Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [59]
In typically Thai fashion, these condiments offer three ways to make the soup hotter – hot and sour, hot and salty, and just plain hot – and one to make it sweet.
The typical noodle-eater will add a teaspoonful of each one of these condiments to the noodle soup, except for the sugar, which in sweet-tooth Bangkok usually rates a full tablespoon. Until you’re used to these strong seasonings, we recommend adding them a small bit at a time, tasting the soup along the way to make sure you don’t go overboard.
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Most gaang are blended in a heated pan with coconut cream, to which the chef adds the rest of the ingredients (meat, poultry, seafood and/or vegetables), along with diluted coconut milk to further thin and flavour the gaang. Some recipes omit coconut milk entirely such as gaang àh (jungle curry), a fiery soup that combines a mixture of vegetables and meat.
Most Thais eat curries only for breakfast or lunch, and the average curry shop is open 7am to 2pm only. Among the Thais it is considered a bit odd to eat curries in the evening, and hence most restaurants (tourist restaurants excepted) don’t offer them on the evening menu.
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Thai Food Tonight (www.thaifoodtonight.com) includes several cooking videos accompanied by detailed recipes.
Food & Drink •• Staples & Specialities lonelyplanet.com
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Another food celebrity that falls into the soupy category is ôm yam, the famous Thai spicy and sour soup. Fuelling the fire beneath ôm yam’s often velvety surface are fresh prík kêe nŏo (tiny chillies) or, alternatively, half a teaspoonful of nám prík pŏw (a roasted chilli paste). Lemon grass, kaffir lime leaf and lime juice give ôm yam its characteristic tang. Galangal is also added to ôm yam, and like its friends, is not meant to be eaten, but rather simply to add flavour – much like bay leaf in Western cooking. Keep also in mind that ôm yam, as with all Thai soups and curries, is meant to be taken with rice, not sipped alone.
Of the several variations on ôm yam that exist, probably the most popular with Westerners is the milder ôm kàh gài (literally ‘boiled galangal chicken’, but often translated as ‘chicken coconut soup’). The chilli is considerably muted in this soup by the addition of coconut milk.
Stir-Fries & Deep-Fries
The simplest dishes in the Thai culinary repertoire are the various stir-fries (pàt), introduced to Thailand by the Chinese, who are world famous for being able to stir-fry a whole banquet in a single wok.
The list of pàt dishes seems endless. Many cling to their Chinese roots, such as the ubiquitous pàt pàk bûng fai daang (morning glory flash-fried with garlic and chilli), the preparation of which is often accompanied by an impressive burst of flame. Some are Thai-Chinese hybrids, such as gài pàt prík kĭng, in which chicken is stir-fried with ginger and garlic – ingredients shared by both traditions – but seasoned with chilli paste and fish sauce.
Perhaps the most Thai-like pàt dish is the famed lunch meal pàt gá·prow, a chicken or pork stir-fry with garlic, fresh sliced chilli, soy and fish sauce, and lots of holy basil. Another classic Thai stir-fry is pàt pèt (literally ‘hot stir-fry’), in which the main ingredients, typically meat or fish, are quickly stir-fried with red curry paste and tossed with sweet basil leaves.
Tôrt (deep-frying in oil) is mainly reserved for snacks such as glôo·ay tôrt (deep-fried bananas) or ò·eé·a (egg rolls). An exception is lah tôrt (deep-fried fish), which is a common way to prepare fish. And a very few dishes require ingredients to be dipped in batter and then deep-fried, such as gài tôrt (fried chicken) and gûng chúp âang tôrt (batter-fried shrimp).
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Thais are among the most prolific consumers of garlic in the world.
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Hot & Tangy Salads
Standing right alongside curries in terms of Thai-ness is the ubiquitous yam, a hot and tangy ‘salad’ typically based around seafood, roast vegetables or meats.
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