Thai food dinner ($31.50) — the deep fried garlic pork!
Wednesday Thai dinner $31.50 — the deep fried garlic pork (moo tod gratiem) plus the standard Thai dinner spread. Bangkok-style sharing dinner.
Wednesday Thai dinner with BB — Thai food dinner spread at $31.50, with the deep fried garlic pork (moo tod gratiem) as the favourite of the night.
We ordered (Thai dinner spread):
- Deep fried garlic pork (moo tod gratiem)
- Other Thai dishes
- Rice
- Drinks
Total: $31.50 for the spread.
The deep fried garlic pork (หมูทอดกระเทียม / moo tod gratiem) is the Thai dish that’s underrated against the more famous pad thai, tom yum, or green curry. The format is sliced pork (probably pork shoulder or pork belly) marinated in fish sauce, white pepper, soy, and garlic, then deep-fried until the outside crisps to golden-brown and the garlic toasts to crispy bits on the surface.
The garlic is the defining ingredient. The pork gets covered in finely chopped garlic during the marinade or the fry, so the surface of the cooked meat ends up with the toasted-garlic-bit coating that delivers the proper Thai garlic-pork flavour profile. Different from Western-style garlic preparations (which usually keep the garlic in larger pieces or use it raw), the Thai version creates the toasted-garlic-crust effect.
The flavour profile is the savoury-salty-garlicky combination. Pork umami underneath, salt from the fish sauce and soy, white pepper for the warm heat, garlic for the dominant aroma. The whole dish eats as a concentrated savoury bite that pairs perfectly with steamed jasmine rice.
The other Thai dishes in the spread probably included some combination of:
- Pad krapow (basil pork or chicken)
- Tom yum (clear or creamy variant)
- Pad thai
- Green curry
- Sometimes a Thai salad (som tam, larb)
At $31.50 for the spread of multiple dishes, this is fair Thai restaurant pricing in Singapore. The dishes shared family-style across the table.
Thai cuisine in Singapore has a healthy presence. The casual sit-down Thai restaurants are scattered across the residential neighbourhoods, with the prices accessible for the regular dinner rotation. The proper Thai cooking technique requires specific ingredients (fish sauce, lemongrass, kaffir lime, galangal, bird’s-eye chilli) that the Singapore Thai restaurants source consistently.
The deep fried garlic pork was the highlight of the dinner. The ❤️ in the IG caption captures the dish-of-the-night status.
Overall: 4.6 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Excellent Thai dinner — would re-order the garlic pork specifically.
