What is Tom Yum? Thailand's hot and sour soup, explained

10 July 2026 · 2 min read · Rim Thang Thai, Glenelg

Tom Yum is the soup that made Thai food famous, and the name is plain Thai: tom means 'to boil', yum means 'mixed' — the same word behind Thailand's spicy-sour salads. Put together, it's a boiling broth built on the hot-and-sour balance Thais love most.

One spoonful does four things at once — chilli heat, sharp sourness, salt from fish sauce and a little sweetness underneath. If you've never eaten Thai soup before, it's the fastest introduction to how the whole cuisine works: big flavours, held in balance.

The aromatics that make it Tom Yum

Three herbs are non-negotiable, and none of them are garnish. They're bruised or torn and simmered so the broth pulls the flavour out of them — you nudge them to the side of the bowl rather than eat them.

• Lemongrass — bruised stalks that give the broth its lemony backbone
• Galangal — looks like ginger, tastes nothing like it; sharp, piney, almost citrusy
• Kaffir lime leaves — torn into the pot for that unmistakable Thai perfume
• Chilli jam (nam prik pao) — a roasted chilli paste that brings smoky depth and the soup's red-gold colour

What goes into ours

The chilli jam is the quiet hero. Watery versions skip it, and you can tell: without it the soup is just hot lime water. With it, the broth turns rich, smoky and a touch sweet.

Tom Yum is the most popular soup on our soups menu, built the traditional way: a spicy, sour broth with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, mushroom, tomato, brown onion, baby corn and chilli jam.

Pick your protein: chicken at $21.90, seafood with prawns and calamari at $25.90, or the combination at $27.90. Seafood is the classic pairing — tom yum goong, the prawn version, is the one most of Thailand orders.

In Thailand you'll also hear two styles argued over: nam sai, the clear version, and nam khon, the creamy one with a splash of evaporated milk stirred through. Both are legitimate. The clear style shows off the broth; the creamy style rounds off the sharp edges. Either way, the aromatics do the real work.

A straight answer on vegan

Our Tom Yum isn't available vegan, and we'd rather say so than serve you something it isn't. Traditional chilli jam is made with dried shrimp and fish sauce, and that flavour is baked into the soup — take it out and it stops being our Tom Yum.

If you're after a plant-based bowl, order the Tom Kha with tofu instead — a coconut-milk soup with the same aromatics, at $21.90. It trades the hot-sour hit for something creamier and gentler, and it's a great soup in its own right, not a consolation prize.

Where to try Tom Yum in Adelaide

If you're hunting the best Tom Yum in Adelaide, come and judge ours. We're a family-run Thai street-food kitchen at 39 Jetty Rd, Glenelg — dinner seven nights from 5PM, in the room under the lanterns or packed hot to go.

Soup travels better than people think. Order takeaway and it'll still be steaming when you get it home — or find us on Jetty Road, a short walk from the beach, and have it ladled straight from the pot.