Now don’t be put off by the name it is not as sinister as it sounds 🙂 ( or is that just my mischievous mind lol). Morning glory is water spinach or its Thai name Pak Boon Thai. I came across the this beautiful vegetable in my recent visit to Thailand with my gorgeous Hubby, (we have been married 17 years next week and we finally had our honey moon).
We spent  nine amazing days in Thailand and definitely one of the highlights of my trip was the amazing food. The vibrant colours, the tropical fruits, the fragant curries, I love Thai food, the aromas, spices and the harmony and balance of sour, sweet and salty. I also loved  the array of food merchants along every street. 
Hubby and I ate at many different places, one of my favourites being right on Patong Beach, literally our table and chairs were in the sand……….. It was just a brittle old plastic table setting with a plastic table cloth. But you couldn’t ask for a better view especially when the sun was setting. We tried a few dishes but the stand out for both Hubby and I was the Morning Glory (Pad Puk Bung Fai Daeng) . A simple vegetable dish of water spinach ( Pak Boon Thai) with oyster sauce, garlic, chilli and yellow bean paste. To quote Hubby “I could sit up to a plate of this with rice every other night”, which is a big call coming from my meat loving husband.
So immediately I was on the web searching for a recipe to make this at home. I came across several different recipes and tried a few, then came together with my own recipe by combining the things I liked from both recipes.
Recipe:
2Â Tablespoons vegetable oil
4 Cloves garlic sliced
3-5 Red Thai chillies sliced on the diagonal
1Tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon yellow bean paste
1 Tablespoon  fish sauce, plus extra to serve (optional)
2 teaspoons white sugar
1 large bunch water spinach (morning Glory)
- Wash water spinach and chop at 5cm intervals
- Combine oyster sauce bean paste fish sauce and sugar into a small bowl
- Heat wok over a high heat you want the oil VERY VERY HOT
- Throw in garlic and chilli stir quickly until garlic just starts to change colour
- Throw in water spinach and toss a few times
- Add oyster sauce, bean paste, fish sauce and sugar stir fry for about 1 to 2 minutes until all the leaves are dark green and stems have softened
Plate up and drizzle with extra fish sauce (optional)
enjoy with steamed rice 🙂 its also really nice served as a side dish.
Tagged: chillies, Cook, Fish sauce, Home, Oyster sauce, Pad Pak Bung Fai Daeng, Pak Boon, stir fry, Sugar, Thai cuisine, thai food, Thailand, vegetable, water spinach, yellow bean paste
In Prosciutto of Perfection 
You know the way I cook mine, I heat the wok and oil really really hot, while I wait I piled my ong choi or Pak Boong then put garlic (I used fermented soy bean or Tao Jeaw in it too but girl you’re braver than me. I don’t put chilies even though I’m a real Thai but I can’t eat them chilies…haha) and all the other stuff including sauces on TOP of the pile. When the oil in the wok is smoking, then I put the pile of pak boong upside down into the wok. Do you get the picture? The garlic and stuff goes down first. Then I TURN OFF THE HEAT RIGHT AWAY BEFORE STIR FIRED. This way you will get crispy and crunchy not a touch soft pak boong just like the way they made them in Thailand.
If you want recipes for Thai foods. I have a lot on my blog and you can request the recipe you want too. I’m curious about what people want to eat when they refer to “Thai foods” and I’m impress that you even know this dish.
Thanks for the tip I will give it a go this way :-)its such a yummy dish one of my favourites when I was in thailand