Thai food - Tom Yum Goong

Tom Yum Soup, World Wide All-Time Favorite!
Thai food - Tom Yum Goong (Tom Yum Soup with Shrimp)

Prepare:

*1/2 pound medium sized shrimp(peeled and de-veined
*2 cups water
*6 pieces cut lemon grass (~2" long)
*4 small pieces galangal

*1 tbsp. tom yum soup paste

*2-8 crushed red/green chili peppers

*3 small red onions cut into quarters

*1 medium to large tomato

*10 straw mushrooms, whole

*1 1/2 tbsp. fish sauce

*3 tbsp. lemon juice

*1 tsp. white sugar

*4-6 kaffir lime leaves

*1/2 tsp. salt

*1/2 cup Chinese celery

Cooking Instructions:

1. Cut the lemongrass stalks into 2"pieces. Throw it in boiling water with galangal and chili peppers.

2. Add tom yum paste in it. Add more if you want it spicier.

3. Add lemon juice, sugar, fish sauce, tomato, mushroom, onion and cook for 10 minutes.

4. Now, add shrimp and cook for another 5 minutes. We don’t want the shrimps together hard as it is cooked for too long, 5 minutes is enough.

5. Throw Chinese celery, kaffir lime leaves and scallion. Then, turn off the fire. If you don’t like the taste or you’re not sure the taste will come out right, you should add fish sauce and lemon juice only little and by little and taste it until it has the right taste for you. So you get Thai food -Tom Yum Goong in your style , you see !! Thai food - Tom yum Goong it is easy for you .

Thai food U Know?

Thai food U Know?

Thai food has the balance of fiveflavors. In each dish, there is acombination of spiciness, sour, sweet, salty and sometimes bitter. The four main regions of Thailand:Northern, Northeastern (or Isaan),Central and Southern regions, havetheir own unique tastes and food style that represent their way oflife and culture.For example, Isaan stir-fry food is juicy and tends to be sweeter compared to the central region style. Most of the time there must be a plate full of soft boiled or fresh vegetables, some from their own garden and others from the market. Nam Prik Bla rah (chilies sauce with fermented fish) is never missing from the table. It is made from chilies, garlic, red onion, lemon juice and fermented fish. Each region has their style of Nam Prik, some add dried fish and dried shrimp. We always have Thai jasmine rice for all meals with all kinds of food. Isaan people prefer sticky rice as we believe it has a thick texture that can keep us full until the next meal, while we have to work hard all day in the rice field. We eat sticky rice with our five fingers, our parents tell us to rub our fingers with our hair then the rice won’t stick to them! We keep sticky rice in a bamboo container. It stays hot and ok all day outside the refrigerator. If it gets hard from staying outside too long, we warm it again and keep it for one more day

Lunch time at school, college, or at work, we have rice with curries, stir- fries or deep fried food poured on top. It’s called khao rad gang. You can have 1 or 2 things on top and it costs not more than 25 Baht (about 60 cents usd). Noodles are popular as well. We have gwit diao (noodles in clear soup) and gwit jap (Vietnamese style noodles).

Thai families nowadays don’t cook much at home. We usually buy food at the night market. It is already cooked and put into a clear small bag for 20 Baht each. That way we really save a lot of time. Thai food is generally eaten with a fork and a spoon. The spoon is mainly used with the fork which helps the food onto the spoon. However, for sticky rice and Isaan recipes, like Lahp Moo (spicy pork salad) and som tam (papaya salad), we use our five fingers. We eat our meals with our right hands. If you are in Isaan, don’t be shy to use to grab your food with your fingers. Remember, the left hand is considered a dirty hand because we use it to clean the dirty part of our body after using the restroom. Sometimes I wonder about those Thai people that are left-handed?

Tasty Thai Food

Tasty Thai Food - Spicy, Salty, and Sour

Food is like a drug. How true is that? This is especially true for me when it comes to Thai food. Once I get started on any Thai dish, I get addicted to more of the same. But hey, there has to be worse addictions that good food right? Some culinary writers describe Thai food as being similar to Chinese food but with a sting. Well, as someone who has lived in Thailand for a number of years now, I think the aromatic, delicious, hot, spicy Thai food is in a class of it’s own, and there is nothing to compare it’s uniqueness with.

Another fascinating fact with Thai food is the variety. If I lived here for a 100 years and tried a different dish everyday day, I don’t believe I would have time to sample it all. The county is split into 5 regions; North, Northeast, East, Central, and South and each region, province, and sub province, all have their own unique dishes and foodstuffs.

Thai food should not just be categorised as being hot and spicy though, as there are many herbs and spices which are also combined to give the individual dishes their distinctive tastes and aromas.

Ever heard of Thai food described using the 3 S’s of flavor? Spicy, Salty, and Sour. It’s the harmonious blend of these 3 that contribute to this gorgeous gastronomy. Let me break this down a little for you.

Thai food - Tom sab Kradoog aon

It's hot and spicy thai food.

Spicy Chili (Prik)

There’s a whole history on how the chili became a part of Thai cooking and I’ll save that for another article, but basically the Europeans, (Spanish or Portuguese) introduced the Chili into the old Siam in the 16th century, and it’s been and integral part of Thai cooking ever since. People who try Thai food for the first time should do so with extreme caution, as there are some dishes that burn your throat so hard that it’s painful to the inexperienced pallet.

Fish Sauce - Salty

Fish sauce is simply called "Nam pla” which when translated means water fish. In Thai cooking this us the second most important ingredient. Fish sauce is made by brewing fish or shrimp mixed with salt and decanting the fermented result into bottles. On its own it smells quite unpleasant but when added to the cooking or sprinkled over rice, it really does contribute to the exotic flavors of Thai food.

Lime - Sour

The lime known in Thai language as "Manao”, is used at every opportunity in a whole variety of Thai dishes. The main role of the lime is to repress the salty taste and strong odor of fish sauce.

Bon appetite!

Aleck Mann is a proficient writer and webmaster for Look at Food dot com where he writes on such issues as Living Longer and Healthier lives! and Diet Information. He also has many other food and healthy eating related pieces on the site.