It'd been two and a half months I spent my precious times in my home country, Thailand, where I almost drowned in a vast sea of yummy foods.
The great thing of them all is that most of the times I didn't have to lift my fingers to cook it at all. In Thailand, there are always foods ready to eat everywhere we were. Kitchen is always mom's territory that I can only be a helper.
Noom's mom at her usual butcher stall in fresh market
Fresh market where you can find everything, and I mean everything.
Both my mom and Noom's mom are serious cooks. They are always busy thinking about what we will be eating right next after each meal. It could be exhausted sometimes. They cook tree times a day. I have no idea how they do it, but they make it happen everyday.
In BKK, at Noom's house, mom has a helper named Kra-Taar. She's from Lao, and that's why she made a dead on delicious Som-tum or papaya salad with a secret that I have never known before - adding shrimp paste in it, instead of Pla-Ra or fermented fish as usual, and it is soooo yummy.
Noom's mom in her territory.
With Kra-Taar, the lovely helper
Noom's mom is the Eastern origin, so if you want to have a dead on delicious Thai Eastern foods, come to her kitchen, you'll never be disappointed.
Kra-Taar's signature Som-Tum that made me cry...so spicy
goes with grilled herbal chicken
and mom's Nam Sod Kao Tod ( Seasoned Fried Rice Ball with sour aging pork)
Fresh vegetable picked right off her garden
another delicious meal at home
From Noom's mom's kitchen, I got a tip of making oh-so delicious Som-Tum that I took it with me going back to my mom's kitchen which is the Southern kitchen, and from my mom kitchen, I brought back my mom's signature - Southern curries to Noom's mom kitchen....like a small food ambassador between the Eastern and the Southern in our family.
