Recent Articles - Page 6

Som Tum Recipe

When I made the Som Tum Thai with Salted Crab for this recipe, I only took a bite to check the recipe and gave the rest to my friend (picture on the right). The next morning, I was still haunted by how great it was. So, I decided I had to make it for lunch, so it would stop popping up in my mind.

In half an hour, I was sitting and devouring a new batch of Som Tum. It was so good. I love how the heat and the sweet and sour play against one another. The salted crab added an extra dimension and a distinct flavor to som tum. The crunchiness and the creaminess of roasted peanuts ...It was like war in my mouth. It was hot but I couldn’t stop eating. A bite of warm sticky rice contrasts and calms down the sharp flavors in my mouth. At the same time, I wondered and thanked whoever made this dish for the first time. Did they know how wonderful the flavors have come together?

Hopefully, by doing this recipe and having enjoyed som tum, it will stop haunting me. But I know I'll be hearing 'It's baaaack!' soon.

Roast Duck Curry Recipe

Roast Duck Curry can change your life; it happened to our neighbors. Pierre and his family moved from France to next door and I made roast duck curry for them. That was just a start: we became good friends and Pierre fell in love with Thai food. A couple years later, after moving back to France, they moved to Thailand where they still live and love the food.

In the pantheon of Thai dishes, Roast Duck Curry fits a place high above the curries you normally get at restaurants. You definitely won't see a pot of duck curry sitting on a street food vendor's cart. The price of a roast duck is 3 times that of the chicken. The duck makes for a rich flavor and the dish looks fancy. That being said, I often use this dish to recycle left over roast duck.

Vegetarian Chili Paste Recipe

Vegetarian Chili Paste is a versatile hot sauce that we put on the table and add to Thai food and Mexican food. The roasted heat and the balance of sweet, sour and salty are the key flavors of this chili paste. This is also a sauce that I add to my noodle soup to get extra zing.

I often make a big jar that will last me a month. This makes a good gift for a vegetarian (or anyone else) who loves hot food.

Roast Duck

Roast ducks seem to be universally hung by the neck. A neat row of roast ducks in a display window looks the same and tastes comparable in Bangkok and in the US.

Roast ducks are sold whole or in half. In the US, half a duck will set you back $7 while the whole duck is $15. In Thailand, a whole duck ranges from 400 baht to 700 baht, depending on whether it's a sidewalk vendor or a well known restaurant. With current exchange rate, that puts a duck in Thailand at $14 to $23. That's pretty expensive considering the minimum daily wage is 300 baht.

When you're visiting Thailand, you have to try roast ducks. You'll find the ducks have less fat and more tender meat than US ducks.  So, when I visit Thailand, a roast duck at MK Restaurant is on my to-eat list.

Pa Ord Noodle Restaurant Review

With over 80,000 Thais living in Los Angeles, ThaiTown and its vicinity are crowded with Thai restaurants. How do you spot a good one? By a good one, for me, it means that the food is either as good or better than what I can cook at home.

When I run down to LA, trying a new Thai restaurant is something I look forward to. It’s often a hit or miss. The misses are usually restaurants that cater to most American palates’.  These, I try to avoid. The hits are worth my trip. The trick is knowing how to spot winners.

Gai Kua Kem Recipe

When I was growing up, after Chinese New Year, the question was what to do with the chicken used in making offerings to ancestors. Now, the question is what to do with leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

A dish commonly made from the offered chicken is salted chicken. Each household spices it a little differently with salt, soy sauce, garlic and/or ginger. My grandmother would chop up the chicken with bones still attached into bite size pieces. She'd fry up the chicken and season it with salt. The salted chicken was kept in the kitchen to be eaten for several days to come. I often sneaked in and grabbed a few pieces because it was so delicious...crunchy and salty. This chicken would make you forget potato chips.

After Thanksgiving, my leftover turkey with just the dark meat that is hard to carve becomes something delicious. I boil the turkey until the meat falls off the bones. Then I turn the meat into turkey chips...sort of.

Roti Dough Recipe

This dough makes both sweet and savory rotis.  It's an easy dough to make and can be made either by hand or a mixer.

Crispy Roti Recipe

Rotis are highly addictive. If you are on a diet, please move on to our other fine recipes.

Crunchy crispy roti, topped with sweetened condensed milk and sugar, is always on my 'to eat' list when I visit Thailand. The combination of crispiness, sweetness and saltiness will get you hooked. When I was a kid, a roti wasn't stretched thin like this. It was gathered in a round shape, flattened and fried. The thicker roti was soft and somewhat crispy, unlike the today's paper thin Crispy Roti that shatters upon contact.

The evolution of roti didn't end with crispy frying. Now, you can get Nutella or jam filling, fresh fruit, cheese or even pizza toppings. Rotis are very popular among tourists...finally something that won't burn off your tongue.

Tapioca Dumplings Recipe

Pop a tapioca dumpling in your mouth and the taste bud dance begins. Even before the dumpling is open to release the flavors, the fried garlic crunches with an appetizing aroma. The coarsely ground peanuts and well seasoned filling contrasts with the sticky, bland tapioca wrap. Take a small bite of the fresh chili pepper and the heat from chili pepper keeps you on your toes. You will quickly add the green lettuce to quell the heat and follow with the fresh cilantro to complete the dumpling experience.

Making Tapioca Pearl Dumplings, a popular street snack, at home can be easy if things are done right. It may seems like there are many steps, but it's simpler than it looks.

A good tapioca dumpling should be small enough to fit into your mouth, with some room for lettuce, cilantro and chili peppers. It should have a good balance of strong seasoned filling and bland wrap. The wrap should be soft and thin. The filling should have a good scent of toasted peanut and cilantro roots.

Green Lettuce

Green lettuce has light green tender leaves with ruffles on the edges and almost no stem.

Green lettuce was one of the first salad greens in Thailand, thus it's dubbed 'salad vegetable' (ผักสลัด) in Thai. Now with more Western food influences in Thailand, we have other salad greens such as red and green oak leaf lettuces, iceberg lettuce and butter lettuce. We even have a good number of these salad greens grown in hydroponic farms all over Thailand.

In Thai cuisine, green lettuce has been used in 3 ways: in salads, as a garnish and as an accompaniment. Leafy vegetable salad is not traditional in Thai cuisine, so a Thai “salad” is the Thai interpretation of western salad. As a garnish, lettuce often lines the bottom of a plate to add colors and beauty. As an accompaniment, you'll see it on a plate with other fresh vegetables like cucumbers or small eggplants.