I think that 'tom' is soup, and 'yam' means...er, probably sour/spicy, thinking about the context in which it tends to show up. (Tom Kah Gai = mild coconut chicken soup. Tom Yam Gung = Hot & sour shrimp soup. Yam Talay = Hot & Sour Mixed seafood salad.) Pet means spicy, so...hmm. I'm thinking maybe hot-and-sour?

But my Thai is SHIT. I'm very unmotivated - it's just so bloody tricky. My Arabic - hell, my Romanian, which I've never really learned & haven't had occasion to speak for over ten years - is a damn sight better than my Thai.

(ion, two days later I still think that the whole LOLita thing is funnier than a very fucking funny thing from the planet Hysteria. I also sort of want to make LOLCindys, for my awesome kid Cindy, who speaks in LOLcatspeak. 'I can haz cookie?' is very Cindy sentence, bless her.)

"yum" is maybe coconut milk?

that would be so perfect because TRUE!

Congrats on the job, JZ!!!! Hey! Have you been to see my friend in your neighborhood yet?

I think that 'tom' is soup, and 'yam' means...er, probably sour/spicy, thinking about the context in which it tends to show up. (Tom Kah Gai = mild coconut chicken soup. Tom Yam Gung = Hot & sour shrimp soup. Yam Talay = Hot & Sour Mixed seafood salad.) Pet means spicy, so...hmm. I'm thinking maybe hot-and-sour?

See, the menu for this place has a section called "Salad and Yum" which makes me think it's a noun. (And soup is in a different section, hence my confusion!)

OTOH, they also have a section called "Fired Rice" so perhaps the lesson here is that I shouldn't be trying to learn Thai from a takeout menu.

OTOH, they also have a section called "Fired Rice" so perhaps the lesson here is that I shouldn't be trying to learn Thai from a takeout menu.

Now I picture the cooks firing shotguns with shells packed with rice.

Hey, they could shoot the rice into chickens and pigs, and then prepare the meat with the rice embedded in it....

Now I picture the cooks firing shotguns with shells packed with rice.

And I was picturing rice flambed a la Bananas Foster.

OTOH, they also have a section called "Fired Rice" so perhaps the lesson here is that I shouldn't be trying to learn Thai from a takeout menu.

My local Chinese restaurant is "Tripple Eatery." I think they've fixed their menus, but that's what the sign still says.

And I was picturing rice flambed a la Bananas Foster.

Well, if they took the chickens and pigs with the embedded rice and set them on fire, they could have refired rice....

According to this and this, coconut milk is ga-ti (or ka-ti, or gka-ti; there's no standard transliteration system for Thai).

I'm pretty sure "yum" is salad, at least in the "salad and yum" entry. One of my cookbooks has a good glossary of Thai food terms, but of course it's very inconveniently not here.

My local Chinese restaurant is "Tripple Eatery."

That should be the name of a Belgian restaurant.

I'll ask my husband about the Thai words when he gets back from lunch.