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Spicy Minced Meat with Herbs (larb moo)
ลาบหมู

This is the continuation of our Friday Lunch Menu where we show you that Thai Street Food is not only cheap but can also be very delicious. Our budget for four people is about US$3. Today we had larp which is a kind of salad. The recipe has been around for hundreds of years. There are different versions of it in different regions of Thailand. Quite commonly it contains minced pork or chicken like in this one. The Isaan version has raw meat but I prefer to have this cooked version. The seasoning includes lemon juice, fish sauce, sugar and mint. There are also finely sliced red shallots. The key ingredient that makes this a larp is the roasted rice powder. This is uncooked rice which is roasted and then finely grounded. It is usually served with raw vegetables such as cabbage, snake beans and cucumber. I enjoyed eating this dish which had a distinct lemony taste. This dish cost us 25 baht.

Red Curry with Pineapple and Mussels (Kaeng Khua Subparod Sai Hoi)
แกงคั่วสับปะรดใส่หอย

I have seen different versions of this dish. More commonly it is wax gourd and chicken. But this version has pineapple and sea mussels. The spices that are used to make the coconut curry include dried chillies, minced galangal, minced lemon grass, shallots, garlic and shrimp paste. This is pounded in a mortar until finely grounded. I liked the curry a lot as well as the sweet pineapples. But I am not that keen on the sea mussels! But it wasn't too bad. The price was 20 baht.

Stir Fried Morning Glory with Pork and Shrimp Paste
ผัดผักบุ้งใส่หมูและกะปิ

Of all the dishes today this one was the one I disliked the most. The pork and morning glory was good. However, I think the cook went a bit overboard with the shrimp paste. The taste was very strong so I could only eat a little. This dish cost 20 baht.

Chicken Coconut Soup (Tom Kha Gai)
ต้มข่าไก่

I have shown you pictures of this one before. It is by far my favourite and I often order at restaurants. However, as this one was only 20 baht you basically get what you paid for. There wasn't too much chicken and the taste wasn't as strong as it should be. The key ingredients, apart from the coconut milk, is the galangal (which is very good for your health) and lemon grass. However, I couldn't find any galangal though I could taste it. Maybe they recycled it for another dish! It was still delicious and well worth the money. But, in the future I think I will only eat this dish in a restaurant.