Discovering Thai Cuisine

[Arky]

Living in the cultural wasteland that I do, I was estatic when an authentic Thai restaurant opened up here a few weeks ago. It is now my favorite place for lunch! I may be slow to catch on to some things that many others take for granted, but I'll eventually come around to expanding my culinary horizon.

Oh, I've had a limited number of Thai dishes in the past - mostly peanut sauce something-or-other when I was in the Philippines, but I have now come to appreciate a type of Asian cuisine that has pretty much been a mystery to me. I was even inspired to purchase a bottle of Thai Chili Sauce yesterday. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet (perhaps some Oriental-style roasted vegetables).

I think what impresses me the most is their use of fresh vegetables and flavorful sauces, letting meat be only a minor part of the dish... and in this case, they let me select tofu (Deep fried and then grilled - as a friend recently pointed out to me) in place of meat. It may be as healthful as Greek (Mediterranean-style with lots of fish, natural grains, vegetables, unsalted nuts, fruits and olive oil.)

Now, I'm going to have to go find some glossy illustrated Thai cookbooks for more inspiration (No internet sites - I like pages between my fingers).

 

[GB]

I absolutely love Thai food. The use of lemongrass, Kaffir lime, coconut, I am getting hungry just thinking of it.

 

[Bilby]

Thai food is all about the delicate balance between ingredients. A lot of people equate Thai food with chilli and heat but chilli should be a flavour to the dish (in most instances) rather than a strong over-riding heat. I really enjoy Pad Thai and prawn Green Curry. One restaurant here does these beautiful red curry fish balls that are wrapped with wonton wrapper strips and then fried. The red curry is very delicate and the strips of wonton wrappers make it look amazing. the same restaurant does an egg net salad and the egg net is so wispy, you can't imagine just any ol' body being able to make the dish. I am also rather partial to a good laksa but sadly, my body is less impressed and I pay for it!!

There is a Thai lady on this site who has posted many Thai recipes, and while you don't want internet sites, you may find looking at her posts helpful.

 

[GrillingFool]

We just tried a little hole in the wall Thai place. Turns out to have won
local "Best Of" awards regularly... and deserved them.

We will be back, and I feel a Thai phase coming on. Good thing my wife likes
my little excursions into other cusines.... LOL!

 

[Andy M.]

Great stuff, Thai food.

I'd suggest going to that restaurant with the goal of never eating the same thing twice.

Take notes on the dishes you like best and what's in them. Then you can go home and have the fun of trying to recreate them!

 

[Max Sutton]

Thai restaurants

We have three Thai restaurants in our small Gold Rush city of 13,000 population. I love Thai food. There's a fourth Thai restaurant in nearby Nevada City.

Max

 

[Thaicooking]

I'm an international student from Thailand, and I've been in the US for 1 year. Cooking Thai food is quiet easy, but the biggest problem is finding some ingredients for Thai food in the US. Most ingredients usually are found just in Thai market.And one more thing is most ingredients for Thai food cannot be kept for a long time. I've to go to Thai market everyweek for purchasing some ingredients.

 

[Arky]

Thaicooking, what kind of ingredients are you talking about? What would typical Thai vegetables be?

 

[Run_Out]

The best catfish I have ever eaten was in a Thai restaurant in San Francisco. It was really good.

Later

 

[powerplantop]

The best catfish I have ever eaten was in a Thai restaurant in San Francisco. It was really good.

Later

I had a catfish curry in Eagan, MN that was out of this world!

 

[shalinee]

I love Thai food and trying to start learning to cook them. There are 3 dishes that we always order when we go to a Thai restaurant. They are green curry, tom yam and a very nice omelet with meat filling.

 

[tzakiel]

It took me forever, but I have finally mastered red curry (thai) the way I get it in restaurants. I must have tried 10 recipes before finding something that worked just like I expected.

 

[vyapti]

I'm an international student from Thailand, and I've been in the US for 1 year. Cooking Thai food is quiet easy, but the biggest problem is finding some ingredients for Thai food in the US. Most ingredients usually are found just in Thai market.And one more thing is most ingredients for Thai food cannot be kept for a long time. I've to go to Thai market everyweek for purchasing some ingredients.

This summer, I went back home to see family and ended up cooking most of the meals. I couldn't find thai chilies anywhere and had to beg the only Thai restaurant in town for a few kafir leaves. It took less than a week to truly miss my ethnic and specialty markets.

 

[Claire]

I live in a town of 3500 in the midwest. Talk about cultural food wastelands! Actually, a Chinese family just moved to town and started a Japanese restaurant. Go figure, I just am very grateful, and eat there as often as the budget allows. The last time I had Thai food that I didn't fix myself it was on a trip to Chicago ..... a couple of years ago! I do my own version of southeast Asian cuisines, and the one thing I think makes or breaks it is good, fresh herbs. Which makes me think, it must be time for me to do something in that line before we have a killing frost. Oh, I'll have to put this request in the gardening lline, but has anyone seen a source for the little Thai eggplant seeds? For those who don't know, they are the size of huge peas, and I've not seen them since I left Hawaii almost 20 years ago!