Street-Food on Kvalifood

Street-Style Fried Bananas (Gluay Kaek)

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 17:48:17 +0100

Street-Style Fried Bananas (Gluay Kaek) © kvalifood.com

Gluay kaek is a Thai street snack of bananas fried in a crispy batter made with rice flour, sesame seeds, and shredded coconut. It’s more of a mildly sweet afternoon snack than a dessert - the kind of thing you buy from a street cart for a 3 o’clock refuel. The name comes from “gluay” (banana) and “kaek” (people of South Asian descent), as the story goes that fried bananas were introduced to Thailand from the Indian subcontinent. About 30 minutes.

Grilled Beef or Pork Waterfall Salad (Nam Tok Neua / Nam Tok Moo)

Fri, 10 Feb 2017 18:12:45 +0100

Grilled Beef or Pork Waterfall Salad (Nam Tok Neua / Nam Tok Moo) © kvalifood.com

Nam tok is a Northeastern Thai salad of grilled meat tossed with fresh herbs, a spicy-sour dressing, and toasted rice powder. The name means “waterfall” and refers to the dripping of fat and meat juices onto the charcoal during grilling. It is essentially laab with grilled meat instead of ground, but the grilling gives it a distinctly different character.

Green Papaya Salad (Som Tum)

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:39:56 +0100

Green Papaya Salad (Som Tum) © kvalifood.com

Thailand’s most famous salad, from the Northeastern Isaan region. “Som” means sour in the Isaan dialect, “tum” means to pound - because the salad is traditionally made by pounding in a large mortar and pestle. The pounding serves multiple purposes: it grinds the garlic and chilies, releases juice from the tomatoes for the dressing, crushes the peanuts, and bruises the long beans so the dressing can penetrate.

Savoury Fruit Salad (Tum Polamai)

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:10:50 +0100

Savoury Fruit Salad (Tum Polamai) © kvalifood.com

A spin-off of the classic papaya salad (som tum), using a mix of fresh fruit instead of green papaya. It started as a street food trend in Thailand where papaya salad vendors began experimenting with different ingredients. The dressing is the same salty-sour-sweet-spicy combination, and the mortar and pestle bruises the ingredients just enough to let the flavours meld.

Ingredients

Serves 2

Pork Satay and Peanut Sauce (Moo Sate)

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:47:35 +0100

Thai satay is almost always pork, though chicken and beef work too. The peanut sauce here isn’t the mild, smooth version often served in the West - it’s a proper curry-based sauce with ground peanuts, spicy and slightly gritty. The satay comes with three accompaniments: peanut sauce, a quick cucumber pickle (ajaad), and toasted bread for dipping. Makes about 25-30 small skewers, roughly 1 hour active time plus at least 2 hours marinating.

Ground Duck Salad with Mint (Laab Bped)

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 01:42:14 +0100

Laab is a ground meat salad from Northeastern Thailand (Isaan), and the duck version - laab bped - is arguably the most popular laab in Thailand today. It started as a rustic countryside dish where the whole duck was used after slaughter. The crispy fried duck skin on top is a highlight and worth the effort.

Ingredients

Serves 4 as an appetizer or 2 as an entree