Category Archives: Thai/Lao food

Posts related to Thai/Lao food.

Isaan-style papaya salads

Posted on June 13, 2025 by David Dettmann

Last night La and I presented to a lovely group of people at the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Culinary Literacy Center. For those of you who don’t know, the FLP has a teaching kitchen up on the 4th floor of … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Featured Markets, - Recipes, Thai/Lao food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

This year’s new Asian markets and closed markets that will be missed

Posted on January 2, 2021 by David Dettmann

From the end of 2019 through to 2020 several Asian markets closed in Philly, but we also gained just as many new markets. Here is a roundup: Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Featured Markets, - Guides, Chinese food, Korean food, Thai/Lao food | 4 Comments

Fragrant and crispy peppers, for snacking on

Posted on May 19, 2019 by David Dettmann

In recent years an interesting snack seems to be trending all around China: fried “fragrant and crispy” peppers (香脆椒, aka 香辣酥), sometimes translated into English as “fried chile crisp”, or “magic chili”. I don’t recall seeing these in the 90s … Continue reading →

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Delicious greens: yuchoy

Posted on December 9, 2017 by David Dettmann

Long leaf vegetables are a key component of most meals at our house, and yuchoy is a vegetable that comes fresh to Philadelphia markets regularly. That is to say it is usually in our fridge. It keeps pretty well for … Continue reading →

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Young tamarind leaves and an Isaan-inspired sour chicken soup

Posted on October 25, 2017 by David Dettmann

Green tamarind and tamarind leaves are back at my go-to Cambodian market, providing an opportunity to explore cooking with these rare Southeast Asian sour treats. Dried tamarind fruit is of course a standard souring agent for cuisines ranging from Persia … Continue reading →

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Grilled long eggplant, two ways

Posted on August 6, 2017 by David Dettmann

It is a nice day for grilling, and I’d like to use up a few ugly vegetables I have kicking around in the fridge. Some lovely hardwood smoke will do wonders to make these guys shine, and the preparation couldn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Cambodian food, Thai/Lao food | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sino-Thai Sunday brunch: bakuteh and batonggo

Posted on July 30, 2017 by David Dettmann

Today I recreated a food experience from last summer in Bangkok, when my sisters-in-law took me out for a Chinese-style brunch at a place that specialized in “meat bone tea” (肉骨茶), or as locals in Thailand/Malaysia/Singapore/Indonesia refer to as bakuteh บะกุ๊ดเต๋. … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Recipes, Chinese food, Malay/Indonesian food, Thai/Lao food | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Delicious greens: water spinach

Posted on May 10, 2017 by David Dettmann

Water spinach is one of our favorite vegetables. It is a popular vegetable to stir fry in Southern China and Southeast Asia. When quickly fried at high heat, its leaves wilt and the stems stay crunchy. Its flavor is like … Continue reading →

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Edible Southeast Asian tree and bush leaves

Posted on January 5, 2017 by David Dettmann

Happy New Year greetings! Although I wasn’t able to post as much as I would have liked to in 2016, I was able to continue my careful exploration of interesting finds at our MANY Asian markets in Philadelphia (I now … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Featured Markets, Cambodian food, Indian food, Thai/Lao food | 3 Comments

(A few) Asian grocery options for Germantown and Manayunk

Posted on September 18, 2016 by David Dettmann

Regular readers of this blog may be surprised to find that for the past 3 years, I have been living about as far away from any Asian market as can possibly be in Philadelphia. Perhaps that has helped force me … Continue reading →

Posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, - Featured Markets, Japanese food, Korean food, Thai/Lao food | Tagged , | 3 Comments