Dips

Filipinos being in a tropical country love fruits…. green, unripe fruits.  This is very much contrary to western food preference.  I have an American colleague, who was a bit confused.  He was wondering why we torture ourselves eating sour, crunchy green mangoes when we can wait for a little while and have a sweet, tasty, and soft ripe mango. He must have thought of this as really silly, lol.

Oh well, that is I guess the beauty of having so many fruits.  We can afford to eat anytime, anywhere in whatever form we like it.  We can also afford to be creative in how we serve them.

Like dip it in….

soy sauce

vinegar with salt

sugar

shrimp paste

This is the Filipino way.  I remember, when I was in primary years my sisters and I used to buy the  sliced green mangoes for 1 peso and we dipped it in vinegar with salt.  Then sip the vinegar dip after.  Oh my, reminiscing those times makes me salivate, lol.

Thai dipping is quite different, in a sense that it is full of chillies. They have variety of dippings which are pretty exotic and yummy too.  For now, I will feature 2 favorites of mine.

PRIK KLEAU is a mixture of salt, sugar, and powered chillies. But there are twice as much salt than sugar.  So, it is dominantly salty with a bit of sweetness.

prik kleau    DSC00206

BUAI on the other hand has the same composition as prik kleau but with the addition of powdered dried plum.  There are twice as much sugar than salt.  It is sweet with a bit of saltiness.

buai   buai1

 

These two are very easy to do.  You can try this at home.  Let us know how you find it. Don’t forget the chillies.  It would not be Thai without it.

 

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