Tender strips of marinated, grilled meat, sweet and spicy peanut sauce, and cooling cucumber salad combine in Thai satay, one of Thailand’s most famous street foods. Authentic satay is easy to make at home for an impressive meal for two people, or twenty guests. Take inspiration from satay, or Thailand’s other grilled meats like sweet marinated grilled pork, to grill your own creations.

Update 2012: The Yi Peng festival took place in Mae Jo, Chiang Mai on the evening of November 25th 2012. In Bangkok, waves of light twinkle down the Chao Praya under a glitzy fireworks show. In Sukhothai, their Loy Kratong celebration is more traditional, as teenagers in silk and gold costumes dance next to elaborate […]

Thai sausages are relatively unknown outside of Thailand, which is unfortunate, as Thailand has a long tradition of preserving meat, and creating new flavors, with their spiced sausages like Naem and Sai Ua. Thailand’s street markets are crowded with vendors selling the local specialty sausage, grilled, smoked, or even deep-fried.

Or is Tom Yum Goong Thailand’s signature dish? Thai Tom Yum Goong boils pungent herbs like lemongrass, chili peppers, and kaffir lime leaves, with lightly cooked sweet prawns to create a uniquely flavorful, spicy, and enticing soup. Different varieties of Tom Yum, with different meats and different levels of heat, suit everyone’s taste.

Pad Thai is Thailand’s most famous food export, but the history of Pad Thai might be a bit of a surprise. Pad Thai exemplifies the balance of sweet, hot, salty, sour, and bitter flavors that is key to Thai cuisine, while creating an interesting mix of textures from the cooked noodles, crisp bean sprouts, and crunchy dried shrimp. Some stands are even creating new Pad Thai varieties out of green papaya!

Pad Thai is not the only option in Thai fried noodles. Pad See Ew, Raad Na, and Pad Kee Mao all use similar ingredients and small alterations to create their unique flavors. A noodle shop in Chiang Mai’s Old City serves up great versions of all three, plus spicy green mango salad.

Temple of Thai’s staff writer visits a local Thai market to try a batch of Thai green curry from scratch. She finds, though, that making curry is harder than she expected – especially with the wrong kind of mortar and pestle. The next day, the homemade green curry paste turns into a Thai-European fusion green curry pasta sauce.