One of my favorite Thai desserts is the ‘Black Sesame Dumplings in Hot Ginger Syrup/Sauce”. The chances that any of the tourists have ever tasted a similar dish or even knew of its existence are close to none – hence I usually offer the dish to the many guests who join us when visiting Thai restaurants – and the reactions are always pleasantly surprised and very positive.
There is a big difference between making a grilled fish in a market stand or enjoying it in a restaurant – in a food stand, the fish quality is usually lower and its price is cheaper; it is grilled in advance, a long time before it’s served, and merely heated on the grill before providing it to the customer. The fish may taste good but in a good restaurant, it’ll be delicious, and cost only 3-4 dollars more – definitely worth it!
Personally, I love eggplant dishes of all sorts. We’ve already encountered the word yam/yum in the famous Tom Yum soup; as we know by now, it refers to various Thai salads with hot, spicy or sour flavors.
The Khao Mok Gai is one of my favorite Thai dishes. It’s very simple yet delicious – yellow rice with chicken, served with clear soup and a unique sour-hot sauce. Despite its simplicity, the dish offers complex flavors that are rather hard to find in street/market stands or restaurants across Bangkok. Although you will find quite a few places that offer the dish (even in Paragon and Terminal 21), its taste won’t be remotely close to the wonderful, authentic flavor of the dish, when served in places that do it justice.
There is no doubt that Som Tam, the green papaya salad, is the most famous, popular and loved salad in Thailand, both among locals and tourists. Som Tam offers the 4 flavors that are most typical for the Thai kitchen: sour (lime), hot (chili), salty (fish sauce) and sweet (palm sugar).
The Sea bass, a popular, high quality fish, is included in the Thai title of the dish. It is served in a lemon-flavored soup, which is both sour and very spicy, with a lot of chili, garlic and herbs.
It has a delicate taste and the combination of soy sauce, green onion and some ginger, creates a delicious, non-spicy dish,
The roti is a Thai pancake whose origins are Muslim/Indian.
The green curry is considered as one of the subtlest, less spicy curry types in the Thai kitchen.
The dish pungency depends on the amount of chili of course, and in authentic Thai restaurants, it might be very hot indeed.
Goong Phat Nomaifarang is a delicious dish which is not spicy at all!
Tom Yum is one of the most popular soups in Thailand, and possibly the most popular one of them all. Actually, it’s hard to imagine the Thai kitchen without it, as the soup became famous across the world and even won the 8th place in CNN’s contest for the 50 most delicious foods in the world.
This dish features a vegetable called pak kana – ผักคะน้ , a ‘sibling’ of the broccoli which is also known as Chinese kale/ Chinese Broccoli.