Talard thai video:
Talard Thai Market on Broadway is one of the best markets to acquire Thai ingredients in Chicago. We have been there multiple times, and it wasn’t until our last visit where we felt comfortable knowing what to buy. The most important part when visiting cuisine-specific stores is to have a rough idea of what dishes you want to cook, bring a trusty cookbook, and be flexible. We took the 92 Foster bus to get to Talard Thai Market and on the way over Marc said “Be curious, not judgemental”; a quote from Ted Lasso tv show. That’s because it’s hard to predict inventory levels before heading into the store. Unlike major chain grocery stores with online shopping options, going to Talard is an adventure that requires an open mind and you have to allow yourself to discover new recipes on the fly if a key ingredient is missing. This process allowed us to learn more about the cuisine and we tried new recipes that we weren’t expecting to like at first.
We brought Simple Thai Cooking by Leela Punyaratabandhu to help guide us on which ingredients to buy and how to use them.
what to expect at talard thai market
Upon entering Talard Thai, you are greeted to a wide range of specialty Thai curry pastes and hard to find produce such as Thai eggplants, galangal, large lemongrass stalks, and more. In the rear of the store, there is a freezer section and hot bar that serves cafeteria style Thai food. This cafeteria is the closest thing to actually visiting Bangkok in the city according to Steve Dolinsky. We picked out frozen fresh rice noodles, which was convenient as we planned to use the rice noodles later in the week. We didn’t have to worry about them going bad before we needed them. Fresh rice noodles are critical to dishes like Pad See Ew and Rad Nar. Many recipes suggest using dried rice noodles as a substitute if you can’t find fresh rice noodles. I am of the belief that yes, you can substitute dried rice noodles. However, the dish would then become a “Pad See Ew – inspired” dish and not Pad See Ew itself.
Selecting the right soy sauce is as important (if not more important) as ensuring you pick up fresh rice noodles. Western grocery stores often only carry one or two types of soy sauce and they tend to be Japanese (like Kikkoman). That’s somewhat acceptable if you are in a pinch, however you won’t be able to truly make Thai dishes as the flavor profile of Thai soy sauce is distinctly different than any other Asian country soy sauce. Thai soy sauces tend to have more complex flavors that round out the sodium. Not only are soy sauces from different countries different, but there are specific types of soy sauces. When it comes to Thai soy sauces, we regularly stock the following:
– sweet soy sauce – we like the DSB brand with the blue cap. This is viscous and sweet, like the name entails. This is often used in conjunction with other soy sauces to balance out the salt
– mushroom soy sauce – we like the mushroom Healthy Boy brand. We use this every time a Thai recipe calls for thin soy sauce or just soy sauce
– Golden Mountain seasoning sauce – this is similar to the mushroom soy sauce, but has more flavors and is most like Maggi seasoning
This list does not cover all types of Thai soy sauces, but these are just what we have on hand. In Talard, we were able to see they carried a similar stock as well.
While we were browsing the ingredients, we had to pivot our recipes. The Thai bird chili peppers and green curry paste were out of stock, throwing a slight wrench in our plans. The hot bar in the back of the store was a great way to break up the shopping, let us sit down and re-plan our meals using the cookbook we brought while sharing a side of green curry from the hot bar.
For those interested in grabbing lunch at Talard’s hot bar, keep in mind they only accept cash and Zelle. The grocery checkout does accept credit.
What we ended up buying at the market
Gai Lan (chinese broccoli) –
- ease of prep: very easy
- versatility: pretty versatile (used in Thai dishes like Rad Na and Pad See Ew. It’s also used commonly in Chinese cooking)
- overall usefulness: medium. Baby bok choy is a viable substitute that boasts a similar texture and flavor.
Fresh rice noodles
- ease of prep: medium. You have to peel apart sheets of fresh rice noodles when they are at room temp and moist. It’s a careful process so the noodles don’t dry out. You also may have to cut the noodles to desired width
- versatility: very versatile. Similar to above, you can use this dish in Rad Na and Pad See Ew. You can also cook dishes such as Chinese Chow Fun and Malaysian Char Kway Teow.
- overall usefulness: high. I haven’t found a comparable substitute due to the chewy, soft texture of fresh rice noodles. Fresh rice noodles often times are the primary ingredient in the noodle dish and can’t be replaced (even with dry rice noodles).
Thai round eggplant –
- ease of prep: medium-low. Thai round eggplants require a 15 minute soak prior to cooking. Once soaked, they will need to be drained and cut before adding to a curry.
- versatility: medium, but highly dependent on how often you cook curries. If you don’t regularly cook thai curries, these can quickly become food waste. Personally, we struggle to cook through eggplant before it expires.
- overall usefulness: medium-low. We haven’t discovered many recipes that require thai eggplant. I’m sure there are many uses for this ingredient that we have yet to learn.
Dried shrimp
- ease of prep: medium. Dried shrimp requires soaking prior to cooking. After soaking, drain the shrimp and toss into stir fries. They require very little cooking time.
- versatility: medium-high. Dried shrimp is used in many dishes that span multiple cuisines. Notable dishes include Thai shrimp paste rice and Burmese balachaung (an onion and dried shrimp pickle condiment for rice). According to Burma Superstar by Desmond Tan and Kate Leahy you can grind dried shrimp to make a dried shrimp powder. This can then be used to add next level umami to dishes.
- overall usefulness: high. Dried shrimp is surprisingly underrated and not well known in Western culture. There are many applications for this and lasts a long time.
Shrimp paste
- ease of prep: EASY. Shrimp paste is stored in the fridge. All that’s required is to spoon out the paste and cook in a pan to release the aromatics. Ensure the pan has some oil to help break down the paste.
- versatility: low. Similar to dried shrimp, shrimp paste is a huge umami producer. It’s used in many cuisines and many Indonesian and Burmese recipes rely on shrimp paste. This can be used as a foundation of fried rice and was the foundation for the Thai shrimp paste rice we cooked.
- overall usefulness: very high for umami lovers; however, if you are the kind of person squeamish about anchovies in your caesar salad dressing, you might want to steer clear of this ingredient.
Sweet soy sauce (DSB brand with the blue cap)
- ease of prep: n/a
- versatility: high in certain Southeast Asian cooking. This is especially if you are willing to sub the Thai version for the Indonesian version known as kecap manis. If you don’t cook these two cuisines, it might be less applicable to your culinary interests. There are many recipes to make a sweet soy sauce at home, so you would have to test to see how it compares to the store version.
- overall usefulness: extremely high for general purpose Asian cooking. Although this type of soy sauce is traditionally used in dishes like rad na, you can get creative in adding it to any sort of stir fry imaginable. It would improve your “stirfryability” factor highly.
Fish sauce (Squid brand)
- ease of prep: n/a
- versatility: high. Fish sauce is frequently used in Thai dishs, Vietnamese dishes, and is starting to gain popularity in Western cooking. We like the Squid brand of fish sauce and add it to curries, soups, and even to bolognese meat sauces.
- overall usefulness: very high. This can last in your fridge for awhile and the possibilities for what to use fish sauce in are endless. This is one of our must have staple condiments.
Lemongrass
- ease of prep: somewhat difficult. you have to peel the tough outer layers and bruise it to release the aromatics. You’ll also most likely have to process it in a food processor to break it down. I prefer to use it in my chai tea, which is a nice way to use lemongrass without having to process it further.
- versatility: high. lemongrass is common in Vietnamese and Thai cooking. It’s super wonderful on chicken and provides a nice and fresh flavor that is hard to replicate.
- overall usefulness: medium. It can often be discouraging to use if you don’t see yourself making curry pastes or marinades from scratch. It is a very unique flavor, but it’s also hard to come by in the full stalk version. If you have the culinary curiosity and desire, you should go ahead and search for it. Mac’s favorite way to use lemongrass in is a version of a chai tea. It’s easier to use lemongrass in this recipe than others because you don’t have to process it all the way because you will strain out the solids at the end of the process.
thai dishes we cooked from our ingredients
All of the dishes we cooked were from Simple Thai Cooking by Leela Punyaratabandhu. We have owned this cookbook for many years and like that Leela also lives in Chicago, when she is not in Thailand.
1. Green curry with beef and eggplant
This green curry was a fan favorite during a recent meal with family. It was creamy, packed with vegetables and even was a hit for those who don’t like spicy food. We deviated from the recipe slightly by adding in some bell pepper. We did add Thai round eggplant (hidden underneath the ladle) per the recipe in the cookbook. For the paste, we went with a Maesri canned green curry paste.
- Cooking difficulty: medium
- Ingredient Sourcing Difficulty: high if you plan to make your own green curry paste and hunt down the Thai round eggplant. Otherwise, medium to acquire the canned green curry paste.
- Ability to Find this Dish at Restaurants in our area: extremely accessible but with a varied degree of tastiness. Nearly every Thai restaurant offers green curry. The quality, freshness of produce, and use of hard-to-find ingredients like the Thai round eggplant can vary greatly.
2. shrimp paste rice
- Cooking difficulty: high. This requires multiple rounds of pan frying ingredients and the prep list is lengthy.
- Ingredient Sourcing Difficulty: high. The backbone of this dish is the shrimp paste, which requires a trip to a Thai grocery store. The other ingredients are more accessible.
- Ability to Find this Dish at Restaurants in our area: hard to find. We have yet to come across a restaurant in Chicago with this dish.
3. Rad na
- Cooking difficulty: medium-high. This requires some a wok and gas burner to achieve the wok hei char on the noodles. You also need to be patient with this dish to help thicken up the gravy.
- Ingredient Sourcing Difficulty: medium-high. This dish requires a trip to a Thai or Asian market to pick up must-have ingredients like the fresh rice noodles and gai lan.
- Ability to Find this Dish at Restaurants in our area: Fairly accessible. We enjoyed this dish at Anna’s and the difference between what we were able to achieve at home and what we had out was subtle. We noticed that Anna’s dish was darker and saltier prompting us to consider adding dark soy sauce next time around. This was enjoyable to make but can be found on restaurant menus for days when you don’t want to cook or don’t have fresh rice noodles in the fridge.
4. lemongrass chai tea (original recipe)
- Cooking difficulty: easy
- Ingredient Sourcing Difficulty: difficult to find lemongrass. medium to find other ingredients.
- Ability to Find this Dish at Restaurants in our area: very difficult. I haven’t seen this version of chai anywhere in the city.
