My favorite Thai treat!

Much to my surprise, my absolute favorite Thai dish was not Pad Thai, although those delectable street noodles will forever hold a special place in my stomach. Rather, my favorite dish turned out to be the tantalizingly spicy Tom Yum Ga which roughly translates to "hot and sour chicken soup". When I say "hot and sour soup" I am not referring to the Americanized Chinese version of spicy soup but rather the magical concoction including lemongrass, golangal (a close relative to ginger), mouse shit chilis(as the Thais lovingly refer to them),chili paste, and chicken. Even in the humid summer heat of Bangkok, this spicy soup has a tangy edge that makes it oh so refreshing. The sweat dripping down my face due to the intense heat only heightens the slurping experience. With every sip, the first flavor to hit the taste buds is the lemongrass and golangal tang, followed by a mouth numbing spice that causes the lips to tingle, the tongue to burn, and the back of the throat to cry for more!

Let me clarify, Thai spicy is not like Mexican spicy or even Cajun spicy. The Thais seem to prefer the sort of spice that singes one's taste buds into oblivion, which means the spicy soups I consumed were probably about a two on the Thai spice scale, but a seven or an eight on the fabbie foodie spice scale! My absolute favorite Tom Yum Ga experience was at a small makeshift street restaurant down the street from our hotel. It was prepared in an outdoor "kitchen" that likely would never pass any American health inspection. However, due to the fact that soup must be thoroughly heated and boiled prior to consumption, this delicious soup seemed perfectly fine for my tummy to consume! I'll also admit that after the most delicious version of this soup on the street, I did indeed eat it again later that evening in the high end restaurant in Bangkok called Nahm just to see how the street version compared to the restaurant version. It was a close tie, but the Nahm version was so exceedingly spicy that I unfortunately could not taste it thoroughly. I now know that prior to any future Thai meal I eat, it will be tough to pass up an appetizer of this delicious Thai soup-I'll simply have to request it to be made "white girl spicy"!

After sweating it out during an afternoon of sightseeing, I decided to torture myself even more with this deliciously hot and spicy soup!


Just to make sure the soup was really the most delicious soup I've ever had, I ordered it again the same evening. Turns out it wasn't a fluke, this stuff is awesome!