Many times while going to the Asian Supermarkets in Elmhurst (Queens, NY), I get inspired to make Thai food . I grabbed some green papaya and already planned making papaya salad for dinner. That is a super impulsive greedy thought that I usually have with food. I don’t think it’s right to give measurements of the flavour for papaya salad because people have different taste preferences. Where my mother comes from, people don’t put sugar in papaya salad and they prefer to taste saltiness over sour. However, the basic ingredients are green papaya (of course), carrots (optional), string bean, cherry or grape tomatoes, fresh chilli, garlic, coconut sugar, fish sauce and lime juice. The accessories to papaya salad vary to specific areas of Thailand. All I can say is that it should have 4 flavours; spicy, salty, a hint of sour and slightly sweet.

I seriously crave Thai food a few times a week and this time the craving was for spicy ground pork in tomato sauce. This dish originates from the northern part of Thailand and generally uses pork belly. However, I chose to use ground pork loin, and the results were comparable. I cooked chopped shallots, garlic and fresh chilli (the amount of chilli depends on the tolerance of each person) added salt to help them soften faster. I then added ground pork and grape tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes). I usually put the lid on and leave a small gap, so the sauce reduces to half and the tomatoes fall apart. I like to add salt at the end after I taste it. If you can find fermented soy bean (Tua Nao), it will taste the closest to the authentic version. I like to eat with rice and fresh vegetables such as dill, cucumber and string bean. It’s one way to add vegetables to your diet.

My husband’s the least favourite vegetable is the brussel sprout. I felt compelled to challenge myself to come up with something he would eat and enjoy. The words “Brussel Sprouts” itself scared him when I told him that it will be part of our dinner. I made very simple sauteed Asian style with garlic, freshly chopped chilli, oyster sauce and soy sauce. The trick of this sauteed vegetable dish is heat, so the pan and oil MUST BE HOT enough. You want to feel the crunchiness of the vegetables, but also it must cook through. Another important part is that the shrimp needs to be cooked just done (don’t overcook). This brussel sprout dish makes me proud of myself in that I finally killed his lack of faith in brussel sprouts. This kind of sauteed dish makes him taste real vegetables.

Dried noodle is requested for lunch at least once a week from my hubby. This time, I add extra crispy wonton like they do in Thailand. I have adapted how to make this noodle in 10 minutes. I boil the water to cook noodle and I fried minced garlic and take it out for topping. In the same pan, cook ground pork and add soy sauce and fish sauce and a pinch of sugar to pork. Then mix in cooked egg noodle into pork pan. Mix in Thai chilli flake and one piece of lime to taste. Sprinkle fried garlic, scallion, pepper and bean sprout. Serve with fried wonton. It’s authentic and unbeleivably fast.