Los Angeles Thai Restaurants

Massaman curry (kaeng matsaman or gaeng masaman. IPA:  is a Thai dish that is Muslim in origin. It is most commonly made with beef, but can also be made with duck or chicken.

The flavoring for Massaman curry is called Massaman curry paste (nam prik kaeng masaman). The dish usually contains coconut milk, roasted peanuts, potatoes, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon, palm sugar, fish sauce, and tamarind sauce. Muslim, and later Portuguese, traders brought spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, cloves and nutmeg from the Middle East and India to the south coast of Thailand. The dish is served with rice and sometimes with pickled ginger or “Ajaad” sauce made with cucumber and peppers macerated in vinegar.

Khao soi or Khao soy (Thai: ข้าวซอย) is a Burmese-influenced dish served in northern Laos and northern Thailand, especially Luang Prabang and Chiang Mai, respectively. It is a soup-like dish made with deep-fried crispy egg noodles, pickled cabbage, shallots, lime, nam prik pao, and meat in a curry-like sauce containing coconut milk. The curry is similar to that of yellow or Massaman curries but is thinner. Some recipes use Massaman curry in the dish. Though northern Lao people have a special way of preparing this dish, different versions of it can be found at Lao restaurants. It is popular as a street dish eaten by Thai people, though not frequently served in Western Thai restaurants.

Traditionally, the dish was served with beef or chicken rather than pork, as it is Chinese Muslim in origin.

Tom yum (tom yam in the Royal Thai General System of Transcription) is a soup originating from Thailand. It is perhaps one of the most famous dishes in Thai cuisine. It is widely served in neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, and has been popularized around the world.

Tom yum is characterized by its distinct hot and sour flavors, with fragrant herbs generously used. The basic broth is made of stock and fresh ingredients such as lemon grass; kaffir lime leaves galangal, shallots, and lime juice, fish sauce, and tamarind, slices of ginger and crushed chili peppers.

In Thailand, tom yum is usually made with prawns (tom yum goong), chicken (tom yum gai), fish (tom yum pla), or mixed seafood (tom yum talay or tom yum po taek) and mushrooms – usually straw or oyster mushrooms. The soup is often topped with generous sprinkling of fresh chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves.

Although popularly considered as a single cuisine, Thai food would be more accurately described as four regional cuisines corresponding to the four main regions of the country: Northern, Northeastern (or Isan), Central, and Southern, each cuisine sharing similar foods or derived from those of neighboring countries. Southern curries, for example, tend to contain coconut milk and fresh turmeric, while northeastern dishes often include lime juice. The cuisine of Northeastern (or Isan) Thailand is heavily influenced by Laos. Many popular dishes eaten in Thailand were originally Chinese dishes which were introduced to Thailand mainly by Teochew people who make up the majority of the Thai Chinese. Such dishes include Jok, Kway teow Rad Na, Khao Kha Moo (also known as Moo Pa-loh) and Khao Mun Gai.

Instead of a multiple main course with side dishes found in Western cuisine, a Thai full meal typically consists of either a single dish or rice khao with many complementary dishes served concurrently.

Jasmine rice , sometimes known as Thai fragrant rice, is a long-grain variety of rice that has a nutty aroma and a subtle and pandan-like (Pandanus amaryllifolius-leaves) flavor caused by 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline. Jasmine rice is originally from Thailand. It was discovered as the Kao Horm Mali 105 variety (KDML105) by Sunthorn Seehanern, an official of the ministry of agriculture in the Chachoengsao Province of Thailand in 1954. The grains will cling when cooked, though it is less sticky than other rices as it has less amylopectin.

Hainanese chicken rice is a dish of Chinese origin most commonly associated with Malaysian cuisine or Singaporean cuisine, although it is also commonly sold in neighbouring Thailand, and found in Hainan, China itself. So-called due to its roots in Hainan cuisine and its adoption by the Hainanese overseas Chinese population in the Nanyang area, the version found in Malaysia/Singapore combines elements of Hainanese and Cantonese cuisines along with culinary preferences in the Southeast Asian region..

The chicken is prepared in traditional Hainanese methods which involve the boiling of the entire chicken in a pork and chicken bone stock, reusing the broth over and over and only topping it up with water when needed, in accordance with the Chinese preferences for creating master stocks. This stock is not used for rice preparation, which instead involves chicken stock created specifically for that purpose, producing an oily, flavourful rice sometimes known as “oily rice”. Some cooks may add coconut milk to the rice, reminiscent of the Malay dish nasi lemak.