Pushpitha Wijesinghe
One thing can happen to you once you fall in love with Thai food. You will need to learn the art of preparing these dishes. Rest assured, for that is going to be more enjoyable than eating!
Most delicacies in Thailand are stir-fried. But Thais have their own method of cooking stir fry. But still, stir fry is easy to learn. You need sugar, fish sauce and oyster sauce. If you think Thai food is not vegetarian-friendly, get rid of that idea. Stir fry is the best option to enjoy Thai vegetarian meals. If you wondered what could be used in place of meat and seafood, the alternative comes from the region itself: tofu. For stir fry, Thais mostly use grated carrots, bean sprouts and garlic chives. You need to have the timing right, as stir fry should not take much time. Plus you can use a bit of water too for the stir fry. The best thing about stir fry is that it does not consume your time. Whatever it is could be prepared in double quick time if you know the art of stir frying.
Fresh curry paste is a common ingredient in restaurants. In Chiang Mai, you will get to see the use of this paste more often. The paste usually includes garlic, lemongrass, chilli and coriander seeds. All this mixed together into a paste five away a tempting aroma. Proof of the Thai delicacy lies very much in this fresh curry paste.
And now to the curry. Besides the curry paste, you need coconut milk too - another Asian ingredient which makes curries extraordinarily tasty. Add both coconut milk and the curry paste to the vegetables and let it in the stove until you get the first hint of fragrance. That is the first indication to pour a second spoonful of coconut milk. You can also add other fragrant herbs such as basil to make the curry tastier.
Stir fry is done. Curry is done. And now move on to the appetisers. Chiang Mai's kitchens are teeming with appetisers such as spring rolls. In fact, the spring roll is a popular appetiser among foreigners. A spring roll usually contains bean sprouts, tofu and carrot. Plus, you can go for green papaya salad as another appetiser. Many resorts in the country such as Anantara Chiang Mai Resort are popular for green papaya salad. Both these appetisers are much simpler than said in preparation. All what you need is fresh herbal ingredients and a little bit familiarity with the Thai way of preparing spring rolls and salads. Thais usually have ingredients like garlic in store in the form of powder.
Probably following a sumptuous meal, you could still accommodate a well-prepared dessert. Thais have a habit of using coconut for almost anything. And that applies well for dessert. A famous delicacy is steamed sticky rice cooked with coconut cream with palm sugar and salt added in moderate amount. Deep fried bananas is another delicacy that could be easily prepared at home. Slice bananas into thin pieces and dip them in a flour batter. The taste is so heavenly.
