Thailand

Thai cuisine refers to typical foods, beverages, and cooking styles common to the country of Thailand. Thai Cuisine is known for its balance of five fundamental flavors in each dish or the overall meal – hot (spicy), sour, sweet, salty and bitter (optional). Although popularly considered as a single cuisine, Thai food would be more accurately described as four regional cuisines corresponding to the four main regions of the country: Northern, Northeastern (or Isan), Central and Southern. Southern curries, for example, tend to contain coconut milk and fresh turmeric, while northeastern dishes often include lime juice. Thai cuisine has been greatly influenced by the cuisine of its neighboring and nearby countries, especially India, China, Malaysia, and Laos.

Thai food is known for its enthusiastic use of fresh (rather than dried) herbs and spices as well as fish sauce. Thai food is popular in many Western countries especially in Australia, New Zealand, some countries in Europe such as the United Kingdom, as well as the United States, and Canada.

Serving

Instead of a single main course with side dishes found in Western cuisine, a Thai full meal typically consists of either a single dish or rice khao with many complementary dishes served concurrently.

Rice is a staple component of Thai cuisine, as it is of most Asian cuisines. The highly prized, sweet-smelling jasmine rice is indigenous to Thailand. This naturally aromatic long-grained rice grows in abundance in the verdant patchwork of paddy fields that blanket Thailand’s central plains. Steamed rice is accompanied by highly aromatic curries, stir-frys and other dishes, incorporating sometimes large quantities of chillies, lime juice and lemon grass. Curries, stir-frys and others may be poured onto the rice creating a single dish called khao rad gang, a popular meal when time is limited. Sticky rice (khao neow) is a unique variety of rice that contains an unusual balance of the starches present in all rice, causing it to cook up to a sticky texture. It is the daily bread of Laos and substitutes ordinary rice in rural Northern and Northeastern Thai cuisine, where Lao cultural influence is strong.

Noodles, known throughout parts of Southeast Asia by the Chinese name kwaytiow, are popular as well but usually come as a single dish, like the stir-fried Pad Thai or noodle soups. Many Chinese cuisine are adapted to suit Thai taste, such as khuaytiow rua, a sour and spicy rice noodle soup.

There is a uniquely Thai dish called nam prik which refers to a chile sauce or paste. Each region has its own special versions. It is prepared by crushing together chillies with various ingredients such as garlic and shrimp paste using a mortar and pestle. It is then often served with vegetables such as cucumbers, cabbage and yard-long beans, either raw or blanched. The vegetables are dipped into the sauce and eaten with rice. Nam prik may also be simply eaten alone with rice or, in a bit of Thai and Western fusion, spread on toast.

Thai food is generally eaten with a fork and a spoon. Chopsticks are used rarely, primarily for the consumption of noodle soups. The fork, held in the left hand, is used to push food into the spoon. However, it is common practice for Thais and hill tribe peoples in the North and Northeast to eat sticky rice with their right hands by making it into balls that are dipped into side dishes and eaten. Thai-Muslims also frequently eat meals with only their right hands.

Often Thai food is served with a variety of spicy condiments to embolden dishes. This can range from dried chili pieces, or sliced chili peppers in rice vinegar, to a spicy chili sauce such as the nam prik mentioned above.

Ingredients

The ingredient found in almost all Thai dishes and every region of the country is nam pla, a very aromatic and strong tasting fish sauce. Shrimp paste, a combination of ground shrimp and salt, is also extensively used.

Thai dishes in the Central and Southern regions use a wide variety of leaves rarely found in the West, such as kaffir lime leaves. The characteristic flavour of kaffir lime leaves’ appears in nearly every Thai soup (e.g., the hot and sour Tom yam) or curry from those areas. It is frequently combined with garlic, galangal, lemon grass, turmeric and/or fingerroot (krachai), blended together with liberal amounts of various chillies to make curry paste. Fresh Thai basil is also used to add fragrance in certain dishes such as Green curry. Other typical ingredients include the small green Thai eggplants, tamarind, palm and coconut sugars, lime juice, and coconut milk. A variety of chilies and spicy elements are found in most Thai dishes.

Other ingredients also include pahk chee (cilantro, sometimes known as coriander), rahk pahk chee (cilantro/coriander roots), curry pastes, pong kah-ree (curry powder), si-yu dahm (dark soy sauce), gung haeng (dried shrimp), pong pa-loh (five-spice powder), tua fahk yao (long beans or yard-long beans), nahmahn hoi (oyster sauce), prik Thai (Thai pepper), rice and tapioca flour, and nahm prik pao (roasted chilli paste).

Although broccoli is often used in Asian restaurants in the west in pad thai and rad na, it was never actually used in any traditional Thai food in Thailand and is still rarely seen in Thailand. Usually, gailan is used.

Famous dishes

Many Thai dishes are familiar in the West. In many dishes below, different kinds of protein can be chosen as the ingredient, such as beef, chicken, pork, duck, tofu or seafood.

Individual dishes

• Khao Pad – One of the most common dishes in Thailand, fried rice, Thai style. Usually with chicken, beef, shrimp, pork, crab or coconut or pineapple, or vegetarian.
• Pad Thai – rice noodles pan fried with fish sauce, sugar, lime juice or tamarind pulp, chopped peanuts, and egg combined with chicken, seafood, or tofu.
• Rad na – wide rice noodles in gravy, with beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, or seafood.
• Khao pad naem – fried rice with fermented sausage (typically from the Northeast).
• Pad see ew – noodles stir-fried with see ew dum (thick soy sauce) and nahm plah (fish sauce) and pork or chicken.
• Pad kee mao – noodles stir-fried with Thai basil.
• Khao khluk kapi – rice stir-fried with shrimp paste, served with sweeten pork and vegetables.
• Khanom chin namya – round boiled rice noodles topped with various curry sauces and eaten with fresh leaves and vegetables.
• Khao soi – crispy wheat noodles in sweet chicken curry soup (a Northern dish).
• Khao pad gai – fried rice with chicken.
• Gai pad grapao – minced chicken with garlic, chilies, and Holy basil.
• Gai himaphan – juicy chunks of chicken with cashew nuts and chilies.

Central Thai shared dishes

• Tom yam – hot & sour soup with meat. With shrimp it is called Tom yam goong or Tom yam kung, with seafood (typically shrimp, squid, fish) Tom yam talae, with chicken Tom yam gai.
• Gai Pad Khing – chicken stir-fried with sliced ginger.
• Tom kha gai – hot sweet soup with chicken and coconut milk.
• Sate – grilled meat, usually pork or chicken, served with cucumber salad and peanut sauce (actually of Indonesian origin, but now a popular street food in Thailand).
• Red curry (Gaeng Phet lit. ‘hot curry’) – made with copious amounts of dried red chillies.
• Green curry (Gaeng khiew-waan) – green curry, made with fresh green chillies and flavoured with Thai basil, and chicken or fish meatballs. This dish is one of the spiciest of Thai curries.
• Massaman curry – an Indian style curry, usually made by Thai-Muslims, containing roasted dried spices, such as coriander seed, that are rarely found in other Thai curries.
• Pad prik – usually beef stir fried with chili, called Neua pad prik.
• Pad kaphrao – beef, pork or chicken stir fried with Thai Holy basil.
• Pad pak ruam – stir fried combination of vegetables depending on availability and preference.
• Panaeng – dry curry with beef (Panang beef), chicken, or pork. It includes some roasted dried spices similar to Massaman curry.
• Tod man – deep fried fishcake made from knifefish (Tod man pla krai) or shrimp (Tod man kung).
• Boo Jah – crab cakes with pork, garlic, and pepper served with a simple spicy sauce, such as Sri Rachaa sauce, sweet-hot garlic sauce, nahm prik pao (roasted chili paste), or red curry paste and chopped green onions.
• Choo-Chee Plah Ga-Pong – snapper in choo-chee curry sauce (thick red curry sauce).

Northeastern shared dishes

• Som tam – grated papaya salad, pounded with a mortar and pestle. There are three main variations: Som tam poo with salted black crab, and Som tam Thai with peanuts, dried shrimp and palm sugar and Som tam plara from north eastern part of Thailand (Isan), with salted gourami fish, white eggplants, fish sauce and long bean.
• Larb – sour salads containing meat, onions, chillies, roasted rice powder and garnished with mint.
• Nam Tok – made with beef and identical to larb, except that the beef is cut into thin strips rather than minced.
• Yam – general name for any type of sour salad, such as those made with glass noodles (Yam Wun Sen), or with seafood (Yam Talae).
• Tom saep – Northeastern-style hot & sour soup.
• Gai yang – marinated, grilled chicken.
• Sticky rice.
• Nam prik num – dipping sauce made from roasted eggplant, green chillies, and garlic grounded together in a mortar and pestle.

Desserts and drinks

• Kao niao ma muang – Sticky rice and ripe mango.
• Kao niao Durian – Sticky rice and durian in coconut milk.
• Gluay buad chee – Banana in coconut milk.
• Foi Tong, Tong yib, Tong yod – Different forms of egg yolk mixed with sugar and other ingredients. Some believe this is European in origin.
• Kanome Maw Gaeng – sweet potato pudding.
• Fried Banana with Ice Cream.
• Cha Yen – Thai Iced Tea.
• Kah-Feh Yen – Thai Iced Coffee

Coconut is a main ingredient in desserts, in particular the milk and the shredded coconut pieces. The coconut milk is used in a lot of dishes as the soup or base and some of the desserts are rolled in shredded coconut for taste and look.

Varations

Throughout the country there are many interpretations and variations on these common dishes. Other dishes from the northern part of Thailand include unique sauces and exotic foods, such as raw beef, fermented fish paste, and deep fried insect larvae (also enjoyed in the Northeast). The culinary creativity even extends to naming: one tasty larva translates as “freight train” (rot duan) and the smallest, hottest chillies are known as phrik khii nuu, literally “mouse shit chillies”. In the Northeast, eating insects is common, and the giant water bug (mang dah) is popular.

The dish nam prik pla too is particularly common in central Thailand because of its low cost. It consists of deep fried Indian mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta (pla too) served with a shrimp-and-chilli paste (nam prik kapi). The fish are traditionally presented in pairs, placed head-to-tail on a round bamboo dish.