Thai Spicy Ground Chicken and Toasted Rice, 'Larb Gai'

"This is one of our all-time favorite Thai dishes, and it is a very common dish served throughout Thailand as well as Laos. It's quick to make and often extremely spicy, but the lime juice and mint leaves make for an exotic and splendid combination. It can be found on Thai restaurant menus in America as "chicken salad Thai style", which might be the best description for this dish. Larb is pronounced "lawb" and that means salad. It can be made with beef (lawb nuea) or pork (lawb muu) instead of chicken. You can make a more fancy lawb by adding beanthread noodles (see our recipe for larb woonsen). The spice mix is fairly simple but we have a ready-made larb spice package-- Click here if you're interested in our instant larb mix. On a recent trip to Bangkok we enjoyed it at a modern restaurant (shown below served with various sauces and over fish). Rumour has it that the restaurant has a European chef/owner. The recipes are innovative and traditional at the same time...."