I was really interested in what makes Thai food so good and unique in flavor. So I took a Thai cooking course and it didn't disappoint with the knowledge that I got from it about the tremendous amount of basic ingredients and the simple yet time consuming prep work in order to put together a meal. 

We made four dishes in this course pumpkin with coconut custard, shrimp with tamarind sauce, panang curry and somtam which is a spicy papaya salad.

These were the top 3 ingredients that stood out to me,

1. cooking with Coriander root, 

2. using panang leaf 

3. and the eggplant family having many varieties

I really can't imagine being able to easily find some of these vegetables outside of Thailand though.

The top 3 commonly sauces used are:

1. Soy sauce, 

2. Oyster sauce, 

3. Fish sauce

Which is really no surprised as the majority of all asian cooking utilizes these same sauces. 

pictured above: papaya salad, chicken panang curry and shrimp with tamarind sauce

To be continued...