Sunday, June 3, 2007

Thai Food..... Oodles of Noodles

Thai’s are great snackers and certainly for the girls - noodles feature at least once a day in their nosh. For certain...you should try the classic Pad Thai.. which are non-spicy, stir-fried noodles with bean-shoots, bean-curds, peanuts and whichever ingredient you wish to include...seafood, chicken, pork etc.


Usually the girls will have either Kway Tiaw, a type of glass-noodle, or Ba mi – which are yellow and made with eggs. You can choose to have them boiled in a soup or stir-fried. As with Pad Thai, you can choose the meat which the noodles are cooked with.


Another variation is Kow Soi, a crispy noodle served on a mild curry.

Rice comes in all shapes and forms. A tasty little snack is Jok, which is rice porridge – try the crab stick flavour. If you are ailing, for any reason, and need nourishment but cannot face solid food – try Jok. For breakfast many Thai’s eat Kow Tom, which is a rice soup and can be cooked with small portions of meat or seafood. It is adorned with a spinkling of herbs and crispy garlic.

To accompany other dishes you can order Kow Prao, steamed rice or Kow Pad, Stir-fried rice with a choice of additional ingredient. Especially good is the Kow Niaw, sticky rice. For a special treat...try it with mango and coconut milk – Kow Niaw Ma Muang.


When eating Thai food it is customary to mix and match the dishes and everyone at the table gets a dip into everything. Here are some of the items on the menu:

Gaeng Kheaw Wan Gai Green Chicken Curry
You can also select Seafood...cooked in coconut milk


Haeng Ped Gai Red Chicken Curry
A little spicier than its green cousin..my daughter raves about the Red duck Curry


Kai Pad Med Mamaung Chicken with Cashew Nuts
Great if you like your food tasty but not spicy


Pak Boon Fai Daeng Fried Morning Glory
If you like your green vegetables with a zing...cooked with garlic and chili


Som Tam Pappaya salad
Served with land crab and peanuts...watch out for the red chillis


Tom Yam Gung Spicy Shrimp Soup
This can be very spicy...watch out for the lemon grass..it can cauterize your tongue


Kaeng Matsaman Massaman Curry
Can be either beef or chicken..cooked with potatoes in coconut milk


Pad Peow Wan Stir fried vegetables
This is another favourite snack for my daughter


Penang Gai Penang Curry with chicken
You can also select seafood


Pad Grapao Gai Chicken with Basil Leaf
A similar dish is cooked with GingerGai/Moo Tod Krantiam - Chicken or Pork with Garlic
Usually very crispy meat and garlic stir fried.


Not spicy

Gai Jeaw Moo Sab Thai Omlette with pork
Another variation of this is to have a Pad Thai Omlette.

Please note that you may see many different ‘English’ spellings of the above on menus. The transliteration of the Thai alphabet to our ‘romanized’ script causes much in the way of individual interpretation.

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