Nam-pla (1963)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   I just got started.  There are plenty of other books here.  OED, as we've been told, has 1969...Do I get a Thai dinner for this?  Maybe a chat with Al Roker on the TODAY show?


THAILAND:
A POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
by D. Insor
New York: Frederick A. Praeger
1963

Pg. 36:
      FOOD
The word for "rice" and "food" in Thai is almost synonymous; _hew khao_, to be hungry, means literally to be hungry for rice.

Pg. 37:  _Nam-pla_, fish sauce, adds strength and flavour to a meagre diet.


HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL DICTIONARY OF THAILAND
by Harold E. Smith
Historical and Cultural Dictionaries of Asia, No. 6
Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
1976

Pg. 131:
PLA TU.  The "little mackerel," a local term for the most important marine fish caught in the coastal waters of the Gulf of Thailand and along the shore of the Indian Ocean between Burma and Malaysia.  See PRA MONG.

Pg. 134:
PRA MONG. The name for fishing, to which the bulk of the Thai population, outside of the cities, devotes a part of its time.  Most meals, in fact, consist principally of rice eaten with fish. (...)  Fish sauce (nampla) is an important ingredient in the preparation of Thai food.