“Thai food ain’t about simplicity. It’s about the juggling of disparate elements to create a harmonious finish. Like a complex musical chord it’s got to have a smooth surface but it doesn’t matter what’s happening underneath. Simplicity isn’t the dictum here, at all. Some westerners think it’s a jumble of flavors, but to a Thai that’s important, it’s the complexity they delight in.”
— Unknown
Thai food enjoys a fair amount of admiration and popularity in the West mostly because it aims to reach a delicious balance between a range of different salty, sweet, sour, spicy, and bitter ingredients. Many Thai dishes use fish sauce or shrimp paste for their saltiness, palm sugar, and fruits for their sweetness, chilies, and fresh herbs to spice things up, and lime juice or tamarind for their tangy flavor. Not all dishes contain all of these tastes, but today’s recipe exemplifies all those features the best.
Satay is a Southeast Asian dish of marinated, skewered, and grilled meat served with a tasty sauce. Originally an Indonesian street food, Satayi is now made with just about any meat; chicken, goat, mutton, beef, pork, fish, and even tofu and barbecued over a wood or charcoal fire, and most often served with a peanut sauce associated with Thai food.
The barbecued meat is served with traditional rice instead of noodles, inaccurately assumed to be a cornerstone of customary Thai Cuisine. In fact, noodles are relatively new and were introduced to Thailand during World War II to help alleviate the rice shortage caused by the war.
Hope you enjoy these fun facts as much as we do and hope it adds a bit more appreciation to the dish you are about to cook this sweet, spicy, and salty tender beef charred over the fire.
