Thai Street Food Made at Home in 30 Minutes

Bangkok is known as the tropical capital of Thailand. But even more so, it’s known for its street food.

Although it’s been nearly 30 years since I last visited this great city, I can still smell the aromas wafting through the streets from hundreds of food stalls, drawing me toward one and shelling out 40 Bhat (about 1 USD) for a plate that looks and smells incredible and tastes even better. Wow, what did I just eat? I didn’t always know and I didn’t always want to know. But I did know that it was always magical.

Jump to:

• 🔪 Preparation
• 🥘 Cooking
• 🍽 Serving
• 📝 Recipe

Street food is Bangkok’s great unifier, its great democracy. From every walk of live, people know exactly their favorite food stall, which, in their opinion, makes the best Tom Yum Goong (Spicy Shrimp Soup) or Gaeng Daeng (Red Curry) or a nameless phenomenal noodle dish, and so on and so on.

Yes, it’s true, we can buy fish sauce, bird's eye chilies, cilantro, and even lemongrass in most supermarkets. But it’s also true that we can never achieve that special, spicy, delicious meal that I had so many times while sitting on a wobbly plastic chair on a sidewalk, surrounded by locals in a cacophony of  languages, colors, cars, and - of course - mopeds and tuk tuks.

So I’m not saying that the following recipe will bring you back to the streets of Bangkok. But at least it will give you a glimpse of their cuisine and will hopefully trigger you to go there yourself and see what I mean.

The bright flavor of lime combined with the spiciness of hot peppers and the “unexplainable” depth of fish sauce mixed with fresh herbs somehow, to me, represents a busy, hot, tropical, sweaty night at a street food market in Bangkok. But don’t take my word for it, go ahead, try this dish and let me know if you feel it too.

Thai cooking is mostly done in woks, but a high-rimmed skillet will do just fine. It happens quickly, so it’s essential that you have all your ingredients ready to go before you get started. The fancy word for this is mise en place.

🔪 Preparation

Grab a bowl and combine the shallots, fish sauce, hot peppers, sugar, lime juice, and half of the scallions, mint, and cilantro. You're nearly halfway done 🙂

🥘 Cooking

Heat 1 tablespoon of neutral oil over medium heat and cook the ground pork for about 5 minutes. This step is not meant to brown the ground pork, but just to cook it until it’s no longer pink.

I use a wooden spoon and move the meat around frequently to achieve even cooking and break up any clumps.

Remove the pork and drain the juices (in other words, use a slotted spoon to take the meat out of the skillet).

Pretty simple so far, right? You're actually already done with the cooking! Clean your skillet and the other dirty dishes while you wait for the meat to cool for a couple minutes.

Combine the meat with the sauce and give it good stir. Taste it. Now is a good time to add some Maldon salt to brighten up the flavors a bit.

🍽 Serving

Serve over cooked rice, top with remaining scallions, mint, and cilantro, and serve with an ice cold beer (a Corona Extra works excellent).

You’ll have to make this dish a few times to find out what balance of herbs, fish sauce, and spiciness you like the most. But that won’t be a problem, as this dish is so easy and quick to make and you’ll develop a craving for it anyway. So use the amounts in this recipe as a guideline and I’ll be very curious to hear what amounts you came up with.

"Cooking is a craft, I like to think, and a good cook is a craftsman - not an artist."  ~Anthony Bourdain

Did you make this Thai Street Food recipe? Let us know in the comments below!

📝 Recipe

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