[Sca-cooks] Galangal

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Glenn Crawford <gacrwfrd at hotmail.com> wrote:
>  I will have to check out the new thai restaurant in town.
>  What would you recommend to eat for a first timer to thai food?

...after i wrote:
>If you're even in a Thai restaurant order the Tom Kha Gai soup. It is
>a chicken soup with kha / galangal slices. You're in luck if they
>leave the kha slices in the soup. Don't eat them, but suck on them to
>see what galangal tastes like by itself.

Well, how much you eat depends on how many people there are. My
daughter and i usually have a salad, white rice, and two main dishes,
and we always have food left over.

For a first time, avoid the "appetizers" as these will often fill you
up too much to appreciate the other dishes and are often less
"authentic" than the other dishes.

SOUP: Tom Kha Gai is good :-) Kha is mild, chicken is mild, coconut
milk is mild. The rest depends on the restaurant. I've had this dish
from mild to quite hot. Ask them - see if they're willing to maybe
give you a taste :-) Worst they can do is say no. If you're really
worried, ask for mild or not spicy. However it is made, it is very
tasty and rich. Of couse, there are also Tom Yum soups - either with
chicken (gai or kai) or shrimp (goong or gung). This involves a sort
of hot and sour clear broth with the meat of choice in it. I suggest
Tom Kha Gai personally :-)

SALAD: Have some sort of "salad". Glass noodle salad is fun and
usually isn't hot. Green papaya salad can be interesting, if they
have it. Salads often have a sauce of fish sauce, lemon or lime
juice, and seasonings.

MAIN DISH: If you don't like hot food, try massaman curry or panang
nua. Both are beef and generally highly seasoned, sometimes even a
bit sweet, which can be a nice contrast after a sour and salty salad.
I don't care for yellow curries, because they tend to be bland. Green
curries (kaeng or gaeng kew warn) are good. If you don't like "hot",
be sure to ask for mild or medium.

If they have fresh fish dishes, these are often good. A restaurant
near me has a somewhat invented dish - kind of Thai meets California
- salmon with a spicy orange sauce, that is fabulous. I have no idea
how widespread this is.

VEGETABLES: The vegetable dishes are often simply seasoned and a bit
crunchy which is a nice contract to the soft and complexly spiced
meat dishes.

At all costs, avoid fried rice with a meal. Fried rice in Thailand
and Indonesia is an afternoon snack food, not a meal accompaniment.
With nicely seasoned food, it's better to eat plain white rice.

Of course, the usual beverage is either Thai iced tea or Thai iced
coffee. I find the sweet milky beverage a good contrast to the salty,
sour, spicy foods. Gosh, this is making me hungry for a Thai meal...
I love Thai food :-)

The first time i ate Indian food, i asked for it hot. I'd spent my
life eating rather bland food in the Midwest. Believe me, i saw
lights and my ears rang. But it was transformative and i haven't
turned back.

Anahita