Nam Prik

Nam phrik, also written nam prik, is a traditional Thai chili sauce or dip central to Thai cooking, typically served in small dishes alongside main courses; the food writer David Thompson called it and its relatives at the very core of Thai cooking, feeding Thai people from their distant past to the present. It combines fresh or dried chilies with garlic, shallots and lime juice, often with fish paste or shrimp paste and salt or fish sauce, traditionally pounded together with a mortar and pestle, and its texture ranges from liquid to paste to granular depending on region and family recipe. It accompanies plainer foods such as raw or boiled vegetables, fish, poultry and meat, and the term can also refer to Thai curry pastes such as those for kaeng som or red curry. The French ambassador Simon de la Loubere first described nam phrik to Western readers in 1687 to 1688, and King Chulalongkorn said he missed it most during his 1907 tour of Europe.