Tod mun pla, or fried fish cakes, is a popular dish from Thailand. The best I’ve eaten were in Bangkok, where a street food vendor was frying them as fast as she could for a line of eager customers. Thai fish cakes are different from the tender, lightly seasoned version you get outside Asia. In many Asian cuisines a “bouncy” tex­ture is prized – meatballs, seafood balls and fish cakes have a resilience that is almost, but not quite, chewy. This texture is achieved by vigorous mixing of the fish...