Street Food of Thailand

On one of our first trips to South East Asia we spent a few days in Thailand which was the start of a now longstanding love of Thai foods and flavours. The sweet, salty, sour, spicy and hot combinations create many ways to transform simple ingredients.

For a straightforward introduction to this cuisine try the book published by Headline called 'Ken Hom Cooks Thai'. I recently cooked Braised Pork Belly in Fish Sauce a spicy combination of pork, shallots, garlic, ginger, soy, chilli and tomatoes. Served with Cauliflower Thai - style, Green Beans and Thai rice. This was a simple and very popular dish.

Braised Pork in Fish Sauce

Also tasty and effortless was a starter of spicy minced chicken flavoured with lemongrass, soy, sherry (an excellent substitute for rice wine) chilli jam and lime juice. Served on a bed of shredded lettuce with soy and sweet chilli sauces.

Spicy Chicken

Soy and Chilli Sauces

By far the largest cookery book I own is Thai Street Food by David Thompson. In addition to a range of authentic recipes this gives you stunning illustrations of Thai food and life.

 For more on the Thai food expert and writer David Thompson and for a good recipe for chilli jam take a look at annsfooddiary.blogspot.com 17 July 2012 'Chilli Jam or nahm prik pao'