dinner at Pi Pen's

ate dinner last night at a little place which is essentially just a woman's garage, opened up to the street, filled with a few picnic tables and lawn chairs. despite the rough facade, the place was great - Pi Pen makes a mean Tom Yam Goong (spicy prawn soup).

tom yam goong

The soup is slightly coconut-y, strong lemongrass flavor with some really mild green onion-like things, prawns, tomato slices and, of course, hot chilies.

Enjoying my soup & teacher Mitchie striking the classic asian picture pose

Teacher Mitchie peeling green mangoes for dessert

Fish sauce with lime, garlic and chili slices

On the table of every eatery here there is a set of four condiments which provide the four quintessential flavors in Thai cooking: sour, spicy, salty, sweet. While the condiments themselves vary (usually it's chili powder, sugar, fish sauce and vinegar or lime) they always represent the 4 flavors. In addition, they often also have the sauce in the picture above - salty and spicy, I put it on most everything.