Stir-Fried Thai Tom Yam Chicken

This weekend is fully packed with activities for me. As a result, I couldn't cook any fanciful food until I saw my jar of Thai Tom Yam paste in the fridge that spark off this easy-to-cook recipe in my mind - Stir-Fried Tom Yam Chicken. I like to cook this dish during a busy schedule as it is relatively easy and no complex food preparation needed beforehand. I made modification to the recipe by adding few sprigs of Thai Basil Leaves that further enhance the aroma of the Stir-Fried Tom Yam Chicken to a new level. 

Stir-Fried Thai Tom Yam Chicken

• 1 Medium Boneless Chicken Thigh (Cut in Chunks)
• 1 Tablespoon of Thai Tom Yam Paste
• 1 Teaspoon of Cooking Wine
• 1 Teaspoon of Thai Fish Sauce (Optional)
• 2 Teaspoon of Sugar
• 1/2 Cup of Thai Basil Leaves
• 1 Tablespoon of Oil
  

Marinate the chicken thigh chunks with cooking wine, sugar, Thai Tom Yam paste and Fish Sauce. Make sure all the chicken parts are even coated and leave it to marinate overnight in the fridge for best result else at least leave it to marinate for 3 hours. Heat up the frying pan with oil, add in the chicken stir fry it for 5 mins until you see the chicken start to change color. Lower the heat as you do not want overcook the chicken and lose it tenderness, fried for another 5 mins then switch off the stove and add in the thai basil leaves and stir the chicken and make sure the basil leaves even distribute throughout the chicken. The latent heat from the Tom Yam Chicken will release the aroma from thai basil leave making the dish very aromatic and tasty.

Pad Thai That Touch My Heart - Ah Loy Thai

The foodie trek finally is coming to an end. I decide to end it at Shaw Centre (Beach Road) - Ah Loy Thai. Ah Loy Thai is one of the most elusive Thai restaurant I ever encountered as they do not operate in the afternoon or Sunday as a result I never got the chance to taste their Thai food.  

We reached Ah Loy Thai at 6pm and was delighted they are open for business. We are lucky the dinner crowd haven't came in yet. Ah Loy Thai is a no frills Thai restaurant as they do not charge GST or service charge. Basically, you tick down your orders on menu chit, paid for it at the cashier and sit down wait for your order to be serve. We order 2 Pad Thai ($4.80/pax) and a Thai Green Curry ($5.50).

 

 

As we gingerly wait for our orders, the dinner crowd finally comes and Ah Loy Thai  was fully packed in minutes with queue growing. At last, our Pad Thai and Green Curry finally came. When I took my first bite into the Pad Thai, I was amazed of the "Wok Hei" this Pad Thai packed. So far I haven't come across a Pad Thai that was cook with enough "Wok Hei" to touch my heart. The Pad Thai is adequately season with fish sauce coupled with generous serving of Sotong and Prawns that wasn't overcook. It might be a tat oily for some but the lime slice provide is adequate enough to reduce the excess oily feeling this Pad Thai might render.

I moved on try the Thai Green Curry and I find it not too thick (like soup curry) and not overwhelming with coconut cream which is a plus as I have bad experience with thick Thai Green Curry that gave me indigestion. My friend is surprised to find fish ball in the green curry as he no idea that fish ball can add as a accompaniment. The chicken pieces is chunky enough but wasn't as tender as I hoped. Ah Loy Thai would be the contender to rather expensive Thai Restaurant like ThaiXpress or Lerk Thai offering same kind of Thai food.