Gung Chae Nampla (Shrimp in Spicy Sauce)

I can't find the picture I took so I will borrow this picture from the internet for awhile. I will replace it with mine once I take a new one.

I recently went to a restaurant and someone order this plate and a guy from the US who came with us loved it and asked me for the recipe. I never make it but I helped my mom preparing the dish many times. It's one of my favorite thai dish.

Ingredients:

• cabbage
• shrimp
• 4 spoons of lime juice
• sliced garlic
• chopped chili (as much as you like)
• 3 spoons of fish sauce
• mint leaves
• sliced bitter melon (if you like)

1. slice cabbage into small pieces and place it on a dish
2. clean and peal the shrimp and place it on top of the cabbage
3. mix lime juice, fish sauce and chili together and pour it on top of the shrimp
4. if you like cooked shrimp you can let it sit till the shrimp turns red for a bit
5. serve with sliced garlic, mint leaves and sliced bitter melon

Isan Spicy Sauce for Grilled or Deep Fried Meat

Ingredients:

• lime
• fish sauce
• chili powder
• sugar

Adjust the amount of the ingredients as you like.

Last weekend I had a chance to learn how to make Isan spicy sauce or Nam Jim Pet or Nam Jim Jaew unexpectedly. That morning we walked around Pattaya beach and shopping area to search for grilled chicken. At first we walked to a small street next to Central Mall where we got some good grilled chicken with sticky rice and spicy sauce last time. Unluckily, it was sold out!

After we had searched for it for a while, we found a small stand on the road at Pattaya beach that had some grilled chicken. She had only small pieces of chicken but it was fine for us. We got 6 pieces of it and then I told the lady at the stand to get us 2 bags of sticky rice and Nam Jim Pet. She asked me if sweet sauce was ok but I insisted on having spicy one.

She was busy making some papaya salad for the other customers so she told me I could get the spicy sauce but I had to make it myself and she would told me what to do. She gave me a small plastic bag and told me to pour some fish sauce in it and then add some chili powder and lime and a little of sugar and mix all those ingredients together by shaking the bag.

After that we had that sauce with our chicken and sticky rice and it was great!

Spicy Seafood Salad

Are you drooling after looking at the picture above?? I am!!

I just had a chance to try making that for the first time the other night from one of the recipes I got online and I adapted it for a bit.

This dish is called "Seafood Spicy Salad" or "Yum Talay".

You can add or remove something as you like.

Ingredients:

• cabbage
• scallion
• onion
• celery
• tomatoes
• squid
• shrimp
• glass noodles

That was all that I used for my dish. You can remove glass noodles if you don't like it and you can also add some other things like pork ball, sausage or minced pork if you like.

Now it's time to get the first bowl done!

• put the glass noodles in the water for a bit and then cut it to make it shorter and then boil it (you can read the instruction on how to cook glass noodles on the bag)
• chop all the vegetables in pieces (sorry I don't have any picture to show how to chop them)
• boil the chopped cabbage
• boil squid and cut it in pieces
• boil shrimp
• put all the ingredients above in one bowl and let it sit for a bit cause we have an important thing to do

Now it's time to make the sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 spoons of lime
• 3 spoons of fish sauce
• 1 spoon of crushed chili or you can chop it in pieces
• 1/2 - 1 spoon of sugar

Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl together and then pour it in the bowl that we have already prepared meat and vegetables. Mix it together and taste it. You can add boiled water if you think the taste is too strong.

A Driving Trip to Ayutthaya and a wholesale market

I wrote about a trip to Ayutthaya here once, but it was a train trip. We decided to rent a car this time and drove from Bangkok to Ayutthaya.

In 1976 Ayutthaya was declared a historical park and in 1981 it was declared a UNESCO World Herritage site. Click on the map to see the full-sized one.

It was Sunday in the morning that we started our driving trip. From Silom road, it took us only 40 minutes to get to Ayutthaya. The first place we stopped for a visit was Mahathat temple. We missed this place the last time we came.

Next we went to Wat Thammikarat which is not far from Wat Mahathat. It is an old temple but not part of the historical park. It is still in used today. There are some monks in that temple and many stray dogs. I donated some money for them. When we walked in, we saw some cows eating grass in the temple. There was a donation box in front from the yard said to buy a cow that was sending to a slaughterhouse and then they would brought them back to the temple and let them stay there.

See the elephant in the picture above? It was to cast lots. Use the ring finger to lift the elephant for female and use the pinky for male. You will have to do it twice:

1. say in your mind about what you want to have it come true and that if it will really come true you can lift up the elephant
2. use the finger, ring finger for female and pinky for male, to lift the elephant
3. if you can lift it up for the first time then you have to do it again but say it in your mind that if what i said in the 1. will come true, I cannot lift the elephant up this time.

And then see what you will get :)

I never try it though.

The last temple was Wat Chaiwatthanaram. We went only to 3 places cause we have been here once and got many photos already. We came here once again to take photos at where we missed.

Chai Watthanaram is a big old temple by the river. It is part of the Ayutthaya historical park. It was constructed in 1630 and there were 120 sitting Buddha statues along the wall but they were all ruined.

I forgot to tell you that the Ayutthaya City was destructed by Burmese in 1767 and every temples there was also destructed. They burnt the temples for gold and cut the heads of the statues and brought them back to Burma. So you will see a statues without head everywhere.

We spent only half a day in Ayutthaya. We had lunch at a place by the river and then drove back to Bangkok. On the way we stopped at a big market. It is a wholesale place where the retailers come and get goods to sell in a small market, department store or at their own places. You can find various kinds of things for sale there, seafood, fruits, vegetables, flowers, pets, etc.

Once we got to Bangkok, we went to a bookstore for some Thailand travel guide books and maps and did research on the internet for where we would have the next driving trip to :)

related stories:

• A Trip to an Ancient City and Monkey Town [2]
• A Trip to an Ancient City and Monkey Town [1]
  

Fried Chicken with Basil

Fried Chicken with Basil or Pad Ka Prao Gai is a very common dish here. You can find it wherever except in some luxurious hotels. It is easy to cook. You can have it in only few minutes. How hot and spicy it is depends on how much gralic and chillis you use.

My boyfriend and I once tried making it and it was like in the picture below.

Ingredients:

1. minced chicken (can use pork, squid, shripms or whatever you like)
2. thai green beans (chopped)
3. garlic 5 pieces
4. 5 bird's eye chillis (or as much as you like)
5. basil
6. oyster sauce
7. fish sauce
8. light soy sauce
9. sugar

Crush chillis and garlic together with the mortar and throw it in the oil. When its color changes or you can smell it put the chicken in. Stir the chicken till its almost cooked and put the green beans in. Put one spoon of fish sauce and light soy sauce and one spoon of oyster sauce and mix them together and little sugar. Put the basil in and stir it for a bit.

Serve over rice with Kai Dow and Spicy fish sauce.

Yummy!!


p.s. Kai Dow in the picture is not my cook. Mine is much better than that! See it here.

How to make Kai Dao with raw yolk

The last entry I wrote about fried pork with garlic and mentioned that I would write about Kao Dow. Kai Dow is very famous here. We always have it with any kinds of food, Ka Prao, Moo Tod, Curry, etc. Every house here has eggs, so when we dont have anything else to eat with rice we would have Kai Dow.

Things to have:

1. Wok
2. gas stove
3. Duck egg (or chicken egg but duck egg is better for kai dao)
4. oil
   

How to:

1. put the oil in the wok (like a half cup of oil)
2. wait till its hot (so hot like you can see some smoke)
3. pour the egg in the wok
4. put the hot oil on the egg for a bit
5. fry it like 20-25 seconds and then turn off the gas
6. Kai Dao Kai Daeng Mai Suk is ready for you now

Man I's sooo hungey now!!!

Fried Pork with Garlic

I bought what you see in the picture above this morning for my lunch. It was only 20 baht, very cheap.

Fried Pork with Garlic or Moo Tod Kra Tiem Prik Thai is one of my favorite thai dishes and I recommend it to you. It is a very simple dish which you can find it anywhere. It is also easy to make by yourselve as well. I tried cooking it with my boyfriend once and it was like in the picture below.

In Thailand we often have Moo Tod with Kai Dow or fried egg. Depends on what you like, crispy one or cooked one. I like crispy white with raw yolk, but i will write about Kai Dow in the other article.

The recipes for this dish are vary. If you google about it, I believe that you would find so many. I will write what my boyfriend and me did here.

Ingredients:

• pork (as much as you want)
• soy sauce
• fish sauce
• garlic (minced garlic)
• pepper powder
• oyster sauce
• cilantro root (crushed)

slice the pork into small pieces and mix it with soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, minced garlic, pepper powder and crushed cilantro root. Leave it for 30 minutes and then fry it in the hot oil. Wait till it turns yellow and then serve it over rice with cilantro leaves and pepper powder on the top.

Man I'm drooling now!