What's your favourite Thai dishes?

June 8, 2007 5:25 AM

What's your favourite Thai dishes?

A friend is going into business teaching Thai cookery. She wants to know which are Westerners' favourite dishes to offer as part of the course. Anyone any faves to share?

posted by Pericles to food & drink (55 comments total)

Tom Kha Kai - coconut milk, galangai and lemongrass soup with chicken. Just delicious.
posted by handee at 5:27 AM on June 8, 2007 [2 favorites]

I'm a bit of a Larb Gai myself....
posted by sien at 5:28 AM on June 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Honestly, I love that stuff.
posted by sien at 5:29 AM on June 8, 2007

Panang tofu. Mmmm.
posted by AV at 5:35 AM on June 8, 2007

Green curry, red curry, pad prik khing, pad see euw...

Ok, I like Thai food.
posted by cabingirl at 5:35 AM on June 8, 2007

Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles) is possibly the most delicious thing on the planet. Second runner up, however, is Gai Pad Khing.
posted by banannafish at 5:36 AM on June 8, 2007

Chicken Phad Thai
posted by cashman at 5:39 AM on June 8, 2007

Pad See Ew/You. Love those wide noodles.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 5:41 AM on June 8, 2007

These are the classes offered by a local company specializing in Thai cooking. They're quite comprehensive, so might give a few ideas where Americans would want to start.
posted by artifarce at 5:45 AM on June 8, 2007

Is there anything we can provide that your friend couldn't glean from looking at a few Thai restaurant menus? Most American Thai restaurants just offer variants on the same ten dishes.

Also: Duck Tamarind
posted by hermitosis at 5:52 AM on June 8, 2007

SOM TAM, omg. Green papaya salad .
posted by ibeji at 5:52 AM on June 8, 2007

tom kha gai soup (chicken soup with coconut milk and mushroom)...hhhhmmm....yummy!
posted by heartofglass at 5:55 AM on June 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Green curry, pad thai, fried rice, tom kha gai

Yes, and Som tam, which is not as popular in Thai restaurants, but which people always love when I make it for them.
posted by lunasol at 6:03 AM on June 8, 2007

Well I was gonna come in here and say Tom Kha Kai and Larb, but I see I'm not the only one. :) There's also a chilie, lime, and garlic fish sauce concoction that never fails to bring a tear to the eye. I just can't get enough of it. Never mind seasoning dishes with it, I'd have it straight. (Well not really, no doubt I'd regret that, but it is delicious!!) I'm also a big fan of Thai fried rice.
posted by adamt at 6:16 AM on June 8, 2007

Yes, spicy green papaya salad. Yes.
posted by AwkwardPause at 6:22 AM on June 8, 2007

From my extremely unscientific observations, I've always gathered that pad thai (usually with chicken) is the biggest seller at American thai places. It's delicious but not too "challenging" for the unadventurous. (I like to consider myself adventurous, but I still order it pretty much all the time because I love it.)
posted by doift at 6:29 AM on June 8, 2007

Pad ka tiem
posted by candyland at 6:35 AM on June 8, 2007

Pad gra ree. With kaffir leaves.
posted by adipocere at 6:39 AM on June 8, 2007

Yellow chicken curry & Drunken Noodles
posted by tastybrains at 6:46 AM on June 8, 2007

chicken satay!
posted by contessa at 6:49 AM on June 8, 2007

Chopped garlic, red chilli and lime juice with a little sugared water, let it steep for 10 minutes, then add about 3 times more chopped corriander than would seem necessary.

I don't know what the hell it's called but it rocks my world.
posted by Jofus at 6:51 AM on June 8, 2007

Mee Krob.... oh man.
posted by utsutsu at 7:01 AM on June 8, 2007

Anything with the fat noodles -- Pad Kee Mao, Pad See Ew are two favorites of mine.

I also kill for a good Tom Yum soup. Just thinking about that spicy zang is honestly making my mouth water right now.
posted by jeffxl at 7:01 AM on June 8, 2007

Too many to list, but then I'm biased because I run a South-east Asian restaurant. However, I am not a Westerner so my answer may not be of help to you.

(Shameless plug: Just posted a detailed recipe for Tom Kha Gai soup on my blog today if anyone is interested.)
posted by madman at 7:05 AM on June 8, 2007

All of them.
posted by jdroth at 7:21 AM on June 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Mango on Sticky Rice FTW. It's hella awesome.
posted by mjbraun at 7:37 AM on June 8, 2007 [2 favorites]

seconding jdroth, but especially anything with glass noodles and you have to have spring rolls!
posted by mitzyjalapeno at 7:40 AM on June 8, 2007

Have your friend teach people how to make a simple, authentic pad thai. It's getting so hard to find good pad thai these days that I've been making it myself for the last couple of years.
posted by tjvis at 7:51 AM on June 8, 2007

Pad Thai - HOT.
posted by sephira at 8:04 AM on June 8, 2007

Wow, madman, I made your Tom Yam Gai recipe just the other day [it was good]. Didn't realise you were on Mefi.
posted by handee at 8:11 AM on June 8, 2007

holy basil supreme. www.kingandithai.com delicious!
posted by specialk420 at 8:22 AM on June 8, 2007

Also, really popular, and I absolutely loved when I was a kid, especially when we were actually in Thailand, is satay. Beef, chicken, whatever will act as a conduit for peanut sauce.
posted by mckenney at 8:29 AM on June 8, 2007

Basil duck. Thai hot. mmmmmmmmmm
posted by Thorzdad at 8:37 AM on June 8, 2007

Ah madman, look at the Tom Yam my missus cooked last weekend (Self link)
posted by Pericles at 8:48 AM on June 8, 2007

There's this stuff called praram that I've only been able to find at one Thai place. It's spinach, tofu, red onion, and peanut sauce all mixed together. It's godhead.
posted by infinitywaltz at 8:54 AM on June 8, 2007

My dad literally will walk out of a Thai restaurant if he sits down and looks at the menu and sees he can't get pad prik khing.

I'll eat pretty much anything with coconut milk.
posted by crinklebat at 8:59 AM on June 8, 2007

Fried banana slices with ice cream.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:03 AM on June 8, 2007

Crispy Squid with Basil

Also Pad Thai - its common, but there is a reason its the national dish of Thailand (I am pretty sure I heard that)
posted by BobbyDigital at 9:10 AM on June 8, 2007

Panang Curry!!! It's hard to find a good one sometimes. Nthing Pad Kee Mao and Pad See Ew. I also like a good Rad Na (sp?..gravy noodles w/broccoli usually) and a good Tom Kha Gai. Pumpkin Curry is also delicious when its the right season.

Mmmmm, thai. This made me realize that I didn't really know that I didn't know how to spell a lot of thai food names and that I just know them from sight.
posted by wuzandfuzz at 9:24 AM on June 8, 2007

Dessertwise, kanom krok.
posted by casarkos at 9:27 AM on June 8, 2007

Pad Thai. Definitely.

I also love it when most of the dishes allow tofu or vegetarian instead of meat.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 9:47 AM on June 8, 2007

In addition to the usual favorites, there are a few outstanding dishes I've had that I don't commonly see on Thai menus. One place had several different types of nam prik as appetizers, my favorite is nam prik num. We called it Thai salsa, awesome stuff. Another place had a stir fry they called "roasted hot pepper sauce." It was sweet and savory and had cashews in it, which really made the dish. Finally, there was a place that had a stir fry featuring young ginger. It had a brown sauce, similar to an oyster sauce based dish, but the thing that made it over the top incredible was it was brimming with slivers of young ginger.

Oh man, now I have to go make some Thai food!
posted by TungstenChef at 9:53 AM on June 8, 2007

tom ka gai #1 (spicy tangy soup)
gang ped #2 (spicy curry )
mee grob #3 (crispy sweet noodle thingy)

thai food is awesome
posted by jockc at 9:58 AM on June 8, 2007

As above, prik khing is very important!
posted by rhizome at 10:09 AM on June 8, 2007

Ooh! Ooh! I can answer this! I used to think I didn't like Thai food and was only familiar with pad Thai, but now I'm addicted to masaman curry with chicken. It's kind of a peanutty sauce, with potatoes, onions, and meat. My husband always steals some of mine when we eat out.
posted by GaelFC at 10:15 AM on June 8, 2007

Lard Nar.

And all of the Thai dishes are great with tofu. Any vegetarians in the crowd would love to know how to make tofu the way Thai restaurants do it.

I think I know what I'm having for dinner tonight.
posted by found dog one eye at 10:19 AM on June 8, 2007

Whoa, Masaman curry is what I was trying to remember when I was replying earlier.

mmmmmmm.
posted by utsutsu at 10:28 AM on June 8, 2007

When I get Thai with the American side of my family, we always end up ordering yellow curry with chicken or vegetables, because it's consistently delicious - there's not much room to mess it up. It would be a good dish early in the class, when people are just getting started and maybe need the confidence of making something yummy. And I don't think you could get away with not teaching some form of Pad Thai (or possibly drunken noodles).
posted by Lady Li at 10:50 AM on June 8, 2007

I agree with green curry, doubly agree with green papaya salad.

One that hasn't been mentioned yet:

Gai Yang (grilled chicken with hot-and-sweet dipping sauce).

I did a pile of these for a deck party once, for a crowd with very mixed tastes, and they were gone before the chips and salsa. Only tricky part is finding a grocer that leaves the root on the coriander - most good Chinese grocers do.
posted by gompa at 11:25 AM on June 8, 2007

Chicken Pad Thai. no question.
posted by othersomethings at 12:57 PM on June 8, 2007

I've fallen in love with Pad See Euw with tofu--I have a hard time ordering anything else in a Thai place these days (except Tom Kha Gai, that soup really is amazing).
posted by Ustrasana at 1:18 PM on June 8, 2007

Miang kham, tom yum, tofu phad thai, and black sticky rice in coconut milk. (Mmm, that sounds like a good idea.)
posted by sculpin at 3:20 PM on June 8, 2007

Chili and Basil chicken - it's hot and clean all at once - I dream about that stuff... Ooh yum yum YUM!! Or stuff with Lemon Grass 'cause that's ALWAYS good!!
posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har at 5:22 PM on June 8, 2007

I don't know the Thai names for these, but I took a Thai cooking course one evening and we made a delicious beef salad and fresh spring rolls with sauce. They were wonderful, and very easy to make. We also made Pad Thai.
posted by la petite marie at 8:10 PM on June 8, 2007

I completely agree with tjvis. Pad Thai has to be one of the most popular (and delicious!) Thai dishes, but the sloppy (or inauthentic) versions seem to be the most common varieties found in restaurants.

A local Thai restaurant that I used to frequent had one of my favorite desserts: It was just called 'Thai Rice Pudding,' but it wasn't the same as black sticky rice in coconut milk. Come to think of it, I can't guarantee how authentic a dish it was, but it sure was delicious. Basically (I think), it was rice pudding with coconut (in coconut milk). I would definitely recommend integrating some kind of coconut milk-based dessert into the course, though.
posted by Mael Oui at 9:00 PM on June 8, 2007