Essential herbs and condiments in Thai kitchen

Key herbs

Using a lot of herbs in Thai cooking helps stimulate authentic taste and of course make dishes more satisfying. The Three Musketeers in Thai cuisine are galangal, lemongrass and kiffir lime leaves. You will always find a bundle (... literall! Galangal, lemongrass and kiffir lime leaves bound together with a rubber band) in every Thai market. The more you cook Thai food, you'll learn you can't use one without the others. Other herbs like garlic and shallot are also not to be short of hands.

Galangal (ka) Looks like ginger root but the inside is perfectly white

Lemongrass (ta krai) Cut off tough leaves and lower bulbs before use. Use the stalk (yellow section) mainly.

Kaffir lime leaves (bai ma krood) Often used whole in soup and very thinly sliced in panang and fish cake.

Fresh Thai Chili (prik kee noo sod) Red ones are ripe and green ones are not. Using both colors creates more colorful dishes.

Dried Thai Chili (prik kee noo haeng) The sun-dried version of the ripe red one above. Often used to make curry pastes or pan-toasted and ground to make table dipping sauce.

Shallot (hom hua daeng) Used in salad (yum), curry paste and used whole in some soup.

Garlic (kra-tiam) Used in almost every stir-fried dishes. Sprinkle a teaspoon of dry and crispy fried garlic on top, make your Thai noodle soup more dainty.

Lime (ma nao) We don't recommend lemon as substitute.

Basil (ho ra pah) Always used in red and green curry.

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Key Condiments

Thai meal is a composition of 5 different instruments; sour, sweet, salty, spicy and bitter. Most of the herbs above play sour, spicy and bitter parts. The following condiments plays the rest, salty and sweet.

Fish Sauce (nam pla) Almost impossible to make create a Thai dish without it. Smelly and salty but a dash of it is such a fulfillment.

Shrimp Paste (ka pi) Used to make all curry paste. Also used in some dipping sauce.

Oyster sauce (nam man hoi) Thick texture made from oyster. This gives a mixture of sweet, salty and seafood-like taste. Used most in stir-fired dishes and marinating meat.

Light soy sauce (see ew kao) The color looks so much like fish sauce, but a lot less salty.