Tom Yum

Where it comes from

Tom means to boil; yam is Thailand's great family of sour-spicy tosses. The marriage happened in the riverine Central Plains, where the day's catch met the lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime growing along every bank. Tom yum kung, the shrimp version, rose with Bangkok in the Rattanakosin era and went on to become the country's global calling card. Ours steams with straw mushrooms in a chili-bright broth — clear, fierce, restorative.