Tomuyamukun / tom yum goong

Here is the tom yum goong I longed for. I finally was able to make this simple soup that indeed reminds me of what I routinely had from a locally popular Isan restaurant near my apartment in Bangkok. There is no secret. As with any cuisine, all you need is good ingredients. What I learned from my trials and errors over the years is not to add too much of aromatic ingredients and make a good stock.

1/4 of recipe:
111 calories; 14.9 g protein; 2.0 g fat; 10.3 g carbohydrate; 8.1 g net carbs; 427 mg sodium; 93 mg cholesterol; 2.3 g fiber

Chiri in oiru / nam prik pao / Thai red chili paste

An oily paste similar to the XO sauce found in Chinese dishes, nam prik pao perks up any dish. It is spicy yet somehow sweet and mild all at the same time. The complexity largely comes from shami dried shrimp and kapi fermented shrimp paste. Nam prik pao also contains tamarind paste, which accounts for its subtle sweet-sour fruitiness.