Thankyou so much for this explanation, really makes sense.

I do wonder though why it is less common to use the participle (I thought they should be used in conjunctions and such).

In either case, participle or standard verb, the present is used because the fact stated is still true now? right?

And yeh "кау ман кай" was my best transliteration of ข้าวมันไก่. A thai dish which I less than adequately приготовил