Street Food Tom Yum Noodle Soup With Crispy Wontons

8.3.10

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Whether it was a relaxing or wild, it's all good! Mine was c-r-a-z-y. I was at a friend's birthday party on Friday night and at a friend's Bachelorette party on Saturday night. I didn't come home until Sunday afternoon! It was quite a weekend. Okay, enough of my story. Who cares anyway?! (smile)

Tom yum soup or noodle soup is some of the most popular Thai dishes. However, what you've seen at most Thai restaurants isn't what I'm craving. I'm craving for a nutty, savory, and sour street food noodle. As you could guess, what is served at a Thai restaurant in the United States nowadays isn't quite what local Thai people consume. I love street food and the night market. Any time I get to travel outside the States, I will have to find my way to those street vendors. That's how you know what the "real" food local peeps eat is. Not all of them are common dishes for locals, but at least you experience something you MUST do in that country.

Back to my Tom yum noodles, it can be found at a not-fancy restaurant in Bangkok. Places that are not easy to find and in an alley somehow taste better than an easy-to-find ones. I'm not sure if it's because of the "mystery" of it adding an adventurous feeling and you assume it tastes better? Like the secret menu at In-N-Out Burgers or Jamba juice?

I would recommend, if you have a local friend, to use them and have them take you to a place that sells this. You will experience what Tom Yum Noodles are supposed to be!

Rice noodles

The noodles vary. Some use egg noodles while some use rice noodles. It doesn't matter because what matters is the soup. It's super easy to make. To make Thai food, you need to have lime, fish sauce, and sugar on hand. We use those 3 ingredients in almost every dish. For the toppings, you can add from deep fried fish skin to deep fried wonton. Anything deep fried would work - and roasted peanuts! They make it individually and by order.

Street Food Tom Yum Noodle Soup
Yield: 2 ( feel free to double for the number of guests you have)

Ingredients for pork balls

1/4 lb ground pork
2 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 garlic clove, minced
Black pepper

Directions:

• Mix all the ingredients. Highly recommend using hands to mix to get the best result :)

Ingredients for pork wontons

6-8 Wonton wrappers

Pork mixture (above)

Vegetable or canoli oil for deep frying

You can make it bigger than this one

Directions:

• Form pork mixture to a ball and place in a middle of a wrapper.
• Fold into triangle and seal it with water (see photos)
• Heat up oil in a pan or small sauce pan to 350 F. Deep fry them until golden brown.

This is what I did when I had leftover pork mixture and wonton wrappers -Snacking up!

Ingredients for the soup for 2

1 cube Knors Bouillon - pork flavor
2 cup2 water

2 cups chicken stock

2 inch daikon, julience

1 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Ingredients for Tom Yum soup for 2

4 tsp fish sauce, divided
2 tsp chili in oil or more if you like more spicy, divided
6 tsp sugar, divided
2 tbs lime juice or more to taste, divided
1 tbs chopped roasted peanuts, divided
1/2 cup bean sprouts, divided
6 stems Choysum (Chinese flowering cabbage), divided - Optional
1 lime wedges for garnish
1 tsp chopped peanuts, divided for garnish
1/2 lb rice noodles (see photo above), divided

Chili in Oil

Directions:

• Heat up a medium saucepan and bring it to boil. Add Knors cube and let it sit until it dissolves.
• Add chicken stock and daikon, and bring to boil.
• Use wet spoon to scoop ground pork mixture and drop it to a pot one at a time, and add fish cake balls if used. When it's cooked, it will float to the top.
• In the meantime, add fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, chili paste, and peanuts in each bowl.
• Drop bean sprouts and choysum (if using) in a pot. For bean sprouts, cook for a few mins until they're cooked but still crisp. For choysum, cook longer until cooked through.
• Place cooked bean sprouts, choy sum, and daikon on top of seasonings (see photo)
• Use a slotted spoon to scoop out cooked ground pork balls and fish cake. Place them into each bowl.
• Cook rice noodles in the same pot for about 5 mins or follow the package's instruction.
• After it's cooked, divide them in each bowl.
• Bring the stock to a boil again and pour over a prepared bowl.
• Garnish with peanuts and a lime wedge
• When you eat, mix well so that the seasonings at the bottom will mix with noodles and the soup
• Enjoy!

Note: If you're zero tolerance of spicyness, this isn't an ideal for you. You could leave out a chili in oil but then it wouldn't become a Tom Yum noodle soup.