Tasty Thai

Thai food is exotic. It can be unexpected. It can confuse, but it more often than not pleases. It often contains heaps of spices and herbs, totally unknown to the Western palate.

To be excellent Thai food must always be a perfect blend of the four tastes -- sweet, sour, spicy and salty. Too much of one and the balance is ruined. The dish becomes overly sweet or more often, too spicy!

After a year of living in Thailand, I have decided that these are my favorite Thai foods. I have used both Thai names and English ones.

1. Som Tam

The combination sounds strange, but the results are amazing. This is a light, crisp salad with so much flavour. Shredded green papaya, carrots, tomatoes, long beans, roasted peanuts and shrimp or crabs (I opt out of the seafood) are mixed together in a morter and pestle with a sauce of palm sugar, garlic, lime, fish sauce, and as many chiles as you can handle! Served best with sticky rice. Amazing!

2. Red Curry

A great, flavourful curry. Can be made with any sort of protein: chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, or tofu. The curry paste is a labour of love; a combination of red chilli peppers, shallots, garlic, galangal (Thai ginger), lemon grass, coriander, kaffir lime, pepper and salt. The paste is cooked into cocounut milk to make a soup base. With many meat curries in Thailand, there are few vegetables. Red curry warrants plum tomatoes, pea eggplants, onions and basil. I think Thai people are now adding more and more veg to curries to up the nutrition value. So carrots, brocolli, potatoes etc are now being seen.

3. Tom Yum Kung

Most people think of phad thai and coconut curries when they think of Thai food. But I would argue that Tom Yum Kung is the epitome of Thai food. Thais love it and eat it all the time. It's the perfect blend of the four flavours. Fresh ingredients and amazing flavours all put together. It is a soup of shrimps and mushrooms (the oyster variety) with galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, coriander, chillis and onion. This soup is a bit of an aquired taste, just because it is so unique. And beware, it can be incredibly spicy!!

4. Massaman Curry

This is a Muslim curry, influenced by India, and originated in Southern Thailand. It is different from the other cocunut curries because it is thick and sweet and contains potatoes and peanuts. The paste also contains cinnamon, cumin, cardamon, cardomon and cloves. More resembles a really hearty stew. Delicious!

5. Phad See Ew

Thick, rice noodles cooked in soy sauce with pork, eggs, and Chinese brocolli. Usually a dose of MSG on top. Not the healthiest of Thai foods (very greasy!), but delicious and a great hangover cure.

6. Mango Sticky Rice

Another one that sounds strange, but tastes incredible! Very sweet desert. Really ripe, yellow mangos are eaten with sticky rice cooked in coconut milk. Sweeter, condensed cocunut cream is drizzled all over top. Wow.

7. Tom Kha

A coconut soup generally contained chicken, but other proteins can be used. Quite similar to Tom Yum, but a milder taste. Sweet and satisfying.

8. Noodle Soup

A typical breakfast and lunch in Thailand. Can be found on every street corner (probably in all of Asia!). There are many variations and some strange things that can find their way into your bowl (crouton things, liver, congealed blood...) The quality of the meat and the flavour of the broth can vary dramatically. It can be hard to find a good bowl. But usually pretty decent if the four spices (chillis, sugar, fish sauce, vinegar) are all mixed in to your liking. I enjoy mine with the 'sen yai' noodles used in most Phad See Ews and with pork.

9. Fresh Satsuma Juice

While not a meal, this is a great drink sold on the corners in Thailand. Fresh, mini oranges squeezed and the juice is directly bottled with (usually) no salt or sugar added. Incredibly sweet and refreshing.

10. Panang Curry

Round out the top ten with yet another curry. This one is sort of halfway between the red curry and masaman. Sweet and savory, but not as intense as masaman. It is a 'dry' curry, which means it is fried instead of boiled in the coconut/curry sauce. So it is not a soup. Great flavour, but tradionally is made with no vegetables added. Good to have with some rice and veg on the side.

Honourable mentions: Phad Ga Phrow (meat fried with sweet basil), Fried Tofu and Vegetables, Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce, Phad Thai, and sweet Thai milk tea.