Thai food is really some of the most interesting tasting foods compared to other cultural meals. Whereas Italian food can automatically conjure fresh herbs, different types of olive oil, garlic, breads, and slow-simmering pasta sauces or Chinese food brings memories of fried rice, dumplings, meats smothered in thick sweet sauces like orange chicken or sweet & sour shrimp. These different dishes go well together in their respective ethnicity. Thai food is bitter, spicy, sweet, chewy, fishy, but very very light and fresh. It is never heavy or greasy. Growing up on Thai food might have made me a bit biased but once you've tried authentic Thai, it will be easy to understand!

My mom owns a Thai restaurant about an hour away from Milwaukee. I miss her home cooking now that she lives farther. But everything happens for a reason, now I have to learn to cook traditional Thai and Lao style meals for myself! I'm now trying even harder to preserve my family's recipes!

One of my favorite dishes is Yum Nua (pronounced YUM-NEW-AH), it's a salad with an extra kick! Tender sliced beef is mixed with cucumbers, red onions, romaine lettuce, cilantro, and mint. Then it's drizzled with a sauce of lime juice, fish sauce, and chili peppers. It's juicy, sour, sweet, bitter, and savory - all in one bite!

We don't like our Yum Nua to be too bitter, so we always add a couple tablespoons of sugar with our lime juice!


Once it's all mixed up, give it a few minutes for the ingredients to marry.


This salad is best served with fresh hot meat or chilled. Great for work lunches!

Since we saved a few extra calories with our healthy dinner, we were able to enjoy an awesome Layered dessert! Made with banana pudding, freshly sliced bananas, and lady finger cakes. Perfect size for 2!





Happy Eating!