Thai
Kuaitiao Ruea (Boat Noodles in a Blood-Thickened Broth)
A Thai noodle bowl whose pork-bone broth is thickened by pouring pig’s blood into it. Where sundae puts blood in so that it will set, this dish needs it never to: once the blood is in, the broth must not boil again.
Khai Luk Khoei (Son-in-Law Eggs)
Hard-boiled eggs deep-fried whole until the surface blisters into a crackled golden skin, then halved and covered with a reduction of tamarind, palm sugar and fish sauce — a Thai appetiser. The temperature question that runs through egg cookery is settled before this one starts: white and yolk are both fully set when the egg goes into the oil, so the frying reaches nothing but the surface. The name means "son-in-law eggs".
Khao Pad (Fried Rice)
Thai fried rice: day-old rice stir-fried with meat and egg in fish sauce, served with lime. A 15-minute one-wok way to use up rice — the final squeeze of lime is what makes it Thai.
Mango Sticky Rice
A beloved Thai dessert (khao niaow ma muang) — glutinous rice bathed in sweet-salty coconut sauce and served with ripe mango. The chewy rice, rich coconut, and bright fruit are a perfect trio, and it takes just three main ingredients at home.
Kaeng Som (Sour Curry with Fish and Vegetables)
A Thai sour curry with not one drop of fat in it. Every other curry here builds a paste and then fries it in oil or in cracked coconut cream until the oil separates, because aroma dissolves far better in fat than in water. Kaeng som has no fat to fry it in, so the paste is dissolved straight into boiling water. That is why the pounding goes on so long, why the flavour is carried by tamarind and fish sauce rather than by richness, and why what little body it has comes from poached fish pounded into the paste.
Yam Wun Sen (Cold Glass Noodle Salad)
The Thai salad of boiled and cooled glass noodles dressed in lime and fish sauce. Glass noodles are the noodle for a cold Thai salad, and the reason is in the starch. The daifuku page on this site explains amylose as the molecule that recrystallises on cooling and makes mochi go hard; mung bean starch is over thirty per cent amylose, roughly double rice. The property that ruins a rice cake is the entire point of this one: the strand firms up as it cools instead of going soft.
Khanom Chin (Fermented Rice Noodles Pressed into Boiling Water)
Thai rice noodles: rice soaked for days until it sours, ground into a dough, and pressed through a perforated plate straight down into boiling water. Every other noodle on this site is rolled and cut, pulled by hand, or bought. This one can only be extruded, because rice has no gluten and so a rice dough cannot be stretched or folded at all. What holds a strand together instead is starch from part of the dough that was cooked first and mixed back in.
Khanom Bueang (Crisp Rice-Flour Shell)
A rice-flour batter spread paper-thin on a hot plate until it crisps, then folded in half while still hot so it sets in a taco curve. This site’s cheung fun steams the same kind of rice-flour liquid into a soft sheet, and dosa gets its crackle from fermentation. Khanom bueang has neither ferment nor steam. It is crisp for one reason — spread thin enough that all the water leaves before the starch can set soft — and it holds whatever shape it was in when the last water went. Which makes the moment you fold it the whole recipe.
Leng Saep (Spicy Sour Pork Spine Soup)
Thai pork backbone simmered until it falls off the bone, then dressed hot and sour with lime, fish sauce and chilli. It arrives looking like a soup but it is built like a salad — laap or som tam rather than a broth. The bones are cooked long over heat; the seasoning goes in only after the pot comes off it, because boiled lime juice loses its perfume and turns bitter.
Pad Pak Boong Fai Daeng (Fire-Charred Morning Glory Stir-Fry)
Water spinach thrown into a wok hot enough to smoke and finished inside a minute. "Fai daeng" means red fire, and that is the whole recipe: heat. The stems are hollow, so how thoroughly you dried them is what decides whether this sears or steams.
Massaman Curry (Slow-Braised Beef Curry with Potato and Peanuts)
A Thai curry built on dry spices — cinnamon, clove, star anise — rather than fresh herbs. It is what happened when the Indian and Persian spices Muslim traders brought met Thai coconut and tamarind, which is why it shares almost nothing with a green curry, down to the cooking time. It is not a hot curry.
Poo Pad Pong Curry (Stir-Fried Crab in Curry Powder and Egg)
The name says curry, but this is a stir-fry — pad, not gaeng. It is over in three minutes in a wok, and what thickens the sauce is not coconut milk but beaten egg poured in at the end and left only half set.
Khao Soi (Coconut Curry Noodles)
Chiang Mai's curry noodles, and the shape of the dish is two noodle states in one bowl: boiled beneath, deep-fried on top. The crisp nest is not a garnish but half the point. The paste is unlike other Thai curries too — turmeric and curry powder rather than galangal and lemongrass, a lineage that comes over the Burmese border.
Som Tam (Green Papaya Salad)
Thailand's iconic salad: shredded green papaya pounded in a mortar with lime, fish sauce, palm sugar, and chili. Sour, spicy, salty, and sweet all at once, with crunchy papaya and toasty peanuts — and no cooking required.
Pad See Ew
Thai stir-fried wide rice noodles tossed in dark soy sauce over screaming-hot heat for that smoky wok char. Chinese broccoli, egg, and meat make it savory and satisfying, with lightly charred edges as the best part.
Pad Kra Pao (Basil Stir-fry)
Ground meat stir-fried hot with garlic and Thai chilies, then tossed with a big handful of basil — Thailand's go-to street-food rice plate. Spooned over rice and crowned with a crispy fried egg, it's a full meal in minutes.
Thai Green Curry (Kaeng Khiao Wan)
A fragrant, gently spicy Thai curry of chicken and vegetables simmered in green curry paste and coconut milk. With store-bought paste it's a 25-minute one-pot dish, perfect over jasmine rice.
Tom Yum Goong (Hot & Sour Shrimp Soup)
Thailand's iconic hot-and-sour shrimp soup — broth perfumed with lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaf, brightened with lime at the end. Sour, spicy, savory; one of the world's most famous soups.
Pad Thai
Thailand's beloved street-food noodle dish — rice noodles stir-fried with shrimp, tofu, and egg in a tangy tamarind sauce. Bean sprouts and chives add crunch; peanuts and lime finish it bright and nutty.