Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Thai Food
by David Thompson is widely considered the most authoritative English-language book on
Thai cooking. Thompson's latest book,
Thai Street Food,
focuses on less formal street cuisine.
Curries & Soups
In Thai,
gaang
(it sounds somewhat similar to the English 'gang') is often translated as
'curry', but it actually describes any dish with a lot of liquid and can thus refer to soups
(such as
gaang jèut
) as well as the classic chilli paste-based curries for which Thai
cuisine is famous. The preparation of the latter begins with a
krêu·ang gaang,
created by
mashing, pounding and grinding an array of fresh ingredients with a stone mortar and
pestle to form an aromatic, extremely pungent-tasting and rather thick paste. Typical in-
gredients in a
krêu·ang gaang
include dried chilli, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime zest,
shallots, garlic, shrimp paste and salt.
Another food celebrity that falls into the soupy category is
đôm yam,
the famous Thai
spicy and sour soup. Fuelling the fire beneath
đôm 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). Lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf and lime juice give
đôm yam
its characteristic
tang.
Stir-Fries & Deep-Fries
The simplest dishes in the Thai culinary repertoire are the various stir-fries
(pàt)
intro-
duced 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 ubi-
quitous
pàt pàk bûng fai daang
(morning glory flash-fried with garlic and chilli), while
some are Thai-Chinese hybrids, such as
pàt pèt
(literally 'hot stir-fry'), in which the main
ingredients, typically meat or fish, are quickly stir-fried with red curry paste.
Tôrt
(deep-frying in oil) is mainly reserved for snacks such as
glôo·ay tôrt
(deep-fried
bananas) or
þo
̀
·þe
́
e·a
(egg rolls). An exception is
þlah tôrt
(deep-fried fish), which is a
common way to prepare fish.
Maintained by a Thai woman living in the US, She Simmers (
www.shesimmers.com
) is a good resource
for those making Thai food outside of Thailand.
