Pam Real Thai Oxtail Soup. Pam Real Thai opened in 2001 and closed in 2020.
Came across these Thai curry paste taste-offs and thought I’d share.
Her top rankings (Mae Ploy, Aroy-D, Namjai) all have shrimp paste (I haven’t come across Aroy-D without it yet), and I often cook for vegetarians so Maesri is what I prefer to stock (and adjust with fish sauce for the meat eaters).
I used to buy Mae Ploy, but between the huge size of the jar (Maesri comes in small cans too) and the shrimp paste, I switched.
Thai kitchen has almost no flavor. Such a waste.
3 Likes
I seem to remember Thai Kitchen red curry paste tasting better 8 years ago. I agree it has no taste right now.
I’ll have to try some other curry pastes.
I have liked some deSIAM Thai curry kits.
My friend used Mae Ploy green curry paste, which wasn’t to my taste.
I think I might not have eaten enough Thai food back then to discern, so maybe it tasted fine, and now I want more flavor 
(I bought cans of Maesri red & green again because the giant jar of Penang paste has taken soooooo long to work through.)
1 Like
Green curry with BTS, Chinese eggplant (couldn’t find any Thai eggplant), peas, red peppers over jasmine rice. Lotsa Thai basil and cilantro for greenery on top 
1 Like
I am almost at the point where I’m leaving Thai food to the experts. A take-out treat. I typically don’t follow recipes closely enough to make really delicious Thai food at home.
3 Likes
delete
I don’t follow any recipes closely enough tbh 
But if you have access to a few key flavor components and ingredients, some dishes can turn out well at home.
Curries and sautéed dishes that rely on aromatics and curry paste are easier than noodles imo — procuring the right noodle can be a challenge, and then the level of heat / equipment for a bit of char when it’s needed can also be tricky.
Sometimes I think it’s about expectations management — and then tinkering at the end with fish sauce, palm sugar / jaggery, lemon juice, etc to get the balance to where you want it.
(I had some funny conversations recently with indian friends who when they traveled to Thailand, really disliked the flavor element of fish sauce in everything — they had eaten plenty of good Thai food in India, just without fish sauce . How to explain 
)
2 Likes
There’s a Thai restaurant in Toronto, Sweet Lulu’s, that has been in business about 15 years, and the gimmick that keeps the resto in business is that it offers a checklist of ingredients for each dish, making it possible to omit the cilantro and a few other ingredients in the Pad Thai and other dishes.
Cilantro seems to be the thing some of my friends dislike about Thai food.
Problem fixed! lol
I went once and it was okay I guess, but I don’t have a problem with cilantro and there are better places for Pad Thai.
I disliked cilantro as a kid (quite challenging for indian food too, where it goes in as a garnish by default — my plate would be decorated with tiny chopped bits I had fished out of everything 
) — I enjoy it now.
( wonder if the enzyme thing was at play, as I’ve had other allergies sort themselves out over time too.)
Asking for no fish sauce or cilantro in New York is not usually a big deal (I have vegetarian family members who have to specify no chicken broth, no fish sauce, no egg quite regularly even though it seems obvious to me that those are not vegetarian things and should not be in a dish labeled vegetarian or vegan).
1 Like
