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.

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.

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.

Khao Man Gai (ข้าวมันไก่) is derived from Hainanese-Style Chicken on Rice but has been modified over the years to become subtly different and distinctly Thai. This one-plate dish is one of the most common and popular small eatery dishes available countrywide though it is not so well known outside of Thailand as it is perhaps […]