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Come here to learn how to cook  Authentic Thai Food

One of the biggest things you need to do in order to be able to prepare Authentic Thai Dishes is have the right ingredients to use. You can always go to your local Asian food market or order online. One of the best places we have found on the internet is efooddepot . They have Food from all the different Asian countries. Shipping is very reasonable.

The most important ingredient you will need is Fish Sauce.

Thai Cooking Fish Sauce

You have to use this to get the real Thai taste.  Shown in the photo are two popular brands sold.  Squid Brand is made the slow way with no additives and The Three Crabs Brand has Fructose instead of sugar and Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein added to it to speed up the fermentation of the Fish Sauce.  Both have Anchovy Extract, salt and sugar.  Both taste excellent.

Thai Cooking Kaffir Lime

It’s beneficial to grow some of your own herbs.
The leaves and any fruit that may grow on the Kaffir Lime tree are very useful in Thai recipes.  If you live in a area that experiences a cold winter, the use of a grow light may be necessary.  The Kaffir Lime Tree should be kept in temperatures of 60°F or above.  It will grow very good in the summer months.

Thai Cooking Thai Basil

This is  Thai Basil or Cinnamon Basil.
This plant here is at the end of its life.  It is one we brought in from our garden. We will start new plants in February so that they get a good start before planting outside this spring.

Thai Cooking Mortar & Pestle

One of the most important tools to use in Thai Cooking is a Mortar and Pestle.  It is used to smash or grind pepper, garlic and any other herb or spice you use.  The Mortar and Pestle pictured here is made of granite.  Do not get the clay version of this tool.  They will break very easy.  The clay version is used primarily to make salad and not meant to do heavy grinding.

Thai Vegetables used in Thai cooking.

Thailand has over 200 different kinds of vegetables grown there. Many are used in a verity of ways in Thai cooking. Thai cooking will use any where from the roots of some to the stems, leaves and shoots of young plants.

Plants that use the roots are Krachai, Ginger, Galanga, Turmeric, Daikon Radish, Taro Root, Boniato, Yucca Root, Lottus Root, Cilantro Root and Bean sprouts.

Stems used for cooking are Lemon Grass, Sugar Cain, Cilantro any of the Chives and Green onions.

Leaves used several types of Basils, Water Spinach, Mint, types of Broccoli, Types of cabbage, Bitter Melon Leaves, Kaffir Lime tree and Pea leaves. There are many kinds and this short list is some of the more common used.

Some of the seeds and seed pods used would be, Bitter Melon, Long Bean, Many kinds of Egg plant as Thai, Cherry and Purple Egg Plant, Squashes and Gourds and Pickling Cucumbers. Spice seeds used Thai Chili, fresh and dried. These give Thai food most of the heat. Also used are green black pepper seeds. This is un-dried peppercorn seeds.

Some flowers used are Thai Edible Flower, you can find these frozen imported from Thailand and Banana Flowers. Bamboo shoots are used in Thai curries, this can be found to in Asian stores. Banana leaves are used to for wrapping up food for steaming.

The lists above as mentioned are some common ones used that Ning uses. There are many more than mentioned here. Some can be found in Asian stores. There are always different combinations to use in many of the Thai dishes, so if you can not find a certain kind, you can substitute with an other of the same type.

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Chang Erawan Museum in Samut Prakan Province

Three Headed Elephant

The Three Headed Elephant is 29 metres high and 39 metres long.  Add another 14.6 meters to count the building that it is standing on.  The elephants weight is around 250 tons. You can not miss seeing this from Sukhumwit Road on your way to Samut Prakan from Bangkok.

Construction started in 1994 and the finishing work still goes on today.  This was built by a very successful Mercedes Benz dealership owner named Khun Lek Viriyapant.  He wanted to preserve his collection of antiques as a contribution to Thai culture heritage.  Many pieces of his collection are priceless objects of art.  Most of these are in the basement and taking photograhs is not permitted.

Doug & Ning at the Three Headed Elephant

The size of the elephant is phenomenal.  If you look closely, you can see the people standing at the base of the building to the lower left in the photo.  On the inside, there are stairs or a lift leading up the rear legs.  The stairs are the small spiral type and the ceiling is very low.  Watch your head on the way up!

Tin Plated Pillar inside the Three Headed Elephant

On the ground floor there are four pillars with tin plated designs.  Each pillar represents one of the four major religions of the world:  Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam.  This photo shows one of the pillars going up to the ceiling.  The ceiling is a stained glass window of a world map.  If you could look out of the window you would be looking straight up at the belly of the elephant.

Inside the Three Headed Elephant

Bowls and spoons are some of the things used to decorate the place inside on the main floor. As you can see by the photos, it was very labor intensive to put this together.  The bowls were broken up into pieces and then arranged in patterns.

Inside the Three Headed Elephant

Decorative bowls are visible here

The photo on the left clearly shows the spoons used for the ears on the elephant.  The rest of the elephant was decorated with pieces of broken bowls.

"Stairs to Heaven"

This photo contains the Stairs to Heaven.  If you climb the Stairs to Heaven,  you will arrive on the first landing which has access to the lift of the stairs leading up the inside of the elephant statues rear legs.

"Heaven"

Taken in the belly of the elephant, this photo depicts heaven to the Thai’s.  It is like entering a temple and there are celestial stars painted on the ceiling.

One of several Worship Gardens

Worship Gardens

These photos only give a small sense of the sights to see.  The museum is definitely worth the trip if you ever travel to Bangkok Thailand.