Pad Thai is a very common dish in Thailand, and can be found throughout the country. Like a lot of foods in Thailand, the best Pad Thai can be usually be found at the street vendors. Pad Thai's combination of succulent shrimp on a bed of noodles, surrounded by crispy fresh vegetables makes it a favorite dish with westerners too.
The real secret though to Pad Thai is the sauce, the sour of the tamarind paste should not be overwhelmed by the sweetness of the palm sugar. Add in the fish sauce, and you have a sauce that's equal parts sweet, sour, and salty, perfectly balanced together. This is where Pad Thai's signature taste comes from.
Personal tastes being what they are, Pad Thai is usually served with additional lime, chili, peanuts, chives and sprouts on the sides so that people can flavor the dish to their preferences. A quick tip: if you are one of those people who don't like things "too fishy", we'd recommend leaving out the dried shrimp in this recipe.
Please keep in mind Pad Thai is not really "easy Thai food", in that there are a lot of ingredients and prep time, and the proportions have to be just right. If you are just starting out cooking Thai food, you may be better off starting with one of our other recipes. But so many people asked us how to make this recipe we thought we would share our version, please let us know how you like it.
Thai Fried Bananas (Kluay Kaek) are a common dessert in Thailand. They can be found at street vendors all throughout the country. The coconut batter, when fried, adds a crispy fragrant crust around the sweetness of the banana. Normally served out of a paper bag and eaten with a bamboo skewer, a great way to serve them at home is with ice cream. The blend of cold and hot is delicious!
Recipe Info
Serves: 8-10
Preparation time: 15 minutes (with real coconut) five minutes (with coconut in a bag)
Green Curry is another common dish in Thailand. This Thai curry recipe is from the central part of Thailand, but you can find it all around country. You can cook it with chicken or pork. In Thailand we use the eggplant that actually looks like an egg, the ones you find in the USA are big and purple, but you can use those too. Usually green curry is served with rice, but you can also can eat with thai noodles called Khanom Jean. It's great for lunch and dinner.
Spring rolls are a very popular appetizer, you can find them all around Asia. They are slightly different in each country. Thai spring rolls sometimes add ground pork, Chinese egg rolls have bamboo shoots in them, while the Vietnamese have fresh spring rolls. They're kind of addictive, when you start to eat them it's hard to stop. Your friends will ask you to make them again and again. A great appetizer for lunch or dinner, you can find them in fine dining establishments all around Thailand. Sometimes you can find at the street venders in the city, but rarely up country or in small villages.
Thai Basil Chicken is very easy to make, and has a distinctive Thai flavor that comes through due to the sauces used in preparation. The oyster sauce and soy sauce give it a rich salty taste, while the sweetness of the black soy sauce takes the edge off the saltiness, as well as giving the dish a lovely darkened brown color. This Thai chicken dish can be found all over Thailand, from street vendors to fine restaurants, and is commonly served over rice, sometimes with a fried egg on top.
