Page 27 - ISLAND STYLE MAGAZINE

Pad Thai

Thailand’s calling card to the rest of the culinary world,
pad Thai doesn’t need an introduction. Pad Thai is a
diner-participation meal; you put on the finishing
touches of fish sauce, sugar, chili powder, and crushed
peanuts to suit your taste.

Thai food is internationally famous. spices. Traditional Thai cooking methods while the use of fresh herbs increased.
Whether chilli-hot or comparatively were stewing and baking, or grilling. It is generally acknowledged that Thai
blands, harmony is the guiding Chinese influences saw the introduction curries burn intensely, but briefly,
principle behind each dish. Thai of frying, stir frying and deep-frying. whereas other curries, with strong
cuisine is essentially a marriage of Culinary influences from the 17th century spices, burn for longer periods. Instead
centuries-old Eastern and Western onwards included Portuguese, Dutch, of serving dishes in courses, a Thai meal
influences harmoniously combined into French and Japanese. Chillies were is served all at once, permitting dinners
something uniquely Thai. introduced to Thai cooking during the to enjoy complementary combinations of
late 1600s by Portuguese missionaries different tastes.
Depend on who cooks it, for whom it is who had acquired a taste for them while
cooked, for what occasion, and where serving in South America. A proper Thai meal should consist of a
it is cooked to suit all palates. Originally, soup, a curry dish with condiments, a dip
Thai cooking reflected the characteristics Thais were very adapt at ‘Siamese- with accompanying fish and vegetables. A
of a waterborne lifestyle. Aquatic animals, icing’ foreign cooking methods, and spiced salad may replace the curry dish.
plants and herbs were major ingredients. substituting ingredients. The ghee The soup can also be spicy, but the curry
Large chunks of meat were eschewed. used in Indian cooking was replaced by should be replaced by non spiced items.
Subsequent influences introduced the coconut oil, and coconut milk substituted There must be a harmony of tastes and
use of sizeable chunks to Thai cooking. for other daily products. Overpowering textures within individual dishes and the
With their Buddhist background, Thais pure spices were toned down and entire meal.
shunned the use of large animals in enhanced by fresh herbs such as lemon
big chunks. Big cuts of meat were grass and galanga. Eventually, fewer and
shredded and laced with herbs and less spices were used in Thai curries, www.sawadee.com

Tom Yam Goong

Tom Yam is probably the most famous Thai soup
flavourful, spicy, sour and fragrant. Here’s a recipe for
Tom Yam Goong – Tom Yam with prawns.

ISLANDS STYLE 27