would be forced
Speaker 1: to use homegrown stuff. At the same time, he made
Speaker 1: it illegal to transport French lace out of the country
Speaker 1: so that no one else could copy their designs. As expected,
Speaker 1: the ban led to a massive boon in the French
Speaker 1: lace industry, but it also created incentives for criminals to
Speaker 1: enter the market. An arms race quickly developed between the
Speaker 1: police and lace smugglers, who came with increasingly clever schemes
Speaker 1: to get their textiles across the border. They smuggled lace
Speaker 1: inside empty coffins and hollowed out loaves of bread. They
Speaker 1: even wrapped it around large dogs before dressing the animals
Speaker 1: in fake hides. The authorities responded with a series of
Speaker 1: high profile busts. In one instance, a hangman burned hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of crowns worth of foreign lace, treating the
Speaker 1: textile itself as a criminal who deserved to die. The
Speaker 1: situation continued until seventeen eighty nine, when the French Revolution
Speaker 1: virtually wiped out the nobility. The demand for high quality
Speaker 1: lace cratered, putting hundreds of thousands of craftswomen out of work.
Speaker 1: Needle point lace did see a brief resurgence of popularity
Speaker 1: during the Napoleonic era, but met its true end soon
Speaker 1: after during the Industrial Revolution. You see, the textile machines
Speaker 1: that were invented in the mid nineteenth century could easily
Speaker 1: replicate the patterns that had taken human hands countless hours
Speaker 1: to create. This made the lace far less expensive to produce,
Speaker 1: but also less unique and desirable. With the human artistry removed,
Speaker 1: lace became just like any other fabric, and it soon
Speaker 1: fell out of fashion. Wealthy people turned their attention to
Speaker 1: other luxurious fabrics like silk or velvet. Soon enough, hardly
Speaker 1: anyone would remember a time when needle point lace was
Speaker 1: one of the most sought after and most forbidden commodities
Speaker 1: in the world, a time when French fashion police scoured
Speaker 1: their harbors for illicit fabrics and smugglers risk their necks
Speaker 1: to dress the necks of the elite. You've seen it
Speaker 1: in every Thai restaurant from Bangkok to Berlin. Tender rice noodles,
Speaker 1: fresh tamarind, juicy shrimp, squeeze of lime, and just a
Speaker 1: hint of peanuts for some nutty crunch mention. Thai food
Speaker 1: anywhere in the world, and most people's thoughts jumped to
Speaker 1: one iconic dish, pad Thaie, a combination of salty, sweet, acid,
Speaker 1: and spice. Seemed to represent the complexity of Thaie cuisine
Speaker 1: all in one single dish. But pad Thai, which means
Speaker 1: Thai stirfry, didn't have the same journey as other national dishes.
Speaker 1: It didn't come from a grandmother's kitchen or a popular
Speaker 1: roadside stand. Instead, pad Thai was cooked up by a
Speaker 1: dictator obsessed with the flavor of Thai's identity. In the
Speaker 1: late nineteen thirties, Thailand was getting nervous. It was still
Speaker 1: an independent kingdom called Siam, but it seemed like all
Speaker 1: of its neighbors were being colonized. Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and
Speaker 1: Burma were ruled by the French and the English, and
Speaker 1: now word was coming down the line that Japan had
Speaker 1: invaded China and was looking further self. The Prime Minister
Speaker 1: of Thailand at the time was and I have to
Speaker 1: ask your forgiveness in advance for trying to pronounce this
Speaker 1: man's name, a guy named Kleiak Fibun Songkrem, who most
Speaker 1: westerners just called Fibun. Now Fibun had overthrown the monarchy
Speaker 1: and was using the military to rule Siam. He believed
Speaker 1: that colonists saw Siam as a backwards, primitive place in
Speaker 1: need of their brand of civilizing. To keep his country free,
Speaker 1: he thought he needed to do what leaders like Benito
Speaker 1: Mussolini had done. He needed to create a strong national identity,
Speaker 1: from music and art to close and even food. From
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine to nineteen forty two, Phibun issued twelve
Speaker 1: cultural mandates to realize this vision. He changed the name
Speaker 1: of the country from Siam to Thailand. He demanded specific
Speaker 1: types of traditional dress, and he targeted ethnic minorities, including
Speaker 1: banning the Chinese language and driving Chinese food vendors off
Speaker 1: the street. Now amidst this campaign for identity, Fibun decided
Speaker 1: the country needed a national dish, one that would showcase
Speaker 1: the depth and complexity of Thai flavors, but would also
Speaker 1: be a healthy and hearty one with lots of protein
Speaker 1: and vegetables. So he unveiled his new national program called
Speaker 1: Noodle Is Your Lunch. The Public Welfare Department gave out
Speaker 1: noodle carts, ingredients and a new recipe. The national dish
Speaker 1: of modern Thailand pad Thai. And yet, even as Fibun
Speaker 1: claimed this dish encapsulated all of Thai cuisine, many Thai
Speaker 1: people had never tasted did anything like it. Thai food
Speaker 1: is highly dictated by locality, using the fresh ingredients that
Speaker 1: are locally grown, raised, or fished. There it was a
Speaker 1: country that ate rice rather than noodles, So people wondered
Speaker 1: where pad thai had come from. Was it a regional dish,
Speaker 1: something ancient with a long history, And the truth was
Speaker 1: Fibun was just a guy who liked noodles. The meal
Speaker 1: which became pad thai was based on a recipe from
Speaker 1: his housekeeper, who made it often. In truth, it may
Speaker 1: have even come from a Chinese recipe. Noodles were much
Speaker 1: more popular in China than in Thailand, but through his
Speaker 1: cultural programs, pad Thai became ubiquitous across the country. His
Speaker 1: forced national identity still wasn't enough to stave off invasion.
Speaker 1: In nineteen forty one, under thread of Japanese attack, Fibun
Speaker 1: agreed to let Japanese soldiers move freely throughout Thailand, and
Speaker 1: as the war ended, the Thai people, sick of his
Speaker 1: harsh rules, ousted him from office, and yet even with
Speaker 1: the Thai people rejecting Fibun's other mandates, pad Thai somehow serve.
Speaker 1: In fact, pad Thai became the driving force behind a
Speaker 1: second cultural identity movement, this time in two thousand and one.
Speaker 1: That year, the Thai government launched a program called Thai
Speaker 1: Kitchen to the World. They wanted to create a concept
Speaker 1: of Thai cultural identity in other countries, to attract tourists
Speaker 1: to Thailand and create a cultural calling card. Part of
Speaker 1: this program was to train chefs and grant loans to
Speaker 1: people who opened Thai restaurants in other countries. The governments
Speaker 1: even came up with three cookie cutter restaurant concepts, from
Speaker 1: cheap eats to fine dining, that restaurant owners could easily copy,
Speaker 1: which is why some Thai restaurants have the same menu
Speaker 1: from Hong Kong to Houston. But many Thai entrepreneurs also
Speaker 1: struck out on their own, creating restaurants that would cater
Speaker 1: to local populations, and many of them found that worldwide
Speaker 1: people loved the sweet, sour, spicy flavors of pad Thai.
Speaker 1: Even in Thailand, the dish has become a popular lunchtime staple. Still,
Speaker 1: if you do venture to Thailand or your local Thai restaurant,
Speaker 1: don't be afraid to try something else on the menu.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: This show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.