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 Tom
Yum Kung
- Translated directly
into English, the word "tom yum" is more commonly
translated as "piquant" or "spicy and sour"
soup. This spicy seafood broth is to Thais what miso is
to Japanese or minestrone to Italians. In fact, for the
tourist, Thailand without "spicy and sour" would
like Boston without chowder.
Tom-yum's
unique hot and sour taste come from the combination of spicy
ingredients, like roasted and fresh chilies, coupled with
sour ingredients, like lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and
fresly squeezed lemon juice. The result is a clash of flavors
which can blow your top off and has brought this simple
Thai soup worldwide fame, once tasted is not easily forgotten.
The best way to enjoy it is to take a meat, mushrooms and
tangy broth and leave the chunks of ginger, lemon grass,
whole chilies and galangal at the bottom of your bowl.
Tom-yum-kung
is the Queen of Thai
soups which prepared with whole king prawns served in it
shell, head and all give the result as requisite broth.
The taste of Tom-yum can be adjusted to you desire. The
server will always ask, would you like it hot?
Part of the fun of ordering is its presentation. Individual
serving usually come in a small earth ware hat pot which
sit on a clay burner bubbling over a slow flame. The soup
is then spooned into small bowls. Ideally, tom-yum is best
shared among friends and in this case the soups will served
up in a large "steamboat", a charcoal-burning,
metal fondue-type pot can serving up to eight people. No
one's ever quite the same after their first try. A very
hot, very sour can indeed be a masochistic experience, for
even as your month and tongue burn, your spoon are keeps
returning to the pot for more.
To the last, you will notice a group of waiters standing
in a corner watching appreciatively and muttering their
approval. When they say, " Kin phet dai! ", (you
can eat hot and spicy food), you know you've just been paid
one of their greatest compliments.
Ingredients
for 2 Setting
1 Pint of water
10 Large shrimps
1 Cup of mushroom
1 Stalk of lemon grass chopped
2 Kaffir lime leaves
1 Tablespoon of chopped coriander leaves
1/2 Tea spoon of ground chili
1/2 Teaspoon of salt
2 Tablespoon of lime juice
2 Tablespoon of fish sauce
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How
To Cook
Low down the heat, add mushrooms simmer for a few
minutes then remove from the heat Season with fish
sauce, lime juice and ground chill add little sugar
if needed. Garnished with the chopped coriander leaves
before serving.
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Creditor : The story
is rewritten base on "Tom Yum for the World" by
Kirby J Coxon in Thai's Airway Sawadee Magazine |
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