Sorry, I’ve been quiet on the blog this week; I’ve not been very well following the typhoid vaccine for our up and coming Malaysia holiday and what with our house now on the market and people coming to view it, it’s been a difficult week to get in the kitchen and get some new recipes out. Following on from the staple Thai store cupboard ingredients post the other week, I thought I’d do a post about the Thai condiment caddy- the ubiquitous 4 pots of seasonings that can be found at every Thai table- whether a restaurant, casual street cafe or a Thai home. I hear that many Thai restaurants in the US will have these too although to date the only one I’ve come across in the UK to have a caddy is Siam Smiles in Manchester which I wrote about a month or two back here.
Often in the west, if we eat at a restaurant it can be seen as poor etiquette to receive a meal, only to start heaping salt/pepper on top of it. Not so in Thailand where it is expected that each diner will want to adapt the flavour of their dish to their personal tastes. The aim is to find your perfect balance of spicy, sour, salty and sweet (known as the 4 flavours). Noodle dishes in particular are most commonly ‘improved’ by additions from the condiment caddy. There are numerous options of sauces, flavourings and ingredients that might be found at a Thai table but here, I have settled here for the 4 that are commonly used (and eaten) by us at home.
In my caddy I have:
- white sugar (naam tam sai)
- chilli flakes (prik bon)
- roasted chilli paste (naam prik pao)
- sliced chillies & garlic in fish sauce and vinegar (naam pla prik gratiem)
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