Young Coconut Meat (Nuea Ma-Phrao On เนื้อมะพร้าวอ่อน)

It's that awkward stage when a young coconut becomes, uh, an adolescent. If you're familiar with how young coconuts work, you'll know upon cracking one open whether you get a baby coconut or a teenager. In general, if the meat is less than 1/8 inch thick, the coconut is young enough for you to drink its water and scrape off its tender meat with a spoon.

This one? It has reached puberty, but is not quite mature enough to be grated for the purpose of making coconut milk yet. The meat is somewhat hard and a little over 1/4 inch thick. I would have bent a spoon trying to scrape it off the shell. So instead, I use my hand to pry the whole thing out of the shell (not that difficult) and cut it up into thin slices. I can eat this as a snack. I can add it to Thai-style coconut ice cream. So many things to do with it.

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Glutinous Rice Flour (Paeng Khao Niao แป้งข้าวเหนียว)

Unlike its more versatile non-glutinous counterpart, this type of flour is used almost exclusively to make desserts. When a Thai recipe calls for glutinous (or sticky) rice flour, this is the only type of flour you should be using. I cannot think of anything that you can use in its place. This is one of those ingredients that cannot be substituted, in my opinion.

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Kra-chai (Fingerroot กระชาย)

You can read about what fingerroot (Boesenbergia rotunda) is here.

If you can find fresh kra-chai, by all means, use it. If not, I highly recommend kra-chai slivers in brine as shown here. I've found it to be more potent than frozen, vacuum-packed kra-chai (which can come whole or slivered).

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Shredded Coconut Meat

Most often used as a dessert topping, meat of mature coconut, grated into long strands like this, is essential to Thai cooking.

It's fine if you'd like to grate your own in which case you'll need a hand-grater. But it's more convenient to just buy it frozen. Look for frozen grated coconut in the freezer of your local Asian grocer. Most of the time, it comes from Thailand.

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Rice Flour (Paeng Khao Chao แป้งข้าวเจ้า)

When it comes to Thai recipes, this type of very, very fine and light (long grain) rice flour works best. Look for it at any Asian grocery store.

Be careful not to confuse it with glutinous rice flour; the two are not interchangeable at all.

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Angled Luffa - Buap (บวบ or บวบเหลี่ยม)

Angled luffa (Luffa acutangula) goes by many names: Chinese okra, angled gourd, ridge(d) gourd, dishcloth gourd, etc. The Thai people call this vegetable buap (บวบ) or -- to be prevent confusion with a similar gourd sans ridges called buap hom (บวบหอม) -- buap liam (บวบเหลี่ยม).

This gourd is used in modern Thai cuisine in a simple stir-fry, along with other vegetables in a coconut-less vegetable curry called kaeng liang (แกงเลียง), or served lightly steamed as a relish accompaniment. I'm sure there are other ways this vegetable is used, but these three seem to be the most common.


To prepare an angled luffa, simply peel off the skin along with the ridges. This can be done easily with a vegetable peeler. I personally like to peel off the skin just enough to get rid of the ridges and level off the exterior, leaving a little bit of the edible skin on. Not everyone does that; I just like the crunchy texture from the skin remnants.


Then you can cut it into bite-sized pieces. I like to roll-cut it as that is the easiest way to make sure all the pieces are of the same size so they cook at the same rate. You can simply cut a peeled angled luffa crosswise, but you'll see that the part that's attached to the stem is more tapered than the other end, so be sure to trim the pieces from the wider part to get all the gourd pieces the same size.

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Fresh Galangal (Kha - ข่า) and Galangal Powder (Kha Pong - ข่าผง)

The two are, in most cases, not interchangeable. In fact, hardly anyone who lives in Thailand where galangal (sometimes, galanga) grows like weed ever resorts to the powder version. The inferior galangal powder is useful when you live in a place where fresh galangal is not readily available.


There is, however, a limit to the extent to which galangal powder can be used instead of fresh galangal. In a dish where galangal is either optional or used so minimally such as Laab, galangal powder comes in handy. When minced galangal is used in a marinade, galangal powder also serves as a pretty good substitute. However, in a dish the success of which relies heavily on the use of fresh galangal, e.g. Tom Kha Gai, using galangal powder in lieu of fresh galangal, in my opinion, will result in tragedy in a bowl.

Fresh galangal is often prepared by being slice thinly crosswise. There's no need to peel it. Thinly-sliced galangal is ready to be pounded together with other ingredients to make a curry paste or added to an infusion soup such as Tom Yam or Tom Kha Gai.

Fresh galangal, wrapped in a double layer of paper towel and put in a plastic bag, stay fresh in the vegetable crisper in the refrigerator for almost two weeks. It can be sliced thin and frozen for longer storage, but I don't recommend it. This is because freezing alters the taste, aroma, and texture of fresh galangal quite a bit. Previously-frozen galangal, once thawed, becomes spongy in texture, tea-like in aroma, and a bit bitter in taste. It's still usable in a curry paste, but detrimental to a dish like Tom Yam.

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Desiccated Coconut Flakes

Desiccated coconut flakes (unsweetened) like this isn't normally used in Thai cuisine; it's used mostly in the cuisines of South Asia and the Middle East. It's so easy to find. In fact, I've never found any South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, etc.) grocery store in the US that doesn't have this ingredient.

However, I recommend it for certain Thai dishes that call for thinly-sliced or finely-julienned mature coconut meat, toasted, as it saves you time and reduces your workload. To produce julienned coconut meat means that you have to crack a mature coconut, remove the meat from the shell, and slice it manually (a food processor is useless for this task). Based on my experience, this is hellish and takes a long time. You can certainly go that route. Otherwise, desiccated coconut flakes are a good compromise.

Being desiccated means this type of coconut won't produce coconut milk. You could soak the flakes in warm water, but only a thin, insipid, useless coconut-flavored liquid is all you're going to get. To make coconut milk, you need either fresh or frozen grated mature coconut meat which has never been desiccated. To grate coconut yourself, you need a coconut rabbit. Otherwise, frozen grated coconut meat (from either the Philippines or Thailand) in the freezer section of your local Southeast Asian store is your friend.

To toast desiccated coconut flakes, put the flakes in a dry skillet over medium-low heat and stir almost constantly until the coconut flakes turn dark blond (or is it light brown?). Do not walk away from the skillet even for just a bit as the flakes go from light brown to black in a matter of seconds. This task doesn't take that much time anyway.

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Southern Thai Fish Sauce - Nam Bu Du (น้ำบูดู)

Budu (น้ำบูดู) is the famous southern-style fish sauce which I've alluded to in my post on Thai Southern-style grilled chicken. My mother, who wasn't a Southerner, had at least a dozen bottles of this sauce in the cupboard at any given time. It was the premium budu from the city of Sai Buri in the southern province of Pattani where the best budu sauce is made.

I don't think I can present a good case to you skeptics out there why a sauce made from little fishies that have been fermented for nearly a year produces such delicious sauces and relishes, so I'm just going to ask you to look me in the eye and promise me that you will give it a try even though your heart and your mind say, "Uh, heck, no."

As far as I know, Pantainorasingh is the only brand that has exported their budu to North America. You should be able to find it at any large, well-stocked Southeast Asian supermarket. Online vendors specializing in Southeast Asian, especially Thai, ingredients certainly carry it. You may have to search for "bu-do" sauce in order to be led to the right product. This spelling is driving me nuts as it has no linguistic support whatsoever. I can't, for the life of me, figure out the reason for the spelling, "Bu-do."

The only thing I can think of is that someone at some point decided that since you English speakers already have the word "do" that is pronounced "du/doo" in your vocabulary, this spelling would be somewhat like a pronunciation aid for you as in, 'Hey, we could have gone with 'budu' which is how it's spelled in the original Malay, but we thought 'bu-do' would have made a foreign language one syllable easier for you. You're welcome!'

I personally find this to be a tad condescending, but that's just me.

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Green Mangoes

Green mangoes that are very tart and only slightly sweet (มะม่วงดิบ/มะม่วงเปรี้ยว) are perfect for Thai cooking.

But aren't all green mangoes tart? Not necessarily. In Thailand, we have another category of green mangoes that aren't so tart and only moderately sweet (มะม่วงมัน); these are great eating mangoes but not suitable to use in cooking. These non-tart mangoes aren't available -- at least not widely -- outside of Southeast Asia as far as I know, so for most people, differentiating non-tart green mangoes from tart ones isn't an issue due to a lack of choices. This, however, seems to be a problem among foreigners living in Thailand who are overwhelmed by the vast variety of mangoes.)

When choosing green mangoes, it is very important that you choose ones that do not yield at all when squeezed. Just because a mango looks green on the outside doesn't mean it's an ideal candidate for a dish that requires green mangoes. The mango needs to be very, very firm. And you won't know that unless you pick it up and press your finger on it.

Yes, be a fruit fondler.


Most of the time, recipes that call for green mangoes instruct you to grate them. A mandoline comes in handy here as you need long, thin strands instead of short, stubby ones produced by a regular cheese grater.

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Thai Tea

Unless stated otherwise, all the Thai tea recipes on this site have been made with unsweetened loose Thai tea as shown in the picture. Oftentimes, you'll see the kind that comes with sugar and whitener already mixed in. Thai tea mix is great for making drinking tea, but not suitable for infusion.

Each manufacturer has its own blend and, as you can see at the bottom of the picture, no efforts seem to have been put into informing the public what exactly is in it. I mean, herbal leaves -- thanks for clearing it up!

The tea blend contains that anything from black tea to crushed tamarind seeds or anise to cassia bark can be used in Thai tea. One thing which all brands seem to have in common is the addition of food coloring. This is potentially a turn-off for those who are cautious about food additives, so consume Thai tea at your own risk. That beautiful orange color doesn't come from natural sources, and it stains your fingers and clothes pretty badly.

To make sure you get the right kind of Thai tea to use in my recipes, read the ingredient list. As long as it doesn't contain sugar or spray-dried nonfat milk or anything like that, it's fine.

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Agar Agar Powder

Even though agar (or agar agar) is used in various applications in other cuisines, it's used almost exclusively in Thailand to make cold gelatinous dessert, Wun (วุ้น). There are various flavors and flavor combinations of Wun; all of them are different variations of the same basic dessert.

Telephone brand, which is the most often-used brand in Thailand, is the easiest to use, the most reliable, and -- thankfully -- the most widely available brand overseas. All the recipes on my blog that call for gelatin powder have been tested with Telephone agar powder. You can use different types or brands of agar, but they may yield different results.

Unlike gelatin powder which can be activated by liquid that is just hot enough to dissolve agar powder. Agar is activated only when it is boiled along with the liquid. So when my recipe instructs you to boil agar with liquid, make sure you bring the mixture to a full boil even though it may seem to you that the powder has already fully dissolved prior to the boiling. Failure to properly activate agar will surely lead to setting failure.

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Dried Shrimp (Kung Haeng กุ้งแห้ง)

Why reinvent the wheel? Everything you need to know about dried shrimp has already been written.

For those visiting Thailand, especially the eastern seaboard, take advantage of the country's superior dried shrimp and buy a huge bag. As long as the shrimp is packaged in a sealed plastic bag, you won't have trouble with customs. Dried shrimp keep a long time in the freezer.

These little guys you're looking at have traveled to the US all the way from Si Racha, Chonburi (yes, the birthplace of the famous Sriracha sauce). They're so worth the schlepp.

Many Thai recipes call for 'pulverized' dried shrimp (more accurately dried shrimp flakes). This can be done with a granite mortar and pestle, but the best tool for this task, in my opinion, is a coffee grinder. It's small enough for the job and its blades -- unlike those of a food processor -- effortlessly catch each and every one of these little chewy critters. (Be sure to get rid of the fishy smell by grinding a piece of bread with the same coffee grinder before you grind coffee beans.)

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Thai Shrimp Paste (Kapi กะปิ)

Thai shrimp paste is often lumped together with other shrimp-based condiments used in Southeast Asian cuisine. Although similarities exist between these various shrimp pastes and sauces, when a recipe calls for Thai shrimp paste, it is wise not to use other kinds of shrimp paste or sauce designed for other Southeast Asian cuisines, e.g. bagoong.

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Palm Sugar (Nam Tan Puek น้ำตาลปึก)

Palm sugar is traditionally the sweetener of choice in various applications in Thai cooking.

One of the challenges in using palm sugar lies in the slightly varying degrees of sweetness from batch to batch. This largely depends on the time when the coconut palm is harvested. This means that the same recipe can yield different results when made by different brands of palm sugar, or different batches of the same brand. I personally solve this problem by using palm sugar in conjunction with brown or white sugar to ensure more consistent results. It's not traditional, but it works.

The other challenge is the fact that while the most readily available and oft-used form of palm sugar in Thailand (น้ำตาลปี๊บ) often takes on the consistency of natural peanut butter (albeit stickier), the most common form of palm sugar found outside the kingdom looks like large choux puffs and is hard (น้ำตาลปึก). This makes measurement by volume somewhat tough. How does one measure a cup of something that is shaped that way? You can solve that problem by doing what some people do which is to grate the solid palm sugar with a microplane grater just as one would a hunk of hard cheese.

My favorite method (more knuckle-friendly) is to place a few pieces of palm sugar in a microwavable bowl and heat them up on low just until the palm sugar pieces are soft and pliable. You can then scoop out however much you need.

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Salted Radishes (Hua Chai Po หัวไชโป๊/หัวไชโป๊ว)

This is without a doubt an ingredient that has entered the Thai cuisine by way of the Chinese.
Salted radishes are often sold in vacuum-packed at most Asian grocery stores. Some brands come with salt crystals scattered on the surface of the radishes; they need to be rinsed and thoroughly dried before being used in a recipe.

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Dried Lotus Seeds (Ma-Led Bua เมล็ดบัว)

In Thai cooking, lotus seeds are often used in both savory and sweet dishes -- more commonly the latter -- with Chinese influences. Most of the time, they are found outside of Asia in dried form as shown above. Dried lotus seeds need to be soaked and steamed or simply boiled in order to be used in a recipe. Sometimes they are used whole and, being bean-like in texture when cooked, sometimes pulverized and used as a starchy component of several dessert applications, most notably as a moon cake filling.

Reconstituted lotus seeds can be split open easily allowing you to remove the green embryos in the middle which need to be removed before the lotus seeds can be used in a recipe for they are quite bitter.


Young lotus seeds are also edible raw. In fact, fresh lotus pods are often sold on the streets of Thailand as a snack. To eat fresh lotus seeds, simply pop the seeds out of the lotus head/pod, peel off the green rubbery shells (easily done by hand), and eat the seeds inside. They're very similar to boiled peanuts, but much fresher and milder in taste.

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Hulled Mung Beans (Thua Thong ถั่วทอง)

Often erroneously translated as "yellow beans" or sometimes "yellow split peas" in some Thai cookbooks, thua thong (literally "golden beans") is nothing but mung beans that have been hulled. They are used in Thai cuisine primarily to make desserts, although some savory recipes call for them.

Both unhulled and hulled mung beans are used in Thai cooking, but in most -- if not all -- cases, they are not interchangeable. When a recipe calls for one, the other cannot be used. And since the process of hulling mung beans is too tedious and complicated to do at home, it's best to buy mung beans that have already been machine-hulled.

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