Tum Grilled Corn and String Beans

I’m trying something a bit different today, Tum grilled corn and string beans. This is a spicy grilled corn and sting beans salad.

Manual, EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens, f/4, 1.6sec, ISO 100, focal length 200mm, spot metering, tungsten light, tripod mounted

My ingredients are sliced boil grilled corn, string beans, cherry tomatoes, a cove of garlic, fish sauce, shrimp paste, brown sugar, tamarind paste, and chili peppers.

Manual, EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens, f/5.6, 2sec, ISO 100, focal length 145mm, spot metering, tungsten light, tripod mounted

I have a poor lighting in my kitchen and taken food photo is almost impossible for me. I recently learned how to shoot in Manual Mode and really liked it, in fact I like it better than shooting in Aperture Priority Mode.  My kitchen is not very big, and obvious that I didn’t need a zoom lens to take these images but I used it here to create a composition that my wide angle lens wouldn’t be able to create. As I zoom into the food image, the background is blown out, creating a nice bokeh background. I’m paying more attention to my background now, certainly don’t want anything that would clutter the image, and a bokeh image of the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper shaker gave it a soft touch. I also used a tripod to help stabilize the image and use a 2 second timer to avoid any shaking of my camera.

Tum Green Mango

Green mango makes my mouth water, must be the association of its sourness.  It’s a great snack if you are on a diet, I brought it to work to share with one of my American co-workers, she didn’t like the taste of it, and went back to her cabbage soup diet for the time being.

This is Tum mango (spicy green mango salad) and purple sticky rice, made you think of the purple sticky rice with coconut and mango, definitely not the same dish.  This is good if you are on a diet, ingredients are shredded green mango, cherry tomatoes, chili peppers, cove garlic, brown sugar, fish sauce, and shrimp paste.

Kookies Thai Recipes – Som Tam, somtam, Som Tum made easy!

For those that want to try Som Tum (Spicy Papaya Salad), or Lao people call it Tum Mak Houng, here is a simple recipe that you can try.