Thai Paradise

Jarunee Fleming, chef and owner of Thai Paradise Restaurant, comes from a family of special chefs for the Royal Palace of Thailand. She studied under her uncle who was the head chef of the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok Thailand, one of the most famous and prestigious hotels in the world. She brings to Thai Paradise her secret family recipes that have been handed down for centuries. For the last 12 years she has delighted thousands in Northern California with the best Thai Cuisine.
Her style of cooking is unique as she borrows from all regions of Thailand. Her basic family recipes draw on the Northeast of Thailand where she is from, but her special sauces and curries have an exotic Bangkok flavor from the Royal Thai Cuisine. She cooks from memory as her recipes are all in her head. Her real secret though, is that she loves to cook and puts love into every dish she makes.
What makes Jarunee’s Thai Food so special is that it is delicious but it is also very fresh and healthy. She puts no MSG in her food and uses very little oil. It is a mixture of flavors; sweet, sour and spicy. Of all the foods of the world, Thai Food is one of the most nourishing and beneficial for the body because it is full of antioxidants. Turmeric, ginger, galangal, garlic, basil and Thai chilies are just some of the antioxidant spices that that make up her Thai dishes. The reason of course for the spices originally was to preserve the food in the hot climate of Thailand before refrigeration, but it ends up giving her food both its delicious taste and good nutrition.
Come try it. You can even watch her cook and see the flames come up over the food. You will love it because it looks and smells so good and tastes even better. And as an extra, is so healthy and so good for you!


Thai Cooking History :

Although popularly considered a single cuisine, Thai food would be more accurately described as four regional cuisines corresponding to the four main regions of the country: Northern, Northeastern (or Isan), Central, and Southern, each cuisine sharing similar foods or foods derived from those of neighboring countries and regions: Burma, the Chinese province of Yunnan and Laos to the north, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to the east and Malaysia to the south of Thailand. In addition to these four regional cuisines, there is also the Thai Royal Cuisine which can trace its history back to the palace cuisine of the Ayutthaya kingdom (1351-1767 CE). Its refinement, cooking techniques and its use of ingredients were of great influence to the cuisine of the Central Thai plains.

The culinary traditions and cuisines of Thailand's neighbors have influenced Thai cuisine over many centuries. Regional variations tend to correlate to neighboring states as well as climate and geography. Southern curries tend to contain coconut milk and fresh turmeric, while northeastern dishes often include lime juice. The cuisine of Northeastern (or Isan) Thailand is heavily influenced by Lao cuisine. Many popular dishes eaten in Thailand were originally Chinese dishes which were introduced to Thailand mainly by the Teochew people who make up the majority of the Thai Chinese. Such dishes include chok (rice porridge), kuai tiao rat na (fried rice-noodles) and khao kha mu (stewed pork with rice). The Chinese also introduced the use of a wok for cooking, the technique of deep-frying and stir-frying dishes, and noodles and soy products.