Tom Kha Gai is kind of like Tom Yum Gung’s less spicy younger brother. It’s made with coconut milk, lemongrass, galangal, and chicken (“gai” means chicken in Thai). It’s delicious and if you don’t like tom yum because you’re not a fan of spicy food, you should at least try tom kha gai when you’re in Thailand as it’s much less spicy than tom yum.
Every time I walk past a vendor selling this soup, I nearly double over from the smell. It’s ridonculous. In a really, really, really good way. Remember how good my pork and rice dish smelled to me? Well, this soup does a similar thing to me. And inside the delicious broth are soft rice noodles, bean sprouts, and chunks of the most tender beef ever.
I think an alternate spelling for this dish might be “aw lam”. As I discovered with naem/nam, regardless of how you spell it, it’s going to taste the same, and that is delicious. Orlam is another dish which surprised me. I don’t know what I was expecting, but what came out was so much more appealing than what I was imagining. In my guidebook, it was described as a stew, but I’d describe it as a soup with a LOT of ingredients in it. It actually reminded me of a not red version of tom yum. Everything I ever read about orlam said that it is cooked with woodchips for flavour. Maybe these woodchips were removed before the soup was served, but I never saw any evidence of woodchips. There was certainly lemongrass. And I think maybe ginger or galangal. And as far as ingredients that you are meant to eat, there were mushrooms, pieces of eggplant (aubergine), and chicken. Yummers!
I sat down at dinner the other night and told the waitress I wanted a noodle soup. She directed me to something on the menu which turned out to be “khao pun nam jaew”. Khao pun nam jaew is a soup with rice noodles, pork, and bamboo shoots. It is delicioius. The waitress asked whether I wanted the large soup or the small soup and, since I wasn’t very hungry, I went with the small soup. When she brought my food out to my table, my eyes nearly popped all the way out of my head. I’m not sure I’ve seen a bigger serving of soup anywhere. Ever. Where I live (Myanmar), a bowl of soup that size would probably feed three people. Holy crapoli! And on top of all that, when the soup is brought out, they also bring out a massive plate of lettuce, mint, and green beans, which you are meant to eat with a dip which is sitting on the table. I’m not sure what the dip is made out of, but my guess is it has fermented fish in it. Not my favourite, but also not a complaint because (a) the soup was so big I could hardly finish just that and (b) fresh green beans and mint sans dip are pretty tasty all by themselves. To top it all off, this massive amount of food cost only about $2.50 USD.
See? There are shrimps hiding out in the soup!
Saving the best for last. How do YOU eat your tom yum?
Tom Yum is maybe one of Thailand’s most famous dishes for foreigners. It is a spicy soup, usually served with shrimps in it. Its main flavours consist of lemongrass, keffir lime leaves, galangal, tiny green chilies, and onions. It also usually has mushrooms and tomatoes in it. It’s not actually too difficult to make a decent tom yum at home, although there is something so nice about not having to cook for yourself. This was pretty expensive for me as far as my meals in Thailand go (not to mention my budget– it was 110 Baht, which is pretty pricey for me, actually), but when I ordered tom yum the other night, I was quite pleased to find the cook had not skimped on the shrimps, as I love a good shrimp about as much as I love a good tom yum!
No, really, it’s true. I’m not trying to be cute here. I’ll eat lunch, get up, keep walking, and five minutes down the street, I’ll find another street vendor selling food that looks even better than the food which I just finished eating. I think to myself, “Should I or shouldn’t I?” The correct answer probably always ought to be, “I shouldn’t”. But I almost always do. I mean, just look at how much deliciousness is packed into a single bowl… can you really blame me for all this nonstop eating I’ve been doing?
Things I Eat 