4th Post- Tom Yum

Hello everyone, here comes to the fourth post for my blog and I will introduce one of the popular Thai foods. Hope everyone will like it and can try Thai food in further plans! =)

Tom yum is a name for two similar soups originating from Laos and Thailand. The Royal Lao tom yum has included rice in the soup, whereas common Lao and Thai versions do not include rice as an ingredient. However, Lao tom yum is quite unknown outside of Laos, whereas Thai tom yum has become one of the most famous dishes in Thai cuisine. Thai tom yum is widely served in neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, and other country around the world.

Tom yum is characterized by its different hot and sour flavours with fragrant herbs. The basic soup is made of fresh ingredients such as lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, lime juice, fish sauce and crushed chilli peppers. While, commercial tom yum paste is made by all the herb ingredients fried in oil and flavour as well as other preservative ingredients are added thereafter. The paste is packed in bottle or packaged, and sold around the world. Tom yum flavored with the paste may have different quality that made with fresh herb ingredients.

In Thailand, tom yum soup is usually made with prawns ‘tom yum goong’, chicken ‘tom yum gai’, fish ‘tom yum pla’, or mixed seafood ‘tom yum talay or tom yum po tae’ and mushrooms (straw or oyster mushrooms). In Laos, tom yum is normally made with fish or chicken, however prawns are also available. Often, the soup is topped with sprinkling of fresh chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves.

For the less popular type of tom yum is ‘tom yum nam khon’ , where milk is added to the soup. Tom yum nam khon is almost always made with prawns, whereas chicken is often used in ‘tom kha’. Sometimes Thai chilli jam ‘Nam Prik pao’ is added to the soup to give a bright orange colour and makes the chilli flavor spicier.