Pork in Tomato Sauce (nam prik ong)

Every Friday, we are bringing you pictures of the Thai food that we are eating in the Paknam Web offices. This first dish was a new one for me though I found it worth repeating in the future. The pork and tomato sauce is made up from pounding together chillies, salt, galangal, onion, shrimp paste, garlic and of course the pork and tomatoes. To cook, first fry some garlic in a wok until golden brown. Then add the paste and fry for a few minutes until cooked through. Then add some water and continue cooking until this has evaporated. It is then served with either fresh or cooked vegetables.

Green Curry with Beef (gaeng kiew wan neua)

The next dish is an old favourite for many visitors to Thailand. I like both green curry and red curry and you can cook it yourself with just about any meat or even fish. This version is green curry with beef. You can buy the curry paste ready made in most supermarkets around the world. You will also need some coconut milk. In this picture you can see the quartered egg plants and hard peas. When I cook myself I use normal garden peas from the freezer.

Steamed Noodle Rolls (kuay-tiao lod)

This is another one of those dishes I haven't had often but it has a good taste. It is basically a noodle wrap that is stuffed with various ingredients. This one had chicken with dried shrimp, tofu and bean sprouts. The topping is a sweet dark soy sauce.

Indian Fried Pastry (roti)

Our dessert today is a popular snack often seen on the street. The roti came with Indian immigrants to Thailand. Locally, we buy our roti from a Muslim family. Commonly there are two versions. This one has sweetened milk and sugar which costs about 7 baht each. Another version has an egg instead and is usually about 15 baht each. I will show you some more versions of roti on another day. When you are next in Thailand, make sure you try something new. You never know, it may become your favourite dish.

Chicken Curry (gaeng gari gai)

Despite the increase in food prices, we somehow managed to stay within budget for our weekly Friday Thai Lunch in the Paknam Web offices. The curry today is one of my favourites and is easy to cook as long as you can buy the curry paste ready made. In Thai it is called "gaeng ga-ri gai". The word "ga-ri" comes from the same language root as our own "curry". If you are wondering, "curry" comes from a Tamil word and so therefore suggests that this aromatic curry has an Indian origin. The curry paste has more spices than the average Thai curry. Ingredients include dried chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal, lemon grass, ginger, coriander seeds, comin seeds, curry powder, salt and shrimp paste. You can cook this dish with either chicken or beef. The other main ingredient is the potato. I like eating this dish with what the Thai call a "roti" rather than with rice. The side dish is traditionally cucumber relish. We bought this one for only 20 baht, though at the shopping mall, this curry with roti is about 40-50 baht.

Prawns and Mung Bean Noodles (kung ob wunsen)

This is a good dish that uses the transparent wunsen noodles. It seems easy to cook and I will try one day. What you have to do is fry some coriander roots, ginger, peppercorns and onion in a wok until fragrant. Remove these and then add the mung bean noodles to the wok together with a seasoning of salt, sugar, light soy sauce and oyster sauce. Add the shrimp and keep tossing so that it doesn't burn. Now place all the ingredients into a clay pot. Cover and cook for about 30 minutes. This dish cost us 25 baht.

Stuffed Bitter Gourds in Pork

I wouldn't eat this dish by itself but it is a good accompaniment with something else. The Chinese bitter melon is a bit like a light green cucumber though larger and it has knobbly skin. To prepare, you need to cut open and remove all of the seeds. This one is stuffed with ground pork, but you sometimes see a vegetarian version with a mushroom mixture. This dish was 20 baht.

Thai Custard with Pumpkin (fakthong sang kaya)

This Thai custard with pumpkin is very delicious but I will have to be careful not to eat too often. That is the problem with many Thai desserts as you will put on weight if you are not careful. The way they cook this is very clever. They first clean the outside of a pumkin and then cut a trapdoor in the top. The seeds inside the pumpkin are then scooped out. The Thai custard is made up of a mixture of eggs, sugar and coconut cream. You then stir this mixture together with some pandanus leaves. Once the sugar has dissolved, it is strained through cheesecloth. The pumpkin is then placed in a bowl and the mixture is poured in. The trap door is then put back and it is all then steamed for about 40 minutes. Once it is ready, the mixture should have hardened. It is now cut into wedges about three inches thick. Each wedge costs about 20 baht. Make sure you try this the next time you are in Thailand.

More Thai food on our menu at thai-blogs.com next week.

Crispy Noodles in a Thick Vegetable Gravy (rat naa mee grob)

For our Thai lunch today, we decided to have individual meals for each person. Normally we will buy various dishes and then share. All of these meals in this series of the Friday Thai Lunch were bought on the street in Thailand and then brought home to photograph and eat. The first two are one of my favourites and can be bought almost everywhere. In Thai it is called "rat naa". In English you could call it Noodles in a Thick Vegetable Gravy.

Wide Noodles in a Thick Vegetable Gravy (rat naa sen yai)

These two dishes both have the same ingredients of pork and Chinese broccoli. However, you can choose what type of noodles you like to have. These are two of my favourites for "rat naa". The top dish has "mee grob" which is a crispy version of the egg noodle, and the one above has "sen yai" which is the wide noodle. You can also choose "sen mee" which is a thin noddle which I don't like so much. I usually alternate between "sen ya" and "mee grob". The gravy is made thick by adding corn flour to the stock. These dishes only cost 25 baht each. Actually, there is more gravy to pour on top but I kept some back so that you could see the ingredients better! This is very good value for money

Egg Noodles in Tom Yum Soup (baa mee tom yum)

Around the corner we have a noodle stall where you can order quite a few different versions of noodles that either come dry or in a soup. The price is the same so I usually always ask for the soup too! Again you can choose from a variety of different sized noodles. If you don't know the Thai then you can always point to what ingredients you want! The choice is usually, "sen yai", "sen mee", "sen lek" and "ba mee". My all time favourite is the last one which is called egg noodle in English. It is yellow in colour whereas the others are white. At this stall, I usually alternate between "ba mee kieo nam" (egg noodle soup with wonton) or "baa mee tom yum". The above is the latter version which I love. It is virtually the same but has Chinese morning glory instead and she also adds ground roasted peanuts and a spoonful of nam prik pao (otherwise known as chili jam). She never makes it spicer enough for me so when I get home I always add another spoonful of chili jam and then the dried chilis as well.

Wonton Soup with Red Pork (kieo nam moo daeng)

This is the second version with the wontons. These are pork wrapped in a pastry. However, the ingredients can vary. She also added pak choy vegetable and red pork. I like this one with egg noodles. However, this person didn't want any noodles so the noodle vendor added more wontons instead. The soup is always clear and it is up to you about adding the four flavours. These come in packets and include: chillies in fish sauce, chillies in rice vinegar, sugar and chili powder. I usually add them all though not so much of the sugar. I am not as sweet toothed as the Thais seem to be. Both of these dishes cost only 25 baht each.

Khao Tom Mad

Our dessert today is also one of my favourites. It is called "khao tom mad". It is basically a mixture of sticky rice with coconut cream and sugar. It also has a ripe banana in the middle and you can also see some black eye peas in this picture. It is wrapped in banana leaves and then left to steam for two hours. These cost only 6 baht each. So, our meal for four people was about US$4 today which wasn't bad!

Come back next Friday to thai-blogs.com to see what we are eating in the Paknam Web offices.

Thai Papaya Salad (som tam tai)

We are now on our 20th week of the Friday Food Blog. Incredibly, we have now introduced you to 86 different Thai dishes that are not only delicious, but also also cheap to buy on the street. The first dish today is one of my all-time favourites. It is som tam which is popular with many foreign tourists. There are quite a few different versions. My other favourite is the fruit salad version. This one is som tam tai and uses shredded green papaya. Everything is pounded togehter with a mortar and pestle. The ingredients green beans, cherry tomatoes, include garlic, red chili, palm sugar, fish sauce, lemon juice and tamarind paste. They probably also add a touch of MSG if you are not looking. This version also has dried shrimp and dry roasted peanuts which are added after the pounding. The vendor will probably inquire if you want it spicy. An easy way to explain is to say how many chillies you want. So, for three, you would say "prik sam met". This is only 20 baht and very delicious. I could eat it every day.

Grilled Chicken with Sticky Rice (kao niew gai yang)

The grilled chicken with sticky rice is an excellent accompaniments to many som tam dishes. There are some vendors who only sell the grilled chicken without the som tam. But the som tam vendor often has grilled chicken. Just point to the piece of chicken you want. If you ask for sticky rice too, he will ask how many bags. I usually just get one. The rice was 5 baht and the chicken 15 baht.

Pickled Crab Papaya Salad (som tam bpoo kem)

The other main som tam dish is som tam bpoo kem. This has salted crab instead of the dried shrimp. I don't like this one so much but we bought it to share with you. It is much the same but he didn't add the roasted peanuts. Our vendor comes from Isaan, in the north-east of Thailand. He usually asks if you want to add "pla rah". This is fermented fish. This is not always a good idea or even a safe thing to do in the hot weather. But, it is a popular version eaten in Isaan and Laos. This dish was also 20 baht.

Khanom A-lua

Our dessert today was Khanom A-lua. It was good but way too sweet for my liking. It is made up of a mixture of wheat flour, sugar and coconut cream. This is strained through a muslin cloth before being heated over a low heat. A box of these costs 40 baht. Less than a quarter can be seen in this picture.

Return to thai-blogs.com next Friday to see what we will eat next!