Photo: Heami Lee • Food Styling: Jessie YuChen
It’s always Snacky Hour somewhere. These are the best bites that fall outside the confines of breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Savory, salty, spicy, sweet, sour: everything’s fair game during Snacky Hour.
Meatballs have long enjoyed top billing in the world of party foods, doused in grape jelly or wallowing in barbecue or marinara sauce. Meatballs are the perfect vessel for different seasonings and flavorings, but these old-school preparations miss big opportunities for bold flavors. Today’s food enthusiasts crave more, and I am here for it—with a whole bunch of my spicy Thai meatballs in tow.
I am the chef and owner of International Market in Nashville, Tennessee, where we serve my versions of the Thai food I grew up eating. Originally opened in 1975 by my parents, International Market introduced a world of flavors to a Southern community’s then-conservative palates. The restaurant was cafeteria-style with a large market filled with Asian ingredients; everyone from construction workers to students at the neighboring university stopped in at lunch for plates of egg rolls, curries, rice dishes, and noodles. Today the restaurant continues to celebrate its diverse group of customers both old and new, and strives to share the evolution of Thai food and dining culture. The steam table is still available at lunch, serving standbys like dumplings, green curry chicken, and pepper steak with rice, but there’s also a menu of dishes cooked to order that spotlight a mix of local farms and producers
