Thai Food Online

As craters are to the moon, so the delightful dish Som Tam is ubiquitous to northern Thai cuisine. Just about every street vendor, open air market and restaurant serves Som Tam and if they don’t, they can direct you to the nearest place that does, which is generally less than five minutes walk away, regardless of where in northern Thailand you are! Otherwise known to foreigners as ‘Papaya pok pok’ owing to the sound its preparation with a pestle and mortar makes, Som Tam is a delicious crunchy salad made from green beans, tomato, dried shrimp, garlic, fresh lime juice, Thai bird chilies , carrots, roasted peanuts and green (unripe) and julienne-style papaya fruit (paw paw). Owing to its incredibly popularity amongst the locals and foreigners alike, there are fresh food vendors dealing in Som Tam to be found in every single market-place, be it open-air or indoors; during the day or nighttime. Half the fun of enjoying Som Tam is watching its preparation! It’s appropriate nickname ‘Papa...

Welcome to all those wishing they were somewhere else! - Thailand is one of the most popular destinations for people in the UK and nearly everyone who has visited the land of smiles has been left with a very special connection with the Thai people and their culture. Returning from such a wonderful, amazing place can leave you feeling a little empty and disillusioned. But there is a quick fix. With the UK Thai festival season in full swing there are lots of opportunities to experience, once again, the wonderful foods, music and cultures of Thailand. With over 30,000 Thai Nationals living in the UK it is hardly surprising that there is a healthy Thai Events calendar and their popularity is growing year on year. To experience the Thai culture in the UK you simply need to know where to go and when. Taste of Thai is a website in the UK which has details of all of the Thai events in the UK as well as contact details for Thai consulates and some useful links to Thai resources. You can visit t...

Walking through a supermarket in Thailand you will notice there will literally be a full aisle with soy products . They range from dried beans and even milk. They all use the same product but they are prepared and used in different ways. Soy beans have been used in Asia for thousands of years and are actually an oil seed, not a pulse, which they are commonly mistaken for. The beans were once considered to be important in Asian countries such as China, Thailand and Korea as they were called sacred by farmers, who up until 1920 did not use the bean for food but rather for industrial purposes when growing other crops. One form in which soy beans are used and commonly sold throughout Thailand is oil. Soy oil can be found everywhere in the country in large and small supermarkets. The soy beans naturally contain 19% oil, which is extracted by first cracking them and rolling them flat so they take to a flake like form. After being blended and refined, the oil is ready. Leftover flakes are the...

Come dine with me – Celebrity Special After ordering her ingredients from Thai Food Online, Sam Fox serves up a tasty meal and proves that she is more than a pair of crackers! "I did change the face of page three and show that we have brains and personalities and we can do other stuff," says the glamorous glamour model, whose vocal talents have racked up 30 million albums worldwide. After a volatile week Sam is on a mission to unite the group, but it won't be easy with cougar Janice on the prowl. "Janice was really, really rude," says Jeff. "I wasn't," complains Janice, "I was being social." After decades in the biz, Sam knows no celebrity party is complete without… ping pong. "The table tennis was clearly what we lacked this week, it was like we were one big happy family," grins a happy Jeff. The loving vibe continues over dinner and Sam seems to have nailed the evening from her complimentary name tags (Foxy Sam, Calum the Bes...

Spicy and salad are generally two words which are not found in the same sentence. In Thai cooking, the nation’s spicy salad is called som tam, or sometimes som tum . It is derived from Laos to the north of Thailand from a dish called tam mak hoong or the Cambodian version is known as bok l’hong. The salad is made from the unripe core of a papaya using a special tool which takes three strips of the fruit at a time. The end result is spaghetti like noodles of papaya. Thai cuisine typically has four main tastes that are present in nearly all dishes. The heat comes from the chilli, the salty fish sauce, the juice of a lime and to counteract the flavours, palm sugar is also added. What is often served up as a side dish or as an accompaniment to noodles and vegetables, som tam gives a refreshing taste with the zing of some hot chillies. Added peanuts, crab (padaek) or dried shrimp are nearly always found in som tam, but in Isaan the crabs are usually raw, meaning the government tries to...

Traditional international desserts such as ice cream and cakes are sold and served throughout Thailand. Many however, have been given an Asian twist such as ice creams with durian, lime and coconut flavourings and cakes including sponge rolls or buns with pandanus and custard fillings. There are also those that are less known to the West such as Tako, which is made from coconut and has a jelly like texture. The puddings are set in small moulds, which are made from pandanus leaves that fragrance the puddings naturally and make them attractive in their appearance. One Thai dessert that can be found on most Thai menus is sticky rice with mango, which is named 'Khao niao mamuang' in Thai. The rice is cooked and mixed with coconut milk and often sweetened further with palm sugar or granulated sugar. Fresh slices are then added to the rice or placed to the side. Grass jelly, known as 'Chao Kuai' is an interesting looking desert due to it being black in colour. The black jell...

Thai Food Online has been recommended as the place to shop like a ‘Pro Vietnamese’ for fresh Asian ingredients in the popular BBC food magazine, Olive (July 2010 issue). We are pleased to be recommended as an online resource for authentic Asian ingredients yet again. This follows us being recommended by Rick Stein in his new book, Far Eastern Odyssey. Thai Food Online is the only online store where you can purchase such a wide range of fresh authentic Thai herbs, spices, vegetables and fruit .