Cooking Tools

For starters, normal pots and pans will do. But as you learn more and cook more adventurously, you'll appreciate a few key additions to your tool set. The right tool for the right job, right? Please note that these are not all Thai cooking utensils and tools, but the ones that I have found work the best for me when I cook Thai food away from Thailand.

Wok and Spatula

One of the most important tools is the wok and a spatula. Finding the right wok here in the U.S. can be a challenging job. I have gone through so many woks.
Stainless Steel Wok - Teflon woks have never lived up to their promises for me. I have had ones with bumpy bottoms, smooth bottoms, even ones with a life time warranty. Sooner or later they all stick at one spot or another. I've even had Teflon coating peel, and I ended up eating it unknowingly. Yuk! Since then, I found my true love in Thailand, a light weight stainless steel wok. This wok is the best by far. I like a light weight wok because it is easy to move around on the burner and heats quickly. This wok is very easy to clean and has two good handles. Food rarely sticks, but if it does, I am not afraid to scrub it. For the handles, one is long and one short - just right for fancy maneuvers on the stove and in the sink.

For spatulas, I prefer a stainless steel spatula made for woks. They can be tough to find outside of a Chinatown, but are great because they make it easy to turn over the food. These spatulas have a long thin handle, a flat, rounded flipper with a small lip around the back and a rounded edge on the front that matches the rounded walls of the wok. Make sure that you don't get a spatula with a hole in the bottom of the handle where the metal from the handle wraps around -- otherwise, food and cooking residue gets stuck in the handle and can not be cleaned out. I also used to use, and be very happy with, wooden spatulas and still have several handy. I stick them in the dishwasher with no problem.

Rice Cooker

If you eat rice frequently, you'll love the ease and perfect success rate of a rice cooker. Like a bread maker, you pour in the rice, pour in the water, close the top and plug it in. 20 minutes later it's done. There are many models, and when you pick one out, look for:
- a non-stick pot,
- a solid feeling lid and handle that locks down when closed (otherwise the lid will rise up with the bubbles of the boiling rice)
- a lid that you can easily take apart to clean
- a painted outside that you would not mind keeping on your counter

Going to the Market

Every Monday and Thursday, small time merchants gather at an empty lot across the street from Bangkok Metropolitan Water Authority to sell anything from soup to nuts, literally. The western style supermarket are booming in Bangkok while the outskirt communities like this one enjoys an open air market. Fresh vegetables are less than 20% the price of big supermarkets. The price and the variety of fresh and cooked food draw people to this market. For me, it is an adventure being there.

Ingredients for popular Thai dishes in the US like red curry and pad Thai noodles are less prominent at this market. Instead, ingredients like fish, fresh vegetables and sauce for real day-to-day Thai meals, like nam prig, are abundant. Locals come here for their fish whether it be live, fried, grilled, dried or pickled.

You would be surprised at the different types of fresh vegetables that are available. While in the US, most leafy vegetable are either some lettuce or kale variant, here it seems like here you can almost eat any green leaves. They just don't taste like vegetables. Some are tart. Some are nutty. Some have wonderful scents. There must have been about 30 different varieties there. Some of these leaves can even be tough to find in the supermarket in Bangkok but are more common in the provinces. They come in bundles of about a pound and you can buy 4 bundles for 10 baht (US$0.25). You don't have to be rich to eat luxuriously here.

I saw this guy with a bamboo container full of live chickens, a pail of boiling water, some cleaned chickens and a bowl of blood. It didn't take much to guess that the guy was offering chickens freshly killed on demand. In Thailand, it is still a fact of life when you buy a chicken that someone has to kill it. In the US, your chicken comes in a clean white foam tray and you get no sense of the predation.

Younger customers were not neglected here. A guy with a table full of red, green and white caramel was busy making candy that was more artistic than I have ever seen. Using only a little gas stove, a small paddle, a knife and scissors, I watched him make fishing monkeys, dancing elephants, a parakeet and even wonder woman, each in about 30 seconds. How much for you to own one of these works of art? 5 baht (Jan 2000 - US$0.12).

Life gets a little more exotic as well. Silk worms, grasshoppers, water bugs and other bugs that I could not identify are deep fried and ready to be munched like potato chips. Water bugs are not new to me because its wonderful scent adds that extra zing to many nam prigs. The deep fried water bugs are crispy on the outside and nutty on the inside. (Umm um! "Behold, the power of fleas") Other fried bugs will have to wait for my next trip.

On my way out of the market, past the locals haggling with the knife salesman and the 99 baht shirts (US$2.50), I took a few last pictures of the kids who had been trailing me the whole time and grabbed a Thai tea for the trip home

The Truth About Peanut Sauce

At various supermarkets, in the ethnic food section, you can find American made or even Thai made peanut sauce. It is everywhere and seems to get more popular by the day. People pour it on salad, eat it with rice or noodles and cook meat in it.

I find this kind of funny because my friends and family in Thailand don't know what 'peanut sauce' is. We don't have the 'peanut sauce' in Thai cuisine as the Thais in Thailand know it. We put ground peanuts, as just another ingredient, in a variety of dishes. The three dishes that are well known to Americans that havea sauce with peanuts are satay sauce, cubed tofu sauce and tod mun sauce. When you find both these dishes in Thailand, the peanuts are coarsely ground so that they're like thick grains of sand, and not mud or peanut butter.

In Thai cuisine, you have 3 choices for peanut sauce:

- Satay is a marinated meat grilled on skewers, served with curry like sauce and cucumber salad. The satay peanut dipping sauce is most likely what people think of when they think of Thai Peanut Sauce. It is made from red curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, tamarind, sugar and ground peanuts.

- Fried Tofu Cubes has a more granular peanut dipping sauce that people love whenever we serve it at parties. This is most likely the greatest party dish we know - fast and easy and tasty.

- Tod mun is a spicy fish cake, served with cucumber sauce. The sauce consists of sliced cucumbers, vinegar, ground fresh chilies, sugar and is topped with ground peanuts for texture. Cucumber is the main ingredient of the sauce, not the peanuts.

It must be that peanut sauce is American Fusion cuisine and part of its popularity comes from the sauce manufacturers who try to bring foreign tastes to your local supermarket. Linking it with Thai cuisine must have seemed like a good marketing idea. As long as Thai food doesn't get 'LaChoy'ed', that's ok

Snacking on Deep Fried Bugs in Thailand

I was watching a lady from northeastern part of Thailand standing by the fence at the crowded Chatujak weekend market offering different fried creatures: water bugs, worms, grasshoppers and birds from a push cart.

I understand why many people shriek when it comes to eating bugs, even though I have no problem with water bugs. In Thai cuisine, water bugs are commonly part of certain chili sauces, and are not looked upon as a pest or bug. Besides, they are ground up and unrecognizable; just part of a dish I have eaten them all my life.

The worms and grasshoppers are different! I have seen people eat them on TV, but my mother never cooked them for us. Here was a chance to see if they taste like chicken. I realized that if I could eat water bugs, other insects are not too far from it. How arbitrary is it to discriminate against other types of insects!

As I was reasoning, a guy came by and bought some bugs. She sprayed a thin brown sauce on top and handed the bag to him. I thought, 'hey, people are really buying and eating this stuff.' So I approached her cart and asked her what she had. She explained:

Water bugs, I already knew that one. It was deep fried and sprayed with some sauce. It was probably crunchy and creamy with a distinct scent of water bug. I didn't mind this one and thought that I would certainly get some.






Next was called rod fai duan or express train. Hmm…doesn't sound bad. The express train is a worm that eats bamboo. OK. The worm sounded clean, only ate bamboo. OK, I'd try this.




This fat oval bug with visible sections looked too much like a bad bug, something out of a horror movie. What is it? She said that it was cocoon of a silkworm after they unraveled the silk. All right. Silk worms eat mulberry leaves. That's not too gross, just a silk worm. I can handle that.





The grasshopper looked like a brown grasshopper with all parts intact.

While I was explaining to my husband and deciding what we would get to experiment and broaden our knowledge of bugs, a guy came by and snatched all the water bugs that she had. Geez, my safety bugs were gone. What to do? So I quickly told the lady I wanted a little bit of every thing. She said 10 baht (~US$0.25) a ladle. OK, a ladle full of everything except the birds. Years ago, my brother ended up in a doctor's office after the birds because the bones were stuck in his throat. I decided that just bugs would be enough to fill my day.

She was so generous with her scoop that I had to tell her that we're new to the bugs and please go easy on us. She sprayed our bugs with the sauce. I asked her what is the sauce. She smiled and simply replied, 'secret sauce'.

Now it was time. My husband and I were arguing who should go first. We decided we should both munch at the same time. I chose the bamboo worm first because it was the least threatening. To my surprise, it tasted great. It was nutty and crunchy. There were no icky taste or unpleasant smell or feeling in your mouth. I had been afraid that it would be creamy (like I'd always imagined bugs in the past), but it was dry. Well, if the bamboo worm wasn't so bad, let's try another worm, the silk worm. It was crunchy and nuttier than the 'express train'. We saved the best for last, the grasshopper. I closed my eyes and dropped one in my mouth. If I didn't know what it was, it would have to say it was the fried tiny little fish that you get in Korean restaurants. It tasted like fish, not chicken

How to Order a Bowl of Noodles

Do you know how to order a bowl of beef noodles in Thailand? If you do, your lunch will be customized to your personal liking.

First start with the types of noodles, there are thin round rice noodles the size of angel hair pasta called sen mee. The next size is thin flat rice noodles or sen lek. This type of noodles is used in Pad Thai. The largest is fresh rice noodles, about half the width of lasagna (an inch). This fresh rice noodles are called sen yai, literally translated "big strand."

The next step is getting the meat that you like. Standard fare includes pork and beef. However, you can find chicken, duck and fish. We will concentrate on beef noodles here. For beef, your choice includes blanched (sod) and braised (piuay). If it is blanched, the pieces are thinly sliced. You may also want nam tok which is beef blood. If you desire for nice, soft, easy to chew big chunks of meat, go for piuay. However, this is not an easy way out. You can have tendon or just beef. Tendon is en in Thai. If you would like tendon, tell your wait staff at this point. Any type of meatball is called loog chin or known to noodle shops as chin. To add more complication, you can have tendon mixed in the meatballs or just pure meat, but standard beef balls are without tendon. So chances are that you will get just beef.

You can add a delicacy in your beef noodles by adding other parts of the cow. You might want to add heart hua jai and/or liver thubto your noodles. You will only get a thin piece or two of the delicacy.

Bean sprouts are not always loved. So, you have a choice of bean sprouts ngog or no bean sprouts mai ngog. Bean sprouts are called toa ngog in Thai but waiters and waitresses shorten it to ngog. Mai negates whatever that is in front of it. So, mai ngog is no bean sprouts. Now, that you've decided you want bean sprouts, you can have them fresh mai luuag or blanched luuag. Without any indication, you will get yours blanched.

Last is to add broth or not to add broth. If you want your noodles soupy, say nam. If you want your noodles dry, say hang.

Now you can order your noodles with confidence. Oh, only beef noodles. I'll tell you more about other types of noodles later. For now just practice, ordering beef noodles first. My favourite is lek hang ngog chin sod

Snacking on the Streets of Bangkok

Legume Man

As long as I could remember, crunchy peas and beans are sold by Indian immigrants. It seems like they have a monopoly/authority on the fried beans. You would see a guy walking around with what looked like a small table on his head. I'd stop him if I wanted. He would bring the table down. You could see that it was not a table but a sectioned tray with four legs. Then you would select what you would like. The usuals are mung beans, peanuts, fava beans, black-eyed peas and green peas. It had been a few years since I ran into these guys. I noticed the change, the plastic basket. I stopped the guy and asked for mung beans, my favourite. He asked if I wanted 10 baht or 20 baht. I asked for 10 baht(~25 cents) underestimating the power of the comfort food. He put the mung beans into a small plastic bag and put sliced green onion, chili pepper and salt on top and handed it to me. It was as good as ever. I wished I had asked for 40 baht.

Grilled Banana

There are so many varieties of banana in Thailand. Gluay nam wah can be transformed into so many snacks and desserts. One of my favourites is 'gluay ping' or grilled banana. You will find almost ripe bananas, peeled and grilled on low heat over ash covered charcoal grill. Then, they are pressed and dipped in coconut, palm sugar sauce. I usually get mine grilled un-pressed without sauce. Lately, I noticed white and purple balls sold along side the banana. I asked the lady what were those. 'Potato and taro ball', she said. I tried a few and didn't like them that much. My grilled bananas were so good that 5 of them were gone in no time. They were 5 for 10 baht(~ 25 cents)

Why Asian Food Saves You Money

Even though the economy is fairly strong, you still may want to save money and both Asian markets and Thai food can help. For a number of reasons, Asian markets are one of the cheapest places to buy groceries, even many of those groceries you normally buy in western supermarkets. Then, when you get home, you will find an average Thai meal with rice is significantly less expensive than a meat-centric western meal.

Asian Markets Are Almost Always Cheaper

Most Asian markets (except Japanese and Korean) are far less expensive item for item than western supermarkets, primarily because of a lack of branding or promotion and great economies of scale.

Unsophisticated Retail Tactics
Almost no Asian market owners spend money or time on such consumer spending optimizers as fliers, advertising, competitive pricing strategies, market research, information systems, shelf-space positioning strategies, frequent shopper club memberships, or interior decorating.

Western supermarket chains do not do these nice activities because they like you! Supermarkets do these things to bring you in the store and because they generate more revenue than they cost to perform. That extra profit comes from your pocket.

Market's Economies of Scale
Economies of scale kick in in major cities with a large concentration of Asian people. There are frequently one or two major Asian markets that have more shoppers per square feet than any western supermarkets I've ever seen. Visit the fresh fish counter in a major Asian stores in a city like Boston or San Jose just to see the massive volume sold. I remember from some market research a couple years ago, in the US, the average Asian and Hispanic shopper buys more groceries and cooks from scratch more frequently than the average western shopper. Volume drives down prices.

Weak Asian Brands
Frequently, foods made in Asia are sold very inexpensively in their home country due to weak branding, low labor costs and extreme price competition. This bruising competition is carried abroad at every stage in the wholesale chain keeping prices low.

Almost No Product Advertising
Asian branded products are not advertised internationally. When you buy TV and print advertised products, like those from General Mills or Kraft, you pay about 7% in direct advertising expenses and frequently far more for "brand value". If companies don't spend on ads, you don't learn the differences between brands without trying them yourself, but you also don't have to pay for their ads.

Overall Savings
When you visit an Asian market, you will find that these factors drive the price of many of the vegetables, fruit, fish and meat you normally buy to 10-30% below standard western supermarket prices. When you buy Asian products, you will frequently save even more than you would on a comparably produced western item.

The Siam Weight Loss Diet

When picking weight loss diets, there are so many choices: Low-carb, low-fat, Oprah's books, Fergie's bars, pre-packaged, mail order, charts, graphs, tables, one-on-one, groups, South Beach, North End, grapefruit, water, meat, starving, see food.

You could also take a step back, and look at a group of people who constantly eat but are predominantly slim. There are 2 things you see on any street in Thailand: they're filled with thin people and they're filled with vendors selling food. Food is everywhere. How can there be more food, but thinner people?

Most westerners don't eat Thai food every meal. But there are a number of easy lessons that come from how Thai people eat Thai food that directly apply to healthier western eating. It's exotic, fun, tastes great and can encompass a whole healthy lifestyle. We'll call this: The Siam Weight-Loss Diet.

- Snack. With street vendors in Thailand presenting readily available food, people at work grab snacks when they are hungry. According to Dr. Weil, regular snacking moderates the blood sugar and keeps you from having the peaks and valleys that causes binge eating. For example, you could keep a basket of fresh fruit or nuts handy to snack on before you starve.

- Fresh Ingredients and Preparation. Since in Thailand, good quality, fresh food is readily available for takeout or eating in the office, there is not much demand for processed foods. Leaves are more commonly a part of a meal. While making fresh food may be a time consuming, it greatly reduces the amount of unknown ingredients in your body and provides far more nutrients for the same amount of food. Frozen food has half the nutrients of fresh, canned has 10. That means you need 10x the pasta sauce to get the same benefits as fresh. Make an effort to make food when you can and you will learn to cook better food quickly. For example the canned staple spaghetti sauce, can be made in 10 minutes from raw ingredients.

- Fruits. Great fruits are everywhere in Thailand and are more widely in demand than in the US. With great fruit now available here year round, choosing fruit instead of chips or other snacks is an easy choice to copy.

- Rice. Because most of cooked rice is water, it fills you up without supplying many calories. While this may sound counterproductive, in a society where people have the tendency to eat too much, it's a successful way to get "full" without the calories. Other similar examples of filling foods include oatmeal and couscous.

- High intensity flavored dishes. Many Thai dishes pack so much flavor per square inch (or cm) that you have to eat them on rice. There's frequently so much salt, hot pepper or other flavorings that eating the dishes by the raw spoonful is unpleasant. The food needs the rice. Since rice is mostly water, all things being equal, there ends up being more flavor per calorie of Thai food. You get the same level of tastes as a western dish without the calories. See how you can mix high flavor foods with low calorie fillers. Generally these high flavor foods are savory. Thai examples are abundant. You could, for example, serve smaller portions of steak and rice, with kim chee, Indian cilantro relish, or a hot pepper sauce.

- No dairy. I love good cheese. However in Thai food, there is no milk, cheese or butter. All calories add up. Coconut milk is perhaps the Thai analogue to dairy, but coconut milk is not nearly as prevalent in Thai food as cheese, butter or cream are in western foods. Ask most western chefs: what's the secret ingredient that makes people love a dish? Butter. What makes western desserts good? Butter. Lesson: pick dishes without dairy. Don't butter every pancake. Try toast with just jam. You'll be surprised what you need and don't need.

- Well flavored dishes don't need fat. In western food, the olive oil, butter or other fat provides a smoothing and filling aspect of many dishes. For me, lasagna with non-fat cheese is inedible. Because the Thai food flavor system's complexity comes from mixing flavor intense ingredients, like fish sauce and lime and hot peppers, there's no need for a fat. If fat is a bottom flavor that pulls spices together, many Thai dishes are comprised of top flavors without need for a bottom. In general, look for dishes that don't depend on added fats and avoid the oilier dishes. If you try this at restaurants, you can always request stir-fried noodle dishes to be cooked with much less oil. Spread sandwiches with mustard or red pepper spread instead of mayo.

- Low in Sugar. Thai dishes are not highly sweetened. For main courses and soups, a little sugar is sometimes added to round out the flavors. Most desserts combine sugar and salt as prime ingredients but aren't just sugary confections. Many desserts are primarily fresh fruit. Many people drink water, fresh juice or soy milk instead of soda. Look for ways to cut out sugars.

- Shared dishes and smaller portions. In the US, most restaurants over-serve their patrons. Frequently, a single dish can serve 2 people. Thai's traditionally share from dishes in the center of the table. It is considered rude to place in your own dish much more than 2 or 3 bites of a dish at one time. Because people don't have heaping helpings, there is no pressure to clear the massive plate of food you took at the start of the meal when you were hungry. You are less likely to overeat. The serving plates also go back in the kitchen or fridge after the meal so if they are not finished, no worry, they can be finished next meal. With the exception of hamburgers, this is a fairly easy behavior to copy.

While following these principles is a great excuse for going out for Thai food, almost all of lessons can be directly applied to eating western food. The one universal point most nutritionists agree on is that dieting doesn't make long-term success, lifestyle choices makes long-term success. By picking a couple principles at a time and incorporating them into your life and then moving onto another when the ones you previously chose are locked into your habits, you'll be the most successful in staying the weight you want

Choosing a Rice Cooker or Steamer

While you may initially look at buying a rice cooker as a scary confirmation of your addiction to Thai food, you will quickly find that using one increases your efficiency and repertoire so much that you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

From jasmine to sticky, sushi to congee, basmati to Japanese short grain, different rice is cooked different ways. Mastering the cooking technique for each variety on the stovetop can be elusive, challenging and time consuming. Cooking rice on the stove takes patience and attention. Furthermore, unlike most other dishes, rice is the soldier, not the star; few people equate cooked rice with artistic culinary self-expression. It's a great activity to delegate to an electronic device. In countries like Thailand, rice cookers are as common an appliance as toaster ovens are in the US.

It's important to educate yourself so you purchase the correct rice cooker. Most all models will cook mainstream rice well enough. With more expensive models come life-improving features.

Types of Rice Cookers

There are 3 levels of sophistication across all rice cooker lines:
- Basic
- More refined design with a better housing and a non-stick pot
- Computer controlled

Basic Rice Cookers

The basic model rice cookers look very utilitarian and have a glass or metal lid that lifts off completely. The pot is likely uncoated or thinly coated aluminum and can be a challenge to wash. These rice cookers work fine for most meals, but a number of manufacturers limit the size of them to 2-5 cups. The basic models normally cost under $30 USD.

Mid-Tier Rice Cookers

The mid-tier model has similar electronics, but adds a number of improvements. Like with the low end model, cooking is simple: there's one button to push. The lid is normally hinged and has a water catcher so that the condensed steam doesn't get all over the counter. There's a carrying handle and a more attractive exterior if you want to put it directly on the table. The pot is normally coated with a more durable non-stick surface and is removable for easy cleaning. The cord is spring-loaded and retracts into the cooker for storage. These models cost in the $70-$100 USD range.

High end Rice Cookers

The major features of the top of the line rice cookers depend on a small computer that controls the cooking. There are three primary benefits:
- selective cooking for different kinds of rice to various levels of doneness, hardness or wetness
- faster cooking times
- scheduled cooking
The computer offers little songs that play at the start or end of cooking. There are also clocks and timers. These rice cookers generally look somewhat more attractive, with cleaner lines and more stylish colors, like cobalt blue or fire-engine red.

Does the rice taste better from these more expensive, computer controlled rice cookers? Are they worth the extra cost? The answer is that it depends on how you like your rice, how discriminating you are and what your life style is. If you want different kinds of rice perfectly cooked or want rice to be done when you get home from work, then this is the rice cooker for you. These models cost up to $250.

With the breadth of models, choosing a rice cooker can range from a splurge to a major investment. If you have any sense that you'll depend on the rice cooker regularly, you will appreciate the benefits of the middle or highest tier models. Your rice cooker should last for many years, with problems normally stemming from either scratching the non-stick pot or the eventual demise of the electronics. The only other care recommendation
we can give is don't let rice sit in the pot for more than a couple days when the weather is cool, or a day when it's warm. If mold invades a rice cooker, you'll need to carefully clean it to make sure it doesn't spoil future batches. Take care of the pot, enjoy the consistency of fool-proof results and you'll not need to ever worry about cooking rice again

Revealing A Temple with Food

What: Great Real Thai food
How Much: $5 per dish, $3 per snack
Where: Thai Temple
When: Every Sunday
Who: Thai expatriates and families, Thai students, Americans with great love of authentic Thai food, neighbors

The Thai temple in San Bruno, California has been one the best finds for us. Many go to just hang out, but what keeps us coming back is the food. Most Thai Temples in the US have similar spreads.

A big part of what's fun is that you won't find the most popular Thai foods in the US, but you will find the most popular Thai food in Thailand. If you want to see what Thai people really eat when they cook for themselves or are in Thailand, this is the place to go.

Papaya Salad is the most popular dish in Thailand. Here you can order your papaya salad to your personal taste: hot or not, sour or sweet, with lots of shrimp or few. Papaya Salad goes exceedingly well with Sticky Rice and Grilled Chicken. While they don't serve grilled chicken, you can get a half chicken deep fried Thai style for $5. They also have Laab which has been hit or miss. The very first time we were there, the laab was heavenly good; lately it has been so-so. Other popular dishes in Thailand we've had there and enjoyed include Steamed Curried Fish - haw moak, meung, Mackerel with Chili Sauce - nam prik pla tuu and Mussel Sprout Pancakes - hoy tod. Many people (including us) buy extras to take home for the next couple days.

In, Thailand, most markets and some street stalls have ready made food in huge trays ready for you eat there or take home. Here at the temple, they have 6-8 trays of food that you can have with rice. They usually have a few trays of curries like pumpkin curry, curry with bitter leaves and flowers of a tree - gang keelek, five spice pork and eggs - pa-lo, sour curry - gang som, spicy fish stir fried or fish ball green curry.

Noodles come in boats: Next up two coolers sit on top of a Thai boat. What is the boat doing at the temple? Thailand used to have an elaborate canal system similar to the road system that we have today. People used to paddle everywhere. Noodles sellers used to come by your house in a boat. Now that the canals are gone, these boats refer to a type of noodles - thin rice noodles with beef and beef ball with dark dark broth. Here at the temple they have several types of noodles that you can order (you might want to read up on how to order noodles in Thailand). You can pick from two types of noodles, rice vermicelli and rice noodles and numerous meats including beef, beef balls and fish balls.

They even have types of noodles that are unheard of in western Thai restaurants, yen ta fo noodles - flat rice noodles with fish balls and reddish broth and guay jub. Guay jub is fresh flat rice noodles that has been dried and re-cooked with lots of water until mushy. The noodles are served with pig's blood and edible internal organs like liver and intestine. The broth is dark and has the aroma of five spice. The soup is served with tofu and a hard boiled egg that has been cooked in the five spice broth. While this dish may not sound great to westerners, but it is a comfort food for many Thais.

For snacks, nothing is as nostalgic for me as kanom krok and fried banana and taro. Seeing the cook pouring the kanom krok batter into what looks like a massive escargot or poached egg tray brings back the memories of my grandmother. She loved kanom krok and we'd have it every morning when I visited her house. I always let the cook know that I like mine really crispy on the outside. Kanom krok is slightly similar to pancakes, except that it is wetter than pancakes, has coconut milk and is only cooked on one side. Fried banana and fried taro tasted really great here even though my favorite ingredients are missing, grated coconut and sesame seeds.

Another recent addition to the long list of foods is roti. This roti is a type of fried dough originally from Indian but has different twist to it. The thin dough is fried in butter and topped with sweet condensed milk and sugar. It is crispy, sweet and salty at the same time.

While the dessert lady is kind of the last in line, I visit her first. Desserts vary from week to week - some are really good and go quickly. My favorite is the rainbow colored strips in coconut milk. She also makes other snacks like tapioca balls stuffed with minced pork, salted turnips and peanuts.

Every other Sunday, a minivan full of Thai spices, vegetables and goods from Thailand is at the temple's parking lot. We buy some holy basil, lemon grass, Thai chilies and galangal from the lady.

As we drive away, we can never get over what a great find that was