Archive | She Fries RSS feed for this section

Watermelon with Sweet Dried Fish-Crispy Shallot Dip (Pla Haeng Taeng-Mo ปลาแห้งแตงโม)

By on August 5, 2011 in She Deglutenizes, She Drizzles and Smears, She Fries, She Thais


The image of fresh watermelon chunks thoroughly speckled with a sugary dip of dried fish flakes and crispy shallots probably won’t make many people salivate. That’s completely understandable. But for the readers who grew up eating this — one of the most sublime Thai snacks ever invented, in my opinion — I hope they’re at once both salivating and filled with sweet nostalgia like I am.

Dried fish and watermelon? Sweet nostalgia? I know, I know. I wasn’t quite sure myself how to convince the skeptics how well the two go together. But I’m going to try my very best. I may fail miserably. But that won’t hurt me; not trying, on the other hand, definitely will. Continue Reading →

Comments { 12 }

Fried Spring Rolls (Po Pia Tod ปอเปี๊ยะทอด)

By on June 30, 2011 in She Fries, She Thais, She Veges


Recipes for these fried spring rolls (Po Piah Tod[1] ปอเปี๊ยะทอด) vary so greatly that you’re not likely to find two family recipes that are identical. It’s fairly safe to say, though, that the ones most commonly found in the central part of Thailand usually contain glass noodles or mung bean threads (wun sen วุ้นเส้น), bean sprouts, and wood ear mushrooms. This recipe from my aunt’s kitchen is quite typical in that way. What I love the most about her fried spring rolls – something I don’t always find in other versions – is the aroma of the quintessential garlic-cilantro root-peppercorn paste.

Good spring rolls must taste good on their own, in my opinion. Poorly-made, bland fillings that exist just to live off of the charisma of crispy spring roll skins and flavorful dipping sauce are too underachieving to be worth the calories.

Yes, I’m looking at you, cheaply-made $6.99 lunch special spring rolls, stuffed to the gills with cabbage-heavy filling whose raison d’être, apparently, is to keep you tubular. Continue Reading →

Comments are closed

Pad Thai Recipe (ผัดไทย) – Part Three: The Notable Ingredients and Garnishes

By on June 25, 2011 in She Deglutenizes, She Fries, She Stocks a Thai Pantry, She Thais


I have proposed in the first part of the Pad Thai series that the best pan to use to make Pad Thai is a wide, flat-bottomed pan with a nonstick surface, short rims, and great heat retention ability. In the second part of the series, I have proposed that the best rice noodles to use in Pad Thai is flat rice noodles between 2 to 5 millimeters in width (measured before soaking). In the same post on the noodles, I’ve also cautioned you against blanching or par-cooking the noodles prior to stir-frying for that is the surest way to get your noodles to clump up and your Pad Thai completely ruined.

In this post, I will be making comments and suggestions on the ingredients and garnishes that help make your homemade Pad Thai that much closer to the most common version found on the streets of Bangkok. You may not have seen some of these ingredients before in all the versions of Pad Thai which you have had outside Thailand. But I can assure you that none of these ingredients is foreign to most Pad Thai enthusiasts in the motherland. And this is undoubtedly a yawn-inducing post to them for, you see, Pad Thai is such an ordinary food that is found everywhere in Bangkok, and these common ingredients are found right along with it. Everywhere. Every day. Almost all the time. Continue Reading →

Comments are closed
Older posts Newer posts