Can You Recreate Bangkok Tom Yum at Home?

Translated by AI

I ate tom yum goong at Bangkok's Banana Leaf that had a spicy kick up front, followed by a tangy finish. I got curious whether I could recreate that taste at home, so I made tom yum goong using a local Thai recipe. I included my wife's evaluation—she originally disliked tom yum goong—and the results of making it two ways: with clear broth and with coconut milk. I bought the ingredients directly from a Thai grocery store instead of ordering online, and this time I aimed for authentic local flavor by following the traditional method. I'll try a simpler version next time. This is the result using our kitchen and the ingredients we bought. Since this video is based on my experience, there may be mistakes or areas where I'm not skilled enough. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱ Chapters (based on 9:11 video length) 0:00 What is tom yum goong? The taste of Bangkok's Banana Leaf—can you make it at home? 1:07 Shopping at a Thai supermarket (getting hints from a local) 1:35 Breaking down each ingredient (galangal, lemongrass, tom yum paste, fish sauce) 3:07 Making steps 1–3 (shrimp flavor, aromatic ingredients, paste and water) 4:02 Step 4 Adjusting seasoning (fish sauce instead of bird's eye chili) 5:47 One bowl of clear broth, one bowl with coconut milk 6:16 First taste—did it taste like Bangkok? 6:43 My wife's first reaction 8:32 Clear broth and coconut milk comparison 8:45 Final verdict: 9.3 points and three things I learned that day ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🍲 Recipe (in the order shown in the video. Measurements aren't exact—I adjusted by taste) 【Ingredients】 - Shrimp: headless shrimp. Keep the heads and shells—don't discard them, use them for flavor - 3 aromatic ingredients: galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves (optional if unavailable) - Tom yum paste: tom yum goong-specific product. I tried both canned and bottled versions, and they weren't much different - Thai chili oil, Thai fish sauce, tom yum stock cube - Bird's eye chili, lime, cilantro, water - Coconut milk: adjust to taste at the end 【Prep work】(Galangal intro at 1:42) 1. Remove the heads and shells from the shrimp and set aside 2. Chop galangal and lemongrass into large pieces and crush them firmly with the side of your knife. Crushing releases the aroma (lemongrass smells like lemon, galangal smells like pine needles). Prepare the kaffir lime leaves too 【Steps】(Starting at 3:07) Step 1 Extract shrimp flavor (3:13) - Heat chili oil in a pot, fry the shrimp heads and shells to extract shrimp flavor Step 2 Sauté aromatic ingredients (3:25) - Keep just the shrimp heads (remove the shells), add the prepped galangal, lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves, and sauté together Step 3 Paste and water (3:54) - Dissolve tom yum paste and add water, bring to a boil - Once boiling, taste it. Ours was sweet with almost no spice Step 4 Adjust seasoning (4:02) — in the order I fumbled through - ① Adding bird's eye chili only brought heat without touching the sweetness - ② I added one tom yum stock cube and squeezed in lime - ③ I adjusted sweetness with fish sauce. Other recipes use a generous 1–2 tablespoons, so I thought that was a lot, but it wasn't too salty - ④ Add lime juice after turning off heat, to taste. Boiling from the start makes the tang too strong (I did simmer it while adjusting, though) Finish (5:47) - Leave one bowl as clear broth, add coconut milk to the other, pour into bowls, and garnish with cilantro 【How to choose ingredients, what I learned that day】 - Galangal looks like ginger but smells closer to pine needles and isn't spicy. Substituting ginger makes it taste completely different (not recommended) - Lemongrass and lime were essential. Kaffir lime leaves added a subtle lime aroma but weren't absolutely necessary - Tom yum paste varies by brand. Just looking at the logo, any paste will give different results. It looks red and spicy but is surprisingly quite sweet - Thai chili oil has less spicy aroma than our regular chili oil and more garlic and scallion notes - Knorr tom yum stock captures the complex tom yum flavor and umami perfectly in one - The sweetness should be balanced with fish sauce, not chili 【Results that day】 - Clear broth: spicy kick up front, tangy finish. This was the Bangkok direction I remembered - Coconut milk bowl: the tang was gently muted, giving it more depth - Final score: 9.3 points. My wife's one-line review: "Excellent, excellent" - I thought next time I'd use a bit less chili ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🛒 Ingredients used in this cooking Shrimp (headless white leg shrimp): https://link.coupang.com/a/idqy64Jss0 Fresh galangal: https://link.coupang.com/a/idqy7acxTU Fresh lemongrass: https://link.coupang.com/a/idqy7g0U1s Fresh kaffir lime leaves_optional: https://link.coupang.com/a/idqy7l1VkW Tom yum paste: https://link.coupang.com/a/idrQ3CyOrI Thai chili oil: https://link.coupang.com/a/idrTh3X2EC Thai

Only the first part of a long caption is translated. The rest is in the original.