Thai Foods

Tom Yam Goong, A Very Popular Thai Soup With Prawns

       If you thought that all soups are mild and easy dishes to be casually sipped before a meal, think again. Tom Yum Goong is the name given to a very popular Thai soup that is hot, spicy and sour. Goong is the thai word for prawns and Tom Yam Koong or Tom Yum Goong (mean the same thing) have prawns as a main ingredient. The tom yam goong recipe on this page explains in detail the procedure to be followed to make this popular Thai soup dish. Go through the ingredients used to make the Tom Yam Soup and you will easily find out, which of these gives the thai soup the hot and sour taste. After making your Thai Tom Yum soup for a couple of times, try adjusting the quantity of ingredients to make subtle changes in the tom yum goong recipe to suit your taste. 

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Pad Thai (Fried Noodles)

   Pad Thai has been known in Thailand for hundreds of years, the type of noodles having been introduced to Ayuthaya, the former capital, by Vietnamese traders. However, it was made popular by Luang Phibunsongkhram, the prime minister during the late 1930s and 1940s, as part of his campaign to promote Thai nationalism and centralization, seeking to reduce domestic rice consumption. The Thai economy was heavily dependent on rice exports, and the prime minister hoped to increase the amount for available to export by encouraging Thais to make and sell rice noodles from street carts and in small restaurants. Pad Thai has since become one of Thailand's national dishes.

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Som Tam  (A spicy Salad with Shredded Papaya)

      The dish combines the four main tastes of the local cuisine: sour lime, hot chili, salty, savory fish sauce, and sweetness added by palm sugar. The ingredients are mixed and pounded in a mortar; the Thai name Som Tam literally translates as "sour pounded". The Khmer and Laotian names, Bok l'hong and Tam Mak Hoong, respectively, both literally mean "pounded papaya".

   Despite the use of papaya,which one may think of as sweet, this salad is actually savory. When not yet ripe, papaya has a slightly tangy flavor. The texture is crisp and firm, sometimes to the point of crunchiness. It is this that allows the fruit to withstand being beaten in the mortar.

 In Thailand, it is customary that a customer ask the preparer to make the dish suited to his or her tastes. To specifically refer to the dish as prepared traditionally in Laos or Isan, it is known as Som Tam Lao or simply as tam Lao.

 Traditionally the local variety of Som Tam in the streets of Bangkok is very hot due to the addition of a fistfull of chopped hot Thai Chili, however with its rising popularity among tourists, it is often served now not as hot.

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