Tom Yum Goong

Tom yum goong is the soup that put Thai food on the world map. Its reputation is global — Bangkok Airways named a plane after it, and the dish is one of the most-recognized Thai dishes internationally. The name says everything: 'tom' means boiling, 'yum' is a sour-spicy-salty Thai salad family, and 'goong' means shrimp. The broth is built on a foundation of three aromatics that define Thai cuisine: lemongrass (takrai), galangal (kha), and kaffir lime leaves (bai makrut). Bird's eye chilies (prik kee noo) provide the heat, lime juice the sourness, and fish sauce the salt. The version most tourists know — creamy, bright orange-red, with floating straw mushrooms — is the modernized tom yum goong nam khon, which adds evaporated milk or coconut milk. The older, clearer version (tom yum goong nam sai) is more intense and is what you'll find in older restaurants. Tom yum as we know it dates to the 1960s-70s, when Thai restaurants began catering to international tourists. The dish that was originally a home-style southern Thai soup got the celebrity treatment — but the foundation, the trinity of lemongrass-galangal-kaffir lime, is at least 200 years old.