Thai food: Spicy Prawn Soup (Tom Yum Gung)

I know that this soup is indeed spicy but I love this so much. Actually, I can make this soup not so much spicy by adding more water and putting less chili in it. This my favorite Thai soup, but I love the taste of Tom Yum without the milk. There are two kinds of Tom Yum soup one is with milk and the other one is clear soup. I prefer the last one because I feel like vomiting whenever I smell the soup with milk (laughs). And I don't know why. Maybe because of the strong smell of the spices mixed up with milk.


Ingredients:
200 g mushrooms
2 spring onions
16 peeled prawns (shrimps)
3-4 medium sized squid
1 liter of chicken soup stock
3 tbs lemon juice
1 ts chili paste
3 tbs fish sauce
1/2 Kaffir-lime

Procedure:

1. In a pot bring chicken soup stock into a boil.
2. Cut mushrooms into half. Cut spring onions into 2 cm long pieces. Wash and
clean the prawn and squid.
3. Add lemon juice, chili paste and fish sauce to the chicken soup stock and stir.
4. Add mushrooms, spring onions and prawns and let simmer for ten minutes.
5. Reduce heat and season with Kaffir-lime juice.

Chicken Barbecue

I love the taste of chicken barbecue here in Thailand. I've been searching and studying on how to make my chicken or pork barbecue perfect because my husband loves the grilled meat all the time.

Here is a very easy and short recipe for my chicken barbecue courtesy of www.easy-thaifood.com.

Ingredients:

500 grams of chicken breasts`
3-5 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)
2 tablespoons of honey syrup
2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of chili paste or chili sauce

Procedure:

1. Wash the chicken breasts and chopped the garlic
2. Marinade the chicken breasts with chopped garlic, honey, soy sauce and chili paste/sauce for about 6-12 hours.
3. Grill the marinated chicken breasts for 30-40 minutes.


Serve hot with plain white rice.

Thai Food: Omelette With Mince Pork

Do you wanna try something new about making an omelette? This is fun to do because you can make many variations according to your taste and availability of your ingredients at home.

Basically, omelette is simply a scrambled egg topped with various ingredients or "stuffed egg" for short. You can add chopped onions, tomatoes, ham, bacon, cheese and spring onion in your omelette.

But here's how they make an omelette with mince pork in Thailand.

Ingredients:

3 large sized eggs
75 grams mince pork (giniling)
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of fish sauce (patis)
1/2 teaspoon of white sugar
10 grams coriander leaves (kintsay)
10 grams spring onion (approx 1 whole stem)
2 red chillies (sili labuyo)
ordinary cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper


Procedure:

1. Chop the coriander (kintsay), spring onion and chillies.
2. Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl.
3. Add the minced pork, light soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, spring onion, coriander (kintsay), and pepper. Mix them well.
4. Add the cooking oil into frying pan in medium heat.
5. Fry the eggs mix for 1 minute.
6. Turn the omelette over and fry the other side for a minute.
7. The omelette should be golden brown. To make sure it' s already cooked squeeze it with the frying ladle, see if no liquid comes out. If there is then you will need to cook it a little bit.

Serve With:

Salad Vegetable
Hot Plain Rice
Sweet Chilli Sauce


This recipe makes two servings.

Korean 101: Miyeok Gook (Sea Weeds Soup)

"Miyeok" means sea weeds and "gook" or "guk" means soup. Every meal in Korea must have a soup and side dishes. This soup is very easy to cook among other Korean soups. This recipe is very good for pregnant women or lactating mothers.

Ingredients:

Fresh or dried sea weeds
1-2 Tablespoon of sesame oil
5-8 cups of water
4 Tablespoon of Gook Kan Jang or the Strong Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon of minced garlic
1/4 cup of myeolchi or dried anchovy
a dash of ground black pepper

Procedure:

1. If you bought dried sea weeds, rehydrate it for 30 minutes - 1 hour, then drain and wash and cut it into 2 inches long.

2. Add 1-2 Tablespoon of sesame oil in a pot/casserole in a medium temperature and put the sea weeds, fry a little bit about 3 minutes then add 5-8 cups of water (water level must be half of the size of the pot)

3. Put the myeolchi or dried anchovy (small dilis in the PH) and let it boil for 10 minutes.

4. Pour the 4 Tablespoon of strong soy sauce.

5. Add 1 Tablespoon of minced garlic and a dash of ground black pepper.

Serve while hot.

Korean 101: Soon Dooboo Chigae

This is one of my favorite Korean recipes - Soon Dooboo Chigae (soft soya or tofu), When I was in the Philippines, I found it difficult to buy the ingredients because you can only buy those at Korean grocery shops. A friend of mine told me that there are Korean convenient stores along Jupiter St. in Makati and there's another one in Kalayaan Avenue in Quezon City.

Thai food is more spicy than Korean so the red pepper powder for korean food is not actually spicy, unless you put so much of it. It is more aromatic. You can also add pork chunks, if u like.

Ingredients:

1 Soon dooboo pack or tube (soft soya or tofu)
1 pack Soon dooboo sauce
1/2 Squash/pumpkin medium sized (cut into cubes)
1 medium sized potato (cut into cubes)
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/4 of medium sized onion
1/2 cup of spring onion (chopped)
1 egg (not scrambled)
1-2 Tablespoon of red pepper powder
2 cups of water

Procedure:

1. Put soon dooboo sauce in the pan and add two cups of water. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes.
2. Add soon dooboo pack, boil for another 5 minutes
3. then the potato cubes boil for 2-3 minutes, add the squash/pumpkin boil for 2 minutes.
4. Add onion, spring onion, and garlic boil for 3 minutes
5. Put the red pepper powder boil for 3 minutes.
6. Finally, add the egg but do not stir yet, wait for 3-5 minutes to stir.

Serve it hot with or without rice. It is best if you have kimchi as side dish.

French Toast

I would like to share another easy to make recipe for breakfast or snacks - the French Toast. Before, I thought that it was difficult to make because of the ingredients which I wasn't even sure of. Maybe because I thought of the name "french" and to find ingredients seem to be expensive or couldn't find it anywhere in the Philippines. But I was shocked because my husband prepared it for me one morning, it was really breakfast in bed and I felt I was a princess to be served that morning.

Ingredients:

4 slices of loaf bread
1/2 cup - 1 cup of fresh milk
1 egg (beaten)
1 Tablespoon of honey or maple syrup
a dash of ground black pepper and salt
1 Table spoon of butter or cooking oil
Cinnamon flavor powder (optional)

Procedure:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a plate or container (except the bread, honey or maple syrup and butter).
2. Put the slice of bread into the mixture, until it is covered evenly.
3. In a frying pan, put the butter or cooking oil.Make sure the stove is in low heat
4. Add the loaf bread coated with the mixture of milk and egg into the pan. Toast or turn the bread both sides until slightly brown.
5. Then put the toasted bread in a plate, pour honey or maple syrup on top or both sides and a dash of cinnamon flavored powder.

Serve while hot. It is best to pair it with hot or cold milk or coffee

Food Trip For The Day: Barrio Fiesta Medley

I've tried this at home when I was in the Philippines. My mom make this for us, as one of the main dish, to pair it with boiled okra and eggplant or any fried fish. This is so easy to prepare because it is similar to salad, which means that there's no need to cook, just mix all the ingredients and presto! It is ready to eat.. :D

Ingredients:

2-3 preserved/salted egg (red colored egg shell usually specially in the PH)
2 medium sized tomatoes
1/2 medium sized onion
1 green mango (unripe one, sour in taste)
1-2 Tablespoon of Barrio Fiesta's sauteed shrimp paste or you can just use your home made shrimp paste

Procedure:

1. Clean and prepare all the ingredients, chopped them finely then, put into a ceramic bowl or plate.

2. Mix well all the ingredients. If it turns out super salty, add more tomatoes.

Ready to serve, pair it with boiled or grilled eggplant and okra; and any fried or grilled fish. Serve with hot rice.

Pork Steak Tagalog

This recipe is really taste good, If I were to choose between adobo and pork steak, I'd rather choose the last one because it is tastier indeed. I tried cooking this last week and my sweetheart loved it! :D

You can try beef if you like. Anyway, the original version of this recipe is really beef steak tagalog, I just made my own version because there was no beef left in the fridge when I decided to cook it lols.

Ingredients:

3/4 kilo tender pork or beef steaks, sliced
1 tablespoon kalamansi or lemon juice
5 tablespoons of soy sauce
3 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1 small piece ginger, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup onions, sliced in rings
4 tablespoons cooking oil

Procedure:

1. Marinate the pork or beef steak in kalamansi or lemon juice, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and ground black pepper for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

2. In a frying pan, add cooking oil. Add the marinated pork or beef steak and cook in a low heat. Turn up the heat for a minute or two to make sure it's cooked evenly.

3. Add the sliced onions and continue to cook for another minute.

Serve on a platter including the oil and sauce. Best served with hot plain rice. Makes 4-5 servings. Estimated cooking time 45-50 minutes.

Graham's Mango Float Dessert

I thought I wouldn't be able to make this yummy dessert because I am here in Thailand and I never thought that there are Filipino stores here at the heart of Bangkok where you can buy 100% Filipino ingredients and other goods that we usually have on our grocery list.

In our grocery store nearby, I could not find Graham biscuits and nestle cream. I went to Silom in Bangkok just to buy for these two missing ingredients so I could be able to make a yummylicious Mango Float dessert.

Do you wanna know how? It is just easy. My kid and husband love this desert so much.

Mango Float Dessert



Ingredients:

2 packs of Graham biscuits
2 packs of Nestle Cream
1 can of Carnation condensed milk (or any brand of condensed milk)
1-2 medium sized ripe mango

Procedure:

1. Combine or Mix the 2 packs of Nestle cream and 1 can of Carnation condensed milk in a container (remember to mix it well), then set aside as you prepare the next step.



2. In a plastic container or tupperware lay down the biscuits like what you see in the picture above.



3. Pour the mixture of Nestle cream and Carnation condensed milk on top of Graham biscuits, spread it evenly. Then, put another biscuits on top and put the mixture on top and so on, repeat the procedure until it is already 3-4 layers of biscuits filled with the mixture.



4. After # 3, crushed the remaining biscuits (almost like powder), then put on top of the biscuit with the mixture. (please see above image)



5. Finally, sliced the ripe mango into two halves then slice diagonally or according to what shape you desire. Mango slices will be on top of it.

Keep refrigerated for 5 hours and ready to serve.

Food Trip For The Day: Italian Pasta, Dumpling & Strawberry Milk

Life is easy here in Thailand. You don't need to eat spicy food all the time or everyday in your life while staying or living here. I found it very affordable and time saving as well to prepare for your own food. Specially, if you are alone or just the two of you (with your significant other). Some people think that when you visit or live in Thailand, you won't be able to eat a decent food or the food of their choice. Well, infact, you can as long as you have a budget and you know where to buy your food.

Here in Thailand, there are many fast food chains and restaurants owned by western and asian countries. There are Mc Donald's, KFC, Dunkin'Donuts, Burger King, Chester's Grill, Pizza Hut, Sizzlers Steak Restaurant, etc. everywhere (to name a few)

But if you wanna save more money, you may want to drop by the nearest mall or supermarket and check out the groceries. Like what I did this morning. I found these ready to eat food at Tesco's supermarket (5 minutes walk from my home). They are on sale, specially during the weekends so I always visit there and buy something less expensive.



Spaghetti with clams in spicy red sauce (but not too spicy actually), Spaghetti cream sauce with ham and mushroom (taste like carbonara), and dumpling. It cost me less than 100 baht for these three. I saved a 100 or 200 bucks instead of dining in at Mc Donalds or other fast food here. I just needed to reheat this at home, then... presto! instant yummy food to eat :D



I really love the taste of the pasta but I like the dumpling taste best and pair it with cold strawberry milk. What a beautiful day! :)

Food Trip For The Day: Indian Curry

I was craving for something different this morning. Good thing, I didn't need to go out to order food because I was really lazy. Past 10:00 am and I was still in bed. Whew! sooooo damn lazy I was. But it's because I am seven months pregnant and I feel that my body is heavy to move around LOL.

I called up and ordered food at the fourth floor, there's a Thai cook up there who's accepting order via room service. It save my day, actually :D

I ordered this yummy food called indian curry with squids and shrimps for my late breakfast.



And.... I LOVE IT! not really spicy. It cost me only 35.00 baht for this. Cheap really yet deliciously goooood. This is a must try for all of you, who wants to visit Bangkok. Try it now. I just did! :D