I think one food item you always see a lot at the temple fair is the fried insects. Those crunchy things that taste a bit like burnt bacon. Fancy a grasshoper? No? Then why not try some fried baby birds? If you are feeling squemish, do not go to page two to see the close-ups!

I seem to be in the habit of blogging about Thai food and saying things like, “oh, this is my favourite curry” or “this is my favourite Thai dessert”. Well, today I want to show you khanom mor gaeng ( ขนมหม้อแกง ) which is definitely in my top 10 for Thai desserts. Probably quite close to the top though it is a little on the sweet side. You can find this dessert around Thailand (we have it in Paknam market sometimes) but the authentic dish can only be bought in Phetchaburi. When people from Bangkok go down to the beach resorts at Cha-am or Hua Hin, they will nearly always stop at these large roadside food shops selling Thai desserts. Phetchaburi is famous for this dessert and others too. Everyone knows I like this dessert so I was pleasantly surprised this morning when our local samlor driver knocked on the door with two bags of Thai desserts. No, he hadn’t just been to Phetchaburi! Around here people use samlor and motorcycle taxi drivers as their personal messengers.

This dessert is a bit like our custard pudding. In fact, some people reckon that it was introduced to Thailand by Portuguese traders in the 18th century. Or, at least it was influenced by Western visitors. The main ingredients are duck eggs, mung beans and coconut milk. There are different variations, but I will give you the directions from one recipe I have here. Beat together 4 chicken eggs with 2 duck eggs. Add 1 cup of palm sugar and 1 cup of coconut cream. Use pandanus leaves to knead this mixture until the sugar dissolves. Strain through a cheesecloth and add either mashed taro or mung beans and mix well. Put the oil from fried shallots into a wok and add your mixture. Stir until it becomes thicker. Transfer to a baking tray and bake for about 30 minutes or until the custard is set and the top is a golden brown.

You must really try it. They do export it to Bangkok and you might find it in Chinatown and some department stores. It is VERY delicious.

There is a favourite dish I have at the restaurant called “bpoo pat pong gari” which is basically Stir-fried Crab with Curry Powder. It can be quite expensive depending on the size and weight of the crab. Maybe as much as 800 baht. But, it is really delicious. As you can imagine, I don’t have it that often so I was pleasantly surprised the other week to see a different version of this dish selling at the new food shop. Instead of crab, this version used chicken, gai pat pong gari. It also only cost 25 baht!

I was planning on blogging about this dish the other week but someone ate it before I had a chance to take a picture. If you have ever been with me to a restaurant, you know you have to wait for me to take pictures first! I have been back to this food shop half a dozen times since and they have always hadother curries. Anyway, I was at this food shop on Monday with Steve from the blogs and the food vendor promised me that his wife would cook it for me the following day. And they did, which was sweet of them.

In Thai, “pong gari” means curry powder. I think I told you before that both curry and gari are based on the same Indian word. It is quite easy to cook this dish, though you just need to make sure you have some curry powder! Basically, chop up some garlic and fry it over a medium heat until golden brown. Add the chicken and turn the heat up to high. Fry for a few minutes and then add some water until it just covers the chicken. As soon as only half of the water remains, add the curry powder and season with fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. Add the onion and also tomatoes if you like. Beat up two eggs and mix with some milk. Add this to the pan and stir until the sauce thickens. Just before it is ready, add the red chili. And that’s it! Another good example of a curry without coconut milk.

I spent most of the day at the Book Fair at Queen Sirikit Convention Hall. The big fairs are usually during the school holidays in April and October. I used to comment that Thai people don’t like reading much (apart from cartoon books), but every year more and more people go to these book fairs. Today was packed and I could hardly move. I bought quite a few books that I will share with you later, but first I want to show you this book which is all about the Top 10 of Thai Food! Obviously one of my favourite subjects. As you can see, the book is in Thai. I think I already have the best of the Thai cookery books. Most of them are quite limited and repeat themselves a lot. so, that is why today I was browsing through the cook books written by Thai people. A better selection for sure. I bought half a dozen cook books which will help me a lot identifying the ingredients of street food that I have already photographed. I could blog about Thai food every day, I am just lacking the information sometimes.

Anyway, according to this book, the following is the Top 10 list of Thai Food:

1. Hot and sour soup with shrimp ต้มยำกุ้ง (tom yum goong)
2. Green curry with chicken แกงเขียวหวาน (gaeng kiaw waen gai)
3. Fried Noodles ผัดไทย (pad tai)
4. Pork fried in basil ผัดกระเพรา (pat ga-prao)
5. Red curry with roast duck แกงเผ็ดเป็ดย่าง (gaeng pet bet yaang)
6. Coconut soup with chicken ต้มข่าไก่ (tom kaa gai)
7. Thai style salad with beef ยำเนื้อย่าง (yam neua yaang)
8. Satay pork สะเต๊ะหมู (moo sa-teh)
9. Fried chicken with cashew ไก่ผัดเม็ดมะม่วงหิมพานต์ (gai pat met ma-muang him-ma-paan)
10. Panang curry พะแนง (pa-naeng)

I have already written about most of these dishes as they are all my favourites. You will find them on my new web site at enjoythaifood.com. The others I will do my best to add soon.

By the way, we also have a new forum where you can discuss Thai food!

Doesn't that look delicious? I could almost eat the picture! Yesterday afternoon, I got into the lift at school at the same time as one of the Thai teachers. She had obviously just got back from a trip to Paknam market. I didn't even have to ask her what she had bought. She opened it up and showed me a delicious looking dessert. She then gave it to me. She must have seen the saliva dripping from the corner of my mouth. I tried to say no but she was being typically Thai and wouldn't take no for an answer. Though I must admit I didn't put up much of a fight of refusing it. The dessert looked so delicious. I asked her what the name was and she said "khao nieow dtut" ( ข้าวเหนียวตัด ) which means sticky rice slices.

Arriving in the computer room one of my teachers there asked what I had. I showed her and she said "oh, it is khao nieow naa nuan" (ข้าวเหนียวหน้านวล )! I said no, it is "khao nieow dtut". She insisted it wasn't. I then asked five different Thai people and ended up with them splitting into two different camps. It would now seem that this dessert is known by two different names though "khao nieow dtut" seems to be more popular!

Anyway, you may recognize the topping as being similar to khanom thuay which I talked about before. The white topping is made from rice flour, salt and coconut cream. In this case, as you can see, the layer is much thicker. The second layer here is also different. It is sticky rice. Overall, a very good dessert. And it only costs 5 baht per slice! In the picture you can see two slices.

Most of my favourite Thai curries are coconut based. But there are a couple of spicy ones that are not. The most famous is probably gaeng som, which is a sour soup. It is a bit like a thick vegetable soup that we have back home but it is both hot and sour.

You will find lots of different recipes, though it is often seen with either fish or, in the above case, with prawns. The vegetables in this version are long beans, Chinese cabbage and carrots. The paste is made up with red chilis, chopped red shallots and shrimp paste. The ingredient that is mainly responsible for making it sour is the tamarind juice. A good side dish for this spicy soup is omelette. Try it, it is a different experience.

The other day, when I was with Steve and Jit, I watched some villagers making a large batch of khao tom mat ( ข้าวต้มมัด ).  This is basically sticky rice, bananas and black beans wrapped in banana leaves. This is then steamed though it could also be grilled. You may remember me talking about khanom thian before which is quite similar. Though that one uses sticky rice flour instead.

To make khao tom mat you first dissolve some sugar and salt in a pan of coconut milk. You then add the sticky rice and stir slowly over a low heat until the liquid has dissolved. Next you need to tear up some banana leaves into lengths of about 8 inches long. Spread some of the sticky rice mixture in the middle and then place a halved banana on top. Complete the sandwich with another layer of sticky rice and press in a few black beans. Tie up the banana leaves with a long strip of bamboo. You then place it in a steamer, like the one above, and steam for about an hour or so. The results will look like below. Delicious.