Tam Sang – Made to Order

We are blessed to have a lunch place near our house that makes good, cheap eats. These tam sang (literally, “made to order”) restaurants basically cook any kind of popular Thai food you want that can be made in a wok or frying pan, including stir fries, fried noodle dishes, and even some soup noodle dishes like Thai suki (named after but very different from Japanese sukiyaki).

Probably three quarters of the food they make is some version of pad krapow, Thai basil stir fry (the official lunch of Thailand, and anyone who tells you different is a tourist/basil hater). Some other popular dishes are fried rice, stir fried curries (stewed curries are sold at another type of shop that makes trays of food you choose from), pad see ew (stir fried broad noodles), and Thai omelettes (probably actually closer to Thai frittatas).

Upon closer inspection, the lunch boxes in the photo I used above are not from the shop I mentioned, but another favorite shop of mine in Sarakham, Pad Thai 99. Speaking of which, pad thai is not widely available outside of tourist areas and night markets. My sister in law had a hankering for it when staying in the hospital last month and I kind of had to really think about where to find a good one (I found it at Tumkratoei).