A Guide for the Gastronomically Timid British Newbie

A surprising number of us Brits are still very wary of "foreign food". Despite claims that curry is now as much an English national dish as roast beef or fish and chips, there are still many people who are missing out on flavours they never dreamed existed. Whether we like it or not, the British palate is not renowned for its sense of adventure. Our indigenous cuisine is universally regarded as bland and, apart from the odd dash of mustard or horseradish sauce, hot and spicy are not qualities easily found in a traditional British meal.

Still a relatively novel cuisine to many British diners, Thai food offers a visually appealing alternative to the more familiar Indian and Chinese foods. With its wide range of flavours, Thai cuisine can cater to both the conservative and the adventurous palate. This article describes some of the flavours, and some of the heath and social benefits of Thai dining.

read on ...

Popular posts from this blog

New Rick Stein Thai Recipe Added

Image
Rick Stein's Beef Massaman Curry In Rick's own words : "I found this curry at the hotel I was staying at during filming, the Royal Orchid Sheraton on the Chao Phraya river in the centre of Bangkok. The Thai restaurant there, called Thara Thong, was unexpectedly good, and I say this because you don’t usually expect to find a really good restaurant in a giant hotel catering for international conferences. The chef was very much a home-style cook specializing in royal Thai cuisine, albeit with a no-nonsense head-chef demeanour about her. The mussaman curry is the Thai version of the Muslim curries of northern India, made really special by the use of fish sauce, shrimp paste, lemongrass and palm sugar, but the element I find beguiling is the black cardamom, which gives the curry a delightfully smoky flavour." View this delicious recipe ...
Read more

Another Rick Stein Recipe Added

Image
Rick Stein's Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe In Rick's own words : "This chicken rice, like babi guling, the slow-roasted pig from Bali, is a dish I would cross continents for. It appears in various forms all over the Far East, especially Malaysia and Singapore. There are people who wouldn’t let a day go by without a plate of chicken rice, and I can perfectly understand why. It’s the moistness of the chicken that gets to you; that and the texture of the rice, made silky by first being fried in some of the chicken fat from the cavity of the bird." View this delicious recipe ...
Read more

Tom Yum (Thai Soup) Recipe

Image
Tom Yum  can be considered the national dish of Thailand. It is eaten everywhere by every person, and is a firm favourite with tourists as well. Tom Yum is usually ordered with shrimp (Tom Yum Kung) but can also be made with other types of seafood, chicken, pork, or even tofu. The soup is thin, and has a hot and sour flavour. It is eaten with rice, and will often be accompanied by a variety of side dishes. One of the most popular side dishes ordered with Tom Yum Kung is Tod Num Kung (friend shrimp cakes), which are then dipped into the soup itself and eaten. Tom Yum shares almost all ingredients with Tom Kha, another popular Thai soup dish, although unlike  Tom Kha , Tom Yam does not have coconut milk added to the soup to thicken it and give it a creamier taste. Herbs and spices added to the broth include chilli, fish sauce, galangal, kaffir lime and lemon grass, and these each add to the distinctive Tom Yum flavour in their own way. The real trick to making the best
Read more