Thai Cuisine

Archive for the ‘Thai cuisine’ Category

A Thai Taste Known Worldwide

Oct 28th, 2009 by Exotissimo | Comments: 0

No Thai experience is ever complete without trying one of the country’s famous foods; Tom Yum Goong. This dish really embodies the flavor Thai food is known for, mainly sour and spiciness. If you have trouble with the spice, you can always request it to be lowered or eliminated upon ordering.

You must have the right ingredients and preparation methods in order to acquire the authentic Thai taste. The broth is typically made from lemon grass, ginger, galangal, shallots, lime juice, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves, tamarind and chili peppers. Shrimp is just one of the ingredients used in the soup. You may prefer to have pork, chicken, beef, fish mushroom or nothing at all instead.

The dish also comes in two forms, a clear soup call Tom Yum Num Sai or a thick orange version call Tom Yum Num Khon which was added with coconut milk. Enjoy the soup as a standalone meal or with rice and any accompanying array of foods.

You can learn how to make Tom Yum Goong from a Thai family with Exotissimo’s Home Stay Thailand Tour. It is a great way to experience the lifestyle of a Thai family and learn about the ingredients and preparation methods of this soup and other dishes. You can also visit our Thailand tour page to further experience the country and sample more authentic Thai food during your stay.

The Tom Yum Goong Num Khon variant of the soup.

The Num Khon variant of the soup.

Filed under: Asian Gourmet, Thai cuisine, Thailand culture

Fire and Spice - The Flowering Flavors of Southeast Asia

Mar 27th, 2008 by Exotissimo | Comments: 0

Few regional cuisines can boast the diversity of tastes, colors and aromas of Southeast Asia. From pungent seeds to aromatic bark, a unique host of indigenous plants provide flavor for many of the region’s distinctive dishes.

Lemongrass, for example, a tall tropical grass found throughout Southeast Asia, has a distinctive tangy taste and countless regional dishes exploit its fragrant stalks. Many Thai chefs say it’s the lemongrass that puts the yum in Tom Yum Goong!

Cardamom is another regional ingredient used to flavor since ancient times. The ancient Egyptians chewed cardamom seeds as a tooth cleaner; the Greeks and Romans used it as a perfume, but Southeast Asians now use the expensive aromatic pods in a variety of sweet and savory dishes, and Laos alone exports 400 tons or more of the herb every year via Thailand and China!

Another well-known facet of Southeast Asian cuisine is galangal, or blue ginger. Occurring naturally in Northern Vietnam and Laos, its distinctive earthy aroma and pine-like taste are a common feature of Thai, Vietnamese and Lao cuisine when it is frequently combined with coconut milk as a de-fisher of seafood dishes.

Pepper reached Southeast Asia more than 2000 years ago and has become one of the most widely used spices in the region. Thai cooking has developed a liking for fresh unripe pepper berries, and in Cambodia, black pepper is part of the ubiquitous table condiment tik marij, a mixture of lime juice, salt and freshly ground pepper. Indeed, the Cambodian riverside village of Kampot is renowned for producing one of the finest peppers in the world.

Its generous use of indigenous spices such as lemongrass, cardamom, pepper and galangal as well as other pungent plants - is what makes the traditional cuisine of Southeast Asia so deliciously distinctive.

Enjoy a nourishing journey to the Northern part of Thailand, and take the Lanna Experience Tour for three days to discover traditional living, recipes and ingredients with fun Thai cooking classes.