Does anyone have a tried and true recipe for Tom Yum? I am obsessed and since I moved out of DC can rarely find any.

Whole Foods stocks Pacific brand soup starters - basically flavored stock. There is a Tom Yum one, you can add the coconut, chicken, and veggies.

There is also a Pho one I believe.

You need to find an Southeast Asian store or Chinese/Korean supermarket. Tom Yum comes in packages, however, like alot of packages spices, they contain MSG. So, you can but all those products in those stores and make it yourself without the msg (lime, spices, fish sauce, hot peppers, lemon grass (they come in stalks or in jars).

If you can, go to a Thai supermarket (or a Vietnamese market). I was going to Bangkok 54 on Columbia Pike in south Arlington, but that recently caught on fire. The other Thai market I know of is Dungarat's market in Falls Church.

Also, pick your recipe carefully. One of the things I have decided about Thai food is that it often uses few ingredients, but the results will really suffer if you try to Americanize the ingredients. For example, get Thai fish sauce and soy sauce because they taste way different from similarly named sauces that are not Thai (no La Choi soy sauce!). Even something like sugar really effects the taste. Thai food often uses palm sugar (which tastes a little like brown sugar), and your food will certainly taste flat if you use white cane sugar. Similarly, use the Thai bird eye chili's, if possible. I use dried kaffir leaves in my soup.

By the way, if you really like tom yum, you can can mix and store a tub of the paste, and then spoon some into broth and make soup almost instantly. The same paste can also be used as a base for red curry sauce with coconut milk.

H mart does not always have kaffir lime leaves.

When I find them, I buy a bunch and freeze them.

Should read 'lime rind'.

A big Asian store like H Mart will have Kaffir like leaves and fresh lemongrass. I wouldn't bother with Giant. If you can't find fresh like leaves an acceptable substitute is strips of like rind ( without the white pith).
I make mine from scratch but there is a Tom yum paste in the Thai foods aisle.

Anonymous wrote:Ok, so I have become seriously addicted to good Tom Yum soup, I've made a vow to make it myself so that I stop running out to the local thai restaurant every night!

All that said, I'm not very proficient in the kitchen, something I'd like to change in 2014. It looks like Tom Yum soup is easy enough to make. Can I find the necessary ingredients at my local Giant, or do I have to trek out to a place like Whole Foods instead? I'll be looking for kaffir lime leaves, galangal, and lemongrass; all of the other ingredients are basic staples.

Thanks for your help!

Asians stores. Lime leaves can be iffy even in Asian stores (can still make Tom Yum without it - adjust the lime juice to get to the level of acidity you want once it is cooked). Sometimes you will find Galangal in frozen section.

Are you near an H Mart or other Asian grocery store? There are lots in Falls Church.

I find Giant to be a total waste when it comes to regular produce, let alone "exotic" produce like Kaffir lime leaves. As it is our WF doesn't always stock them.

Ok, so I have become seriously addicted to good Tom Yum soup, I've made a vow to make it myself so that I stop running out to the local thai restaurant every night!

All that said, I'm not very proficient in the kitchen, something I'd like to change in 2014. It looks like Tom Yum soup is easy enough to make. Can I find the necessary ingredients at my local Giant, or do I have to trek out to a place like Whole Foods instead? I'll be looking for kaffir lime leaves, galangal, and lemongrass; all of the other ingredients are basic staples.

Thanks for your help!