Traditional Thai cuisine has various dishes of hot and spicy food. They are stir-fried dishes, hot and sour soups, and especially spicy and sour salads or yam dishes. Furthermore, there is a wide range of chilli sauce served with several kinds of vegetables and fish. This cook book focuses on two dishes; yam and tom yam (hot and sour soup).

    Hot and spicy food is normally on the table of every meal in Thai house, particularly at dinner, the biggest meal of day. The most popular dish is yam because of its simplicity of cooking and flexibility of mixtures. Even in a party, yam is served. The taste of yam is the blending of four basic flavors: sour, salty, sweet and hot or pungent, the distinguished taste of Thai cuisine. By blending these flavors in varying proportions, a racy dish with harmony of taste can be achieved.

- Yam Kung - Spicy prawn salad
- Yam Ply Meuk - Squid spicy salad
- Kung Kamkram Phla - Charcoal-broiled Charcoal-broiled prawns with spice dressing
- Yam Sam Sao - Cockles, mussels, and clams in spicy salad
- Yam Hor Shell - Spicy scallop salad
- Khaw Mu Yang Kha-Na Krob - Broiled pork jowl and crisp kale
- Yam Sam Sahai - Three companions spicy salad
- Yam Thai Noi - Spicy pork and prawn salad
- Yam Khamoi - Thieves' spicy salad
- Yam Kai Yang - Barbecued chicken spicy salad
,etc.