Top 5 Essential Thai!

Hi Foodie Friends! Sarah from The Spicy Buddha is back again! She sharing her Top 5 Essential Thai dishes. This is a follow-up to her earlier guest post about basic Thai flavors. I hope these ideas give you courage to try Thai in your own kitchen! Personally, I can’t wait to try Tom Yum Soup. I just love the name! :-)

Take it away Sarah and THANK YOU for sharing with us again!

There is no doubt that Thai food is one of the most delicious and most flavorsome cuisines around. Walk around any major city centre these days and you are sure to find several Thai restaurants dotted around.

The key to a lot of Thai dishes is in the fact that most Thai cooking is made from scratch using local fresh ingredients. I talked about a lot of those ingredients such as lemongrass, ginger and of course spicy chillis in my last post. The role of a great Thai chef is to blend a lot of different complex flavors to come out with a superbly balanced, rich and aromatic dish.

Here is a list of 5 dishes that I think everyone should taste for a real Thai food experience. If this makes your mouth water, you could either attempt these great authentic Thai recipes yourself, or try your favourite Thai restaurant. Either way you are sure to have a great Thai dining experience.

Pad Thai

A staple of any Thai recipe book or chef, Pad Thai is my personal favourite and it is easy to see why. A great blend of different ingredients Pad Thai is a dish of stir fried noodles with egg, bean sprouts, shrimp and/or chicken, in a fish sauce with tamarind juice, red chilli pepper and garnished with crushed peanuts, coriander and lime.

You can also add some extra toppings like garlic chives, pickled turnip, cilantro, spicy chili powder, vinegar, or sugar. It really is an amazingly versatile dish and can be made spicier for those that love a bit of fire.

Green Curry

You can’t mention Thai food without evoking pictures of a curry, and in particular the green curry. Delicious, spicy but with some sweetness, a good green curry will become a family favourite in no time.

Using coconut milk and green curry paste as the base sauce, vegetables and meat are added and served with rice or sometimes roti bread.

Tom Yum Soup

Popular all over the world, Tom Yum soup is very common throughout Thailand. It is a distinct hot and sour soup with fresh herbs used in the broth.

As with many other Thai dishes, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, galangal and crushed chili peppers are used for the broth and you won’t forget this authentic Thai flavour.

Thai Chicken Satay

A gorgeous appetizer and perfect for bbq’s in summer, chicken satay is deliciously marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, ginger, lime juice and crushed red pepper, then dipped in a fabulous peanut sauce made from coconut milk, peanut sauce and the marinade.

Spring rolls

Another great appetizer,

Thai spring rolls differ from the Vietnamese style in that they are deep-fried, giving them a great flavour and perfect crispy outside ready for dipping in amazing Thai dipping sauces such as sweet chili.

Author Bio

Sarah Volpe is a keen amateur cook with a passion for Thai cookery. Since she moved to Koh Samui with her husband this year that passion has expanded into her own Thai food and travel blog; Spicy Buddha. You can connect with Sarah to share tips and recipes, or just to chat on Facebook and Twitter.