Chinese Chive Flowers with Shrimp

My mother used to make this dish with sliced liver instead of shrimp. But it is tough for me to find friends or family members who are willing to eat liver. So, shrimp it is. Chinese chive flowers with shrimp is an easy dish to make and reheats well in microwave.

4 Servings

1	teaspoon	sugar
1	lb	shrimp
1	clove	garlic, chopped
1 1/2	tablespoons	fish sauce

Chop garlic. Cut the Chinese chive flowers into 1 1/2 inch long. Peel and devain shrimp. For a presentation, you can use whole shrimp (with head) and peel.

Heat a wok or a pan on high heat. Add a tablespoon of oil and chopped garlic and stir. Add shrimp when the garlic starts to brown. Stir to get the shrimp somewhat cooked. The shrimp shoud start to get pinky but not all pink or cooked. Add the chive flowers and stir to cook them. Add fish sauce and sugar. The flowers shouldn't take long to cook. You want the flowers to just cook, but not overcook and still retain their crunchiness. When the color turns bright green, it indicates that they are cooked. Turn off the heat and pour on a plate immediately.

Serve with hot with rice.

Laab

Laab, also known as Larb and Laap, is a northeastern food. It usually eaten as a part of a set (laab, papaya salad and sticky rice.) The set is accompanied by string beans, sliver of cabbage, water spinach and Thai basil. It can be served as an appetizer. It can also be served as a main course along with other non-northeastern food.

There are variations of laab, duck laab, chicken laab. Some people like my brother love to include a few pieces of liver in laab.
1-2 Servings

1	tablespoon	toasted rice
1/4		shallot, thinly sliced
1-2		limes
1/2	lbs	ground pork
1/4	tablespoon	ground dried chili pepper
3	tablespoons	fish sauce
5	sprigs	cilantro, sliced

Squeeze juice from 1/3 of the lime on to the ground pork. Mix well and let it marinade for just a couple of minutes until you are ready to cook it.

For this dish, people normally use a small pot; I use my cast iron pans because they can be heated up really hot, they retain heat well and heat evenly.

Heat up a pan on high until it is very hot. Add two tablespoons of water and then immediately add your marinated pork and stir. The pork will stick to the pan at first, but then the juice will come out and the meat will loosen from the bottom. Keep stirring until the pork is well done. Traditionally, the pork is undercooked, but I do not recommend undercooking pork for health reasons.

Put the pork in a bowl a large mixing bowl that will hold all the ingredients. Add fish sauce, green onion, shallot, cilantro, the rest of the lime juice, ground chili pepper and almost all of toasted rice into the bowl. Save some toasted rice to sprinkle on top for garnish. Mix well and taste. It should be a little bit hot. You should be able to taste tartness from the lime juice and the fish sauce. If you need to add more fish sauce or lime juice, don't be afraid. Getting the flavor balance right is a trial and error process.

Put the mixed ingredients in a serving bowl, garnish with spearmint and sprinkle the rest of toasted rice on top. Serve with vegetables like cabbage, green beans, lettuce and Thai basil.

Pad see ew

Pad see ew is a standard lunch fare among Thais and is very popular here in the US. My sister's favorite too. It is not difficult to make and tastes great.

As kids, we loved pad see ew. It is a comfort food; nice and warm. Normally people make it spicier at the table (not in the wok) by adding red pepper sauce.

2 Servings

1	tablespoon	sugar
1/2	cup	pork, thinly sliced
2	tablespoons	light soy sauce
2	cloves	garlic, chopped
1	lb	fresh flat rice noodles
1		egg
1	tablespoon	dark soy sauce
1	lb	Chinese brocco

If your fresh flat rice noodles are not pre-cut, cut them into strips of 3/4 inch wide. Cut Chinese broccoli into 2 inch long pieces. Halve the stems lengthwise because thick stems take longer to cook. You are going to want to cook them at the same time.

Heat a wok to high heat and then add 2 tablespoons of oil. Drop in the chopped garlic and stir. Add the sliced pork. Stir to cook the pork. When the pork is somewhat cooked or turned from pink to light brown, add rice noodles. Stir to break up the noodles. Add light and dark soy sauce and sugar.
Stir to mix the seasonings into the noodles and pork. Open a spot in the middle of the pan, and drop the egg in. Scramble the egg until it is almost all cooked (not watery any more). Fold in the noodles and mix them all. Add the Chinese broccoli, stems first. I usually add half of the Chinese broccoli and stir until it wilts and then add the rest. But if you have room in your wok, you can cook all the Chinese broccoli at once. As soon as the Chinese broccoli is cooked, turn off the heat.

Put on a serving plate and sprinkle white pepper on top. Serve with the usual noodles condiments; sugar, fish sauce, vinegar and dried ground pepper. I usually like mine with ground chili peppers and vinegar.

Pad see ew that you find in Thailand is little sweeter than mine because many street vendors add more sugar than I prefer.

Baked Shrimp in Clear Noodles - Goong Ob Woonsen

I remember goong ob woonsen from wedding banquets. Many Thai wedding banquets serve Chinese and Chinese influenced dishes like this one. It usually comes in a clay pot. It is always one of my favourites.

2 Servings

1	Teaspoon	Sugar
1 1/2	tablespoons	soy sauce
6		shrimp
		sesame oil
30		peppercorns
1		onion
1	tablespoon	ginger
1	clove	garlic
1	bundle	clear noodles
5-7	sprigs	cilantro

Tips and substitutions

Cilantro roots are actually used in this recipe, but cilantro is rarely sold with roots in the US. If you have some cilantro roots, do use a couple in place of cilantro sprigs. I use 6 large shrimp for this recipe. I don't devein the shrimp or peel the shell off. Whole shrimp with heads and shell give a wonderful presentation.

Soak clear noodles in hot water for 5-10 minutes. Snip the noodles into smaller and more manageable lengths so they are easier to serve.

Ground garlic, ginger, cilantro, pepper in a mortar or food processor. I like using my mortar because the peppercorns seem to escape the knife. Use a medium size onion. Peel and slice onion thin.

Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a wok over low heat. Add the ground ingredients and stir fry for a minute. Add onion and stir until the onion is tender then turn off the heat. Drain and add the clear noodles to the pan. A little water in the noodles is ok since it will keep the noodles soft when baking. Baking tends to take the moisture out of the noodles and the dish loses its taste if it becomes dry when baking. Add soy sauce, sugar,and a few drop of sesame oil. Mix well.

Warm up the oven to 400 degrees. Pour the noodle mixture into an oven-proof dish or clay pot. Add shrimp on top and cover. Bake for 20 minutes or until the shrimp is done.

Serve hot with rice.

Fried Fish with Tamarind Sauce - Pla Rad Prig

From the pictures, pla rad prig looks fancy and perhaps intimidating,Fried Fish with Tamarind Sauce but it is one of the easiest, tastiest dishes you'll find. There are two steps: frying the fish and making the sauce. When the sauce is done, pour it over the fish. Voila, you have a beautiful presentation.

Servings

1	tablespoon	tamarind
2 1/2	tablespoons	sugar
1		shallot
2	cloves	garlic
2	tablespoons	fish sauce
1		fish
2-4		chili peppers
3	sprigs	cilantro	Optional

n Thailand, we use pla gow for this dish, but I have never seen it here. Any meaty white fish can be used for this recipe. When I picked the fish for the pictures, the grouper looked so good. The fish was about one pound and it is good for 2 people. My market cleans and guts the fish for customers, so I don't have to.

The Fish:
Score the fish at an angle all the way to the bones on both sides to help it cook faster and crispier. Add oil to a wok or pan, about half a cup or at least to the side of the fish. Fry the fish on low heat if you like it very crispy, which I do. It should take about 10 minutes on the first side. Don't try to loosen the fish from the pan until it is done, otherwise, the fish breaks up and you end up with not so pretty fish. When the first side is cooked, flip the fish to fry the other side. It should take about 5 minutes on this side. Remove and set it on a plate. You can increase the crispiness of the fish by putting it in the oven on 350 until the sauce is ready.

The Sauce:
While waiting for the fish to cook, peel garlic and shallot. Remove seeds and stem from the chili peppers. In Thailand, we use yellow and red peppers that are not available here. So I go for the color and use habanero (orange ones) and santa fe (yellow ones). Even with the seeds and white fluff removed, the heat can be on the top threshold of what I can handle. I recommend using one or two hot peppers. If you're not a big fan of very hot food, I would recommend red and yellow bell peppers.

Chop garlic, shallot and pepper or just put them in a food processor (coarsely chopped). Add a teaspoon of oil to a wok or pan over medium heat. Add the chopped mixture and stir to release the fragrance. If you are using hot peppers, make sure you have proper ventilation because the fumes can irritate your eyes, nose and throat. Add tamarind, fish sauce, sugar and a few tablespoons of water. Mix well and let boil. If the sauce gets too thick, add water. It should be the consistency of maple syrup when cooled. Taste and see if you need more sugar, tamarind, fish sauce or just water. The sauce should be sweet, spicy and sour. When done, pour the sauce over the fish and garnish with cilantro leaves if you like.

Sever hot with rice.

Mango on Sticky Rice(Kow Neuw Mamuang)

Mango on sticky rice is a traditional summer dessert because mangoes are in season during the summer months of April and May. When I think of mango on sticky rice, I think of the days when school is out--the carefree summer.

mango peeled
Make the coconut milk and sticky rice below.

Peel and slice ripe mango. Place sticky rice on a small plate and top with mango. Spoon the coconut milk on top of the mango and sticy rice

Coconut Milk Sticky Rice - Kow Neuw Moon

Sticky Rice is a core ingredient of thai desserts and northeastern thai food. Here's how you make it easily.

2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup sticky rice
2 pinches salt
1 cup coconut milk

The Traditional Method Using a Steamer:
Soak the sticky rice in enough water to cover the rice for at least an hour and even overnight. Take your steamer, put water in the bottom and cover the steam section with cheese cloth or muslin cloth. Pour the sticky rice on the cheesecloth, cover with the lid and put it on the stove on medium to high heat. The sticky rice should take about a 20 minutes of steaming to cook and will become translucent when done.

The Microwave Method:
I learned this method from my friend who has mastered microwave cooking to such a high level of proficiency that she has earned the title 'the microwave queen'.

Soak the sticky rice for 10 minutes in warm water in a bowl. Soaking the rice is very important. I have tried this method without soaking the rice first and it was disastrous. The rice was undercooked and inedible. The water level should be just above the rice, which comes out to be 1 cup of rice and a little over 1 cup of water (about 10% more). I recommend using a non-plastic container because you may melt the plastic in the microwave. Cover the bowl with a dish and cook in microwave for at full power 3 minutes. Stir the rice around to move the rice from the top to the bottom. You will notice that some of the rice is translucent or cooked and some still has white center or the uncooked portion.

Heat it up again for another 3 minutes. Check and see if it is done. When cooked, all the rice should be translucent. If it needs more cooking, I recommend heating up and checking every 3 minutes or so. How long it takes to cook really depends on your microwave.

Putting it together:
Heat the coconut milk in a pot over medium heat. Stir constantly and let the coconut milk simmer. Hard boiled coconut milk will curdle. Add sugar and salt. Remove from heat. Pour 3/4 of the hot coconut milk over the hot sticky rice. Let it sit for 5 minutes. The sticky rice will absorb all the coconut milk. The rice should be a little mushy. Spoon the rest of the coconut milk on top of the rice at serving time.

The Wonderful World of Thai Sweets

EATING IS ALWAYS an adventure in Thailand, but one part of the adventure that foreign visitors to the Land of Smiles may not venture very far into is the myriad variety of Thai sweets, called in Thai khanom. The main reason for this, perhaps, is the lack of recognition factor for all of those attractive little sweets in cups that look so appetizing on their bed of green banana leaf and all the rest. Thai cookbook writers have lamented about the eagerness with which the Thai people have abandoned aspects of their traditional customs and gone helter-skelter to take on the trappings of Western culture, but note with pride that the sometimes humble and sometimes elaborate Thai traditional sweets and desserts remain high on the preference list of indigenous Thais to the present day.

It would be a misconception to say that these multitudinous products of this aspect of Thai cuisine are only desserts. The usual dessert after a Thai meal is a plate of attractively arranged mixed, cut fruit. It has been said that eating is the Thais national sport, and Thais are likely to nibble at one of the finger-sized sweets as a between-meal shack or take a bowl of one of the mixed sweets prepared with chopped ice as a refreshing treat on a hot tropical day. Some Thai sweets are also especially prepared for festivals such as the lunar new year, or as special treats to be offered to monks on special occasions. Thai desserts are usually simple and most of the ingredients can be found in any Thai marketplace. Basic ingredients for starting from scratch often include plain rice flour, sticky rice flour, or legume flour of various sorts. Sweeteners include cane sugar, palm sugar, coconut sugar, and the ubiquitous coconut cream. There is a whole class of khanom made from egg yolks, such as foi thong which are golden threads of egg yolk cooked hard in a sugar syrup flavored with essence of jasmine. Delicious, but not for those watching their waistlines or cholesterol levels. Sometimes aspects of khanom cooking can be exotic, such as used of the lowly pandanus leaf, which can be plaited into mats and other household items but finds its way into Thai khanom as a pleasing flavoring agent in anything from the small agar jelly snacks to ice cream. Read more....

Cuisine of the Royal Household
Thailand's Original Recipes

nam phrik pla thu

In the past, the Royal Household served as the primary source for home economics, cooking, needlework, and Thai manners.

The royal ladies in the palaces rigorously trained their ladies-in-waiting; therefore, many upper-class families took their daughters there so that they would learn to cook and to do other household chores, and thus be prepared for marriage and family life. The royal palace's home economics expertise has since proliferated.

After the country's change in 1932 from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy, during the reign of King Rama VII, the old and new generations of the Royal Household maids moved out of the palaces. Some modified and applied what they learned to earn money to support themselves or their families.

Some foreign dishes on the royal menu have been modified to please the Thai palate. Sometimes the cooks are inventive and modify dishes from the other regions, too. These days, the food that is made for the Royal Household is not much different from the common folks' dishes; in fact, some of the dishes are even prepared for sale to the general public in various outlets.

khao suai

Thai Dishes of the Central Region

Regular rice is the staple food in this region. There are varieties of dishes that the people here eat with their rice, and a meal often includes some form of spicy dip for vegetables, a hot and sour vegetable soup, a type of curry, and a plate of fried vegetables, or a soup and a spicy fried meat dish. They also have seasonal dishes, such as cold rice soup, or sticky rice topped with ripe mangoes in the hot season. Read More...

sauces & pastes

Fish Sauce ( Nam Pla )

Fish sauce is an anchovy or featherback fish seasoning sauce used extensively in Thai cooking. Not suprisingly it has a very strong fish scent and a high salt content. It is used to add salt, but also adds a delicate fish smell to dishes. There are two main types of sauce, in the photo above you can see old fish sauce left and the regular fish sauce on the right. The old fish sauce is only used in cooking whereas the clear distilled product is also used to make dipping sauces.

Old Fish Sauce
To Thai people this sauce 'homms' (smells good), however to westerners this has a very strong stench until it is cooked. Don't let that put you off, it is necessary for many Thai dishes and the strong scent does not remain after cooking. The jar contains slices of featherback fish, lots of salt and rice powder to thicken, you have to prepare the old fish sauce at least 1 month before using it.

Preparation
2 ltr Water
500 gms Salt
1 Jar Pickled Spotted Featherback Fish (454gms)
1 Tablespoon Toasted Sticky Rice (optional)
An air-tight container to store it in.

1. Boil the water, add the salt and dissolve it completely.
2. Leave to cool back to room temperature.
3. Empty the contents of the jar into the salty water.
4. Add the toasted sticky rice to give it a slight nutty taste. (This is optional, my mother does this so I do this, but many Thais do not).
5. Mix, put in the air-tight jar in a dark cupboard and leave for a month.
6. After 1 month the salty brine will taste fishy, this brine is the old fish sauce you will use in cooking. To use it spoon just the liquid directly out from the storage jar. You can keep the jar for years provided it does not get mouldy, once the brine is used up, you should make a new batch.

Regular Fish Sauce

This is a clean filtered sauce made from anchovies. The bottle shown is Thai Squid brand fish sauce, but the sauce does not contain any squid. This sauce requires no special preparation, it can be used straight from the bottle and can even be used uncooked to make chilli dipping sauces and as a seasoning for salads.

Sweet Chicken Sauce (Sweet Chilli Sauce)

This is often misleadingly referred to as 'chicken sauce', and usually has a picture of a chicken on the bottle, however it is a sweet chilli sauce usually served with chicken, or other fried meats. It is used straight from the bottle as a side sauce, you can also add a little boiling water and make a chilli glaze for meats too. If you like chilli you can use this as a dipping sauce for crisps (chips) too!

Oyster Sauce ( Nam Man Hoy )

Oyster sauce is a cooking sauce made from oysters and soya beans. It has a thick texture, shiny appearance and a slight fish taste. It is used to flavour fried vegetables in stir-fry dishes, it gives a soft, slightly sweet, slightly salt, taste to the stir-fry. It is also a good source of magnesium, once opened it can be kept in a cool cupboard, it does not need to be chilled.

Tamarind Water (Nam Makham)

Tamarind is a sour fruit that is used in Thai recipes to add a sour note to balance a sweet flavour. The easiest way to buy tamarind is in packets as a pulp, in that form it looks similar to pulped dates. The tamarind pulp itself isn't usually used, rather tamarind water is used.

Preparation for Tamarind Water
Take a piece of tamarind pulp, approximately 100gms. Soak the pulp in water for 10-20 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind pulp with your hand to squeeze out the sour juices. Use the water and keep the pulp in the fridge to reuse. You can reuse the pulp several times until it loses it sourness.

Pickled Garlic (Water) ( Ka Thiem Dog )

A common ingredient in Thai cuisine, we use both the pickled garlic together with the pickling water. The pickling water is used to add a strong garlic sour note to noodles and soups. On this site when the recipe calls for 'pickled garlic water', I mean this pickling juice.

Salty Soya Bean Sauce ( Tua Jiew )

It may not look pleasant but this sauce is a common ingredient in Thai cooking. In the picture is a Chinese brand of this sauce. It's main uses are for seasoning fried vegetables and it is also used for the base of salty soya pouring sauce.

Homemade Spicy Suki Sauce (Nam Jim Suki)

As requested by a reader, this is how I make Suki sauce when I can't get hold of MK Sauce. The essential ingredient you need is brown soya sauce, the recipe is for medium hot Suki sauce, you can add more or less chillies to adjust that.

Ingredients
1 Tablespoon Toasted Sesame Seeds
5 Garlic Cloves
12 Big Red Chillies
1 Tablespoon Brown Salty Soya Sauce
1 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons Salt
1 Tablespoon Pickled Garlic Water
1 Head of Pickled Garlic
2 Tablespoons Sweet Chilli Sauce
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Water

Preparation
1. Place all the ingredients except for the toasted sesame seeds into a blender and blend to a smooth sauce.
2. Mix in the sesame seeds, keeping a few as a garnish for the top.

Payang Chilli Paste ( Nam Prick Pa Yang )

Nam Prick Pa Yang is a a chilli paste made from smoked fish, fish sauce, garlic, onions and of course, chilli. This is one of my favorite types of chilli paste, it lasts a year without special preservation and is easily available in Asian grocers.
We eat many vegetable dishes raw, dipped in this paste to add flavour, and also use it to add flavour to many rice dishes. Because it can be used as a flavoring for raw dishes, it's perfect when you're in a hurry and want to eat something quickly without cooking it.

Red Curry Paste ( Prik Gang Dang )

Red curry paste is a paste made mainly from chilli, cumin, galangal root and onion. In Thailand we buy it, we don't make it, just like you buy mustard rather than make it from mustard seeds. The best paste is finely ground in a Thai mortar and takes several hours to prepare, so I would strongly recommend you find an Asian grocer who stocks it, or ask your local supermarket if they can get hold of it.
I confess I've never made this paste myself, the following is my mothers recipe, she loves using Monosodium Glutamate, but its use is optional.

Ingredients
4 Tablespoons Dried Flaked Chillies
30gms Chopped Onions
1 Tablspoon Chopped Galangal Root
4 Cloves Garlic
2 Tablespoons Chopped Lemon Grass
1 Coriander Root, Chopped
1 Teaspoon Ground Cumin
1 Teaspoon Peppercorns
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Coriander Seeds (or ground Coriander Seeds)
1 Teaspoon Kapi Shrimp Paste (optional)
A pinch of Monosodium Glutamate (optional)

Preparation
1. Place everything into a Thai mortar.
2. Pulp until all the ingredients form a fine paste.
3. If the mixture is too dry add a teaspoon of oil to loosen it.

Soya Bean Paste ( Taow Jieuw )

You can recognise this sauce from the brown colour and the visible soya beans in it, it is made by allowing soya beans to decay or ferment. There are many brands, in tall and short bottles, this one is Healthy Boy brand. Once opened keep it in the fridge and it will last many many months. It is used to make fried vegetable dishes and for some sauces.

Red Bean Curd ( Turw Hu Yea )

Another soya sauce, this one is red bean curd and is used to make red soup and other dishes. It is sold in jars, once opened keep the jar in the fridge and it will last a month or two.

Chinese Soup Stock ( Pak Hang Jeen )

These herbs are sold grouped together in packets, to make Chinese style soup stock. You can see the packet shown in the bottom right.

Maggi Sauce

This is made in Germany, and is a very popular seasoning sauce in Thailand. It adds a stronger, more savoury flavour than soy sauce and you will see it mentioned throughout this site. It's also very easy to buy in the west in any supermarket.

Thai Sweet Plum Sauce( Nam Jim Bui )

Plum sauce is also used in Chinese cuisine, the Thai version of it is very similar, but without the artificial colouring that is sometimes added. It is used as a dipping sauce for many fried dishes such as spring rolls, and as an alternative to 'Sweet Chicken-Chilli Sauce'. It keeps for months in a dark cupboard without special preservation.

Jasmin Flower Flavouring ( Glin Mali )

For many sweet dishes we use a floral fragrance to give the dessert a flowery smell. Shown is a typical flavouring used to make this floral fragrance, this one is a bottle of artificial jasmin flavour.

Yellow Bean Sauce ( Tow Jiew Kao )

This is a salty bean sauce made with yellow soya beans. You can see it used to add a salty contrast taste in todays recipe. Once you open the bottle, keep it in the fridge.

Toddy Palm Paste ( Loog Tan Sauce )

This fermented paste made from palm fruit, is bright orange and used to flavour cakes. When you open the jar it has a revolting acid smell, but don't let that put you off, the smell goes during cooking.
To aclimatize yourself, I'd open a jar of old fish sauce, take a deep breath and after that you'll welcome the smell of toddy palm paste!

Old Fish Paste ( Pa La Sub )

You will need this to make the next sausage. It is a spicy old fish paste used in to add the kick into the sausage. We also use it as a side sauce. For the best result, leave it overnight to meld the flavors and oxidize a little.

Ingredients
50 gms Old Fish Sauce and Flesh (Boiled)
2 Tablespoons Faked Chillies
3 Red Onions
5 Garlic Cloves
3 Coriander Roots
4 Kaffir Leaves
10 gms Galangal
10 gms Lemon Grass
1 Teaspoon Sugar
3 Tablespoons Lime Juice or Tamarind Juice

Preparation
1. Blend all the ingredients together.
2. Leave in the fridge for a day.

Dim Sum Sauce

This is healthy boy brand dim sum sauce, a sharp vinegar like sauce perfect for dim sum. If you can't get hold of it, light soy sauce mixed with vinegar in equal proportions will suffice.

Tamarind Jam ( Ma Kam Gurn )

Tamarind, especially unripe tamarind makes an excellent preserve. It has a very sour flavour, if you reduce the sugar you get a very tart marmalade-like preserve, but here I've included enough sugar to bring it to sweetness. Add the pinch of salt, it improves the flavour enormously.

Ingredients
180 gms Sour Tamarind (Remove the seeds & skin)
100 gms Sugar
5-6 Tablespoons Water
A Pinch of Salt

Preparation
1. Mix all the ingredients together and blend it until smooth.
2. Place a plate in the freezer, this will be used to test the jam.
3. Put it in a saucepan, and bring to the boil, stirring and boiling to reduce the liquid.
4. We want a thick jam, to check if it's thick enough, spoon a little onto the cold plate straight from the freezer. Let it cool (or put it back in the freezer for a few minutes). Push it with your finger to make sure it's the right consistency.
5. Spoon it into a jar and leave to cool.

Nam Prik

Nam Prik is the name given to chilli pastes that we eat with rice and other dishes. There are many brands and many flavours, in this entry I'm going to take you through some of the more common ones.

Firstly the above one is Nam Prik Mang-da. Mang-da is a large winged insect about 8 cms long that lives in rice fields and is eaten in the East of Thailand. At night it flies around bright lights, making it easy to catch. The authentic paste contains that insect ground up, and more common supermarket brands have an artificial flavour instead.
Like many things mang-da started out as food for poor farmers, but became a more expensive almost luxury food. The 5 Mang-da I photographed in the ingredients section, were more expensive than a full rack of pork ribs.

This one is grilled fish flavoured nam prik. It has a fishing slightly smokey flavour to it with a very dry texture. This one is a personal favorite.

This one is grilled shrimp nam prik, this one is more soft and smooth than the grilled fish one. (It's in a little plastic bag inside the pot.)

This one is hell shrimp, called because it is very very spicy and the spicy hits you immediately and all in one go.

Nam prik red eye, the heat from the spice comes later, giving you red eyes. It doesn't taste so spicy at first.