Thai Cuisine is usually aromatic, usually is made with lots of vegetables and often is spicy. What’s not to like?

One of my favorite Thai Dishes is the Spicy Basil dish also called Pad Gra Pow usually known as Sweet Basil on menus. Not all but the majority of (Spicy) Sweet Basil Dishes offered at most North Phoenix Thai Restaurants really lack with the basil and sometimes the heat so I’m always looking for someone that makes this dish delicious like the way the dish should be made.

Pad Gra Pow is a simple dish. It translates to Stir Fried Holy Basil. Basically it’s meat (chicken, beef or wild boar) that is usually hand chopped and stir fried with garlic, something like 10 Thai chilies, soy sauce, fish sauce and at least a handful of holy basil. It should be topped with a fried crispy egg if you desire to eat it Thai Style.

Here’s Holy Basil Chicken from Thai Time in Santa Rosa California. (I don’t recall if egg was an option…I usually don’t add the egg. The egg if offered is usually an add on option)

In California I lucked out and some of the restaurants I visited do say they use Holy Basil…….It does taste different. Holy basil is more fragile with less shelf life so nearly every Thai Restaurant in Phoenix uses Thai Basil instead of Holy Basil. Holy Basil is more peppery and is filled with more nutrients….Thus…”Holy Basil.” Holy Basil is believed to aid many health ailments. Thai Basil is Sweet Basil with a slight hint of an anise taste. A few times I came across Holy Basil at the Scottsdale Farmer’s Market.

The FIRST best Pad Gra Pow dishes I came across was from the LONG CLOSED Lao Thai that used to be in Scottsdale.

Wow it was sooooooocrazy good! I enjoyed this dish with pumpkin so what I had was Spicy Sweet Basil with Pumpkin. I think this is my number one favorite Thai Dish. I get the best of both worlds. Creamy sweet pumpkin and spicy basil chicken. IT JUST POPS!

We had bunches Pad gra pow (or similar dishes) from many restaurants in Metro Phoenix.

It’s very easy to see that some were much better than others.

It’s also a big win to find Northern Thai Dishes. Two Sisters Thai Restaurant used to be located in the Moon Valley part of Phoenix. (since closed for business) They specialized in serving North Thai Food. One of the dishes I really enjoyed there was the North Eastern Thai Dish called Esan Gang Gai also called White Curry.

This dish was the most different of all the Thai Dishes I tried anywhere. It was flavored with fresh dill and Lao Basil (lemon basil) it was so different. It also had an Asian Vegetable in it that was something like a Chinese Broccoli in a very Chicken-ee broth. I still remember the waitress at Two Sisters telling me that White Curry is a “REAL THAI DISH.” She said that Thai People in Thailand really do eat this dish. That was very telling to me. I can now only imagine that most Thai Food on menus might not actually be Thai Food that Thai People eat?  I watched many of the Anthony Bourdain’s (Food/Travel) TV Show called Parts Unknown. Every-time he went to Thailand he didn’t eat anything that resembles food we eat in Thai restaurants……I remember in one show I watched Anthony Bourdain said, “You ain’t going to find your Pad Thai here.” Then he ate something cooked in Pig’s blood that was spicy…..and I don’t remember the rest of the dishes but that was maybe the first one.

Recently I came across another difficult to find Northern Thai Dish called Kang Pa Curry in North Phoenix. I read that Kang Pa Curry is also known as Jungle Curry and Forest Curry.

I don’t really know if this dish is Authentic Thai Cuisine or not because …….. this dish was HOTTER THAN FORKING HELL! (Kura Thai Phx)    MY GOD………and I only ordered hot……..this dish was also offered extra hot and Thai Hot as hotter choices……….It was so hot my lips felt like they were soaked in acid……..I don’t believe the heat actually came from chili peppers. It felt like some sort of chemical powders were used…….the texture of the sauce was very granular.  I’ve recently read at www.LonelyPlanet.com that it is very hard to actually find authentic Thai Cuisine even in North Thailand. Generally Northern Thailand Dishes do not contain coconut milk, they do a lot of frying, often feature pork and generally don’t serve spicy food…???????? Well that’s according to www.LonelyPlanet.com   ? I reckon it’s a possible that Kang Pa Curry makes up for all the spicy dishes they don’t serve….and it does…my God it does.

I have tried many curry dishes too….at many Metro Phoenix Restaurants….but I don’t order curry as often as the other dishes but here are just a few of the curry dishes I tried.

Soi 4 Bangkok Eatery- Scottsdale, Chanpen Thai -Phx, ……………..& Thai Spices -Mesa

Some were better than others.

But The Forking Truth is that the majority were delicious!

Those were some of my Random Forking Thoughts on Thai Cuisine.

Everything is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.