Tom Kha Gai Soup

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 Tin Coconut Milk
• 2 Salmon Fillets or Chicken Breasts – both diced
• 1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
• 6 Lime Leaves
• Juice of 1 Lime
• 2 Sticks Lemongrass, (peel outer sheath and chop them into 3)
• 6 Slices Galangal Root
• 6 regular sized button/white mushrooms, halved (or 12 mini button mushrooms)
• A dozen or so cherry tomatoes (kept whole)
• 1 red chilli, sliced.
• Fresh Coriander (cilantro) chopped 2/3 tablespoons

Please note* If you are reading this from Korea, I obtained the coconut milk, lemongrass, fish sauce, coriander & galangal root  from Itaewon’s Foreign Food Market and  the lime leaves were from High Street Store. 

Method

1. Empty the tin of coconut milk into a medium sized saucepan.
2. Add 3/4 tin of water.
3. Add 1 Tbsp Fish Sauce, Lime Leaves, Lemongrass, Galangal Root and Mushrooms.
4. Bring the contents to the boil.
5. Add the Salmon/Chicken (chicken will take longer) – continue to boil until it is cooked (a couple of minutes).
6. Reduce the heat and add the chilli, tomatoes.
7. Simmer for 5/10 minutes, the longer it simmers, the spicier the soup will get.
8. Finally, stir in the lime juice and sprinkle the coriander generously over the top.

*This is nice with pumpkin seed bread (freshly baked) or by itself as it is quite filling.

Big Buddha Restaurant

Before I came to Korea, I assumed that Asian foods would be the easiest to find here, what with being in Asia. However, I found a lot of the key ingredients to a lot of Thai meals such as lemongrass, limes, galangal and coriander are generally non existent in most supermarkets. I had been craving Thai food and had heard about Big Buddha in Itaewon. It certainly did not disappoint.

Like most foreign restaurants, I expected the prices to be at the higher end. Apart from the drinks menu, all of the dishes were very reasonably priced and the dishes we had were packed full of flavour. Although the drinks were expensive, they were delicious.

I was a little disappointed that my Phad Thai didn’t come with the usual wedge of lime, but it was still really tasty. I tried the Tom Kha Gai soup and it tasted exactly how I remembered it and didn’t appear to be missing any key ingredients. For those of you who are fans of this coconut soup, I shall be posting the recipe here soon.

Getting There:

Subway to Noksapyong exit 3. Cross over the road and walk towards the main strip of Itaewon. There is a sharp left up a steepish hill and it’s just at the top of it. (Less than 1 min from the turn).