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Thai cuisine

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File:Unidentified thai food.jpg
Thai seafood curry

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 is really better described as four regional cuisines corresponding to the four main regions of the country: Northern, Northeastern (or Isan), Central and Southern. Southern cuisine, for example, usually contains lots of heat from chillies while northeastern tends to include lime juice in the ingredients.

Influence and Western popularity

Thai cuisine is influenced by Chinese stir-fries and Indian curries while maintaining a unique taste of its own. Like Vietnamese food, Thai food is known for its enthusiastic use of herbs and spices as well as fish sauce.

Thai food is popular in many Western countries especially in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, 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 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. Steamed rice is accompanied by highly aromatic curries, stir-fries and other dishes, incorporating sometimes large quantities of chillies, lime juice and lemon grass. Curries, stir-fries and others may be poured onto the rice creating a single dish called khao rad gang (Thai ข้าวราดแกง), a popular meal when time is limited. Sticky rice (Thai ข้าวเหนียว) substitutes ordinary rice in Northern and Northeastern cuisine. Noodles are popular as well but usually come as a single dish, like the stir-fried Pad Thai or noodle soups.

There is kind of meal called nam prik (Thai น้ำพริก) which refers to a chile sauce or paste. It is prepared by crushing together various ingredients such as ginger, garlic, chilli, etc. by mortar and pestle according to the recipe. It may then served with vegetables such as cucumbers, cabbage and string beans. The vegetable may be dipped into the sauce and eaten with rice. Nam prik may also be used as a spread for toast or eaten alone with rice.

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 shovel food into the spoon. However, it is often 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. Muslims also frequently eat meals with only their right hands.

Ingredients

One of the important ingredients is nam pla (Thai น้ำปลา), a very aromatic and strong tasting fish sauce. Many Thai dishes in the Central and Southern regions use a wide variety of leaves rarely found in the west, such as kaffir lime leaves (Thai ใบมะกรูด). Usually fresh - kaffir lime leaves' characteristic flavour appears in nearly every Thai soup (e.g., the hot and sour Tom yam), stir-fry or curry from those areas. It is frequently combined with garlic, galangal, ginger and/or fingerroot, together with liberal amounts of chillies, blended together to make curry paste. Fresh Thai basil is needed for the authentic fragrance of certain dishes such as Green curry. Other typical ingredients include the small green Thai eggplants, tamarind, palm and coconut sugars, and coconut milk. As mentioned earlier certain dishes from the northern region of Thailand are known to use lime or lime juice.

Famous dishes

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

Individual dishes

Pad Thai (close up)
  • Pad Thai (Thai ผัดไทย) - rice noodles pan fried with fish sauce, sugar, lime juice or tamarind pulp, chopped peanuts and egg combined with chicken, seafood, and tofu.
  • Rad na (Thai ราดหน้า) - noodles in gravy, with beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, or seafood. (Originally from China)
  • Khao Pad Naem (Thai ข้าวผัดแหนม) - Fried rice with nham
  • Pad see ew (Thai ผัดซีอิ๊ว) - noodles pan fried with soysauce, with pork or chicken.
  • Pad kee mao (Thai ผัดขี้เมา) - noodles pan fried with Thai basil
  • Khao khluk kapi (Thai ข้าวคลุกกะปิ) - rice stir-fried with shrimp paste, served with sweeten pork and vegetables.
  • Khanom Chin Namya (Thai ขนมจีนน้ำยา) - round rice noodle in topped with soup containing fishmeat and fishball and vegetable.
  • Khao soi (Thai ข้าวซอย) - crispy noodles in sweet chicken curry soup (Northern cuisine).
  • Kow Pad Gai - fried rice with chicken

Central Thai Shared Dishes

Tom yam kung
Tod man pla krai with dipping sauce
  • Tom yam (Thai ต้มยำ) - hot & sour soup with meat. For shrimp soup it is called Tom yam goong or Tom yam kung (Thai ต้มยำกุ้ง), for seafood (typically shrimp, squid, fish) Tom yam talae (Thai ต้มยำทะเล), for chicken Tom yam gai (Thai ต้มยำไก่).
  • Tom kha gai (Thai ต้มข่าไก่) - hot sweet soup with chicken and coconut.
  • Satay (Thai สะเต๊ะ) - grilled meat, usually pork or chicken, served with peanut sauce (originally from Indonesia).
  • Red curry (Gaeng Phet = 'hot curry') (Thai แกงเผ็ด) - made with dried red chillies
  • Green curry (Gaeng khiew-waan) (Thai แกงเขียวหวาน) - sweet green curry, made with fresh green chillies and flavoured with cumin, with chicken or fishballs.
  • Massaman curry (Thai แกงมัสมั่น) - yellow curry, usually with beef.
  • Pad prik (Thai ผัดพริก) - stir-fried with chilli, usually beef called Neua pad prik (เนื้อผัดพริก)
  • Pad kaphrao (Thai ผัดกะเพรา) - stir-fried with basil, beef, pork or chicken.
  • Pad pak ruam (Thai ผัดผักรวม) - fried combination of vegetables depending on availability and preference.
  • Panaeng (Thai พะแนง) - dry curry with beef (Panang beef, พะแนงเนื้อ), chicken, or pork.
  • Tod man (Thai ทอดมัน) - fried fishcake made from knifefish (Tod man pla krai, ทอดมันปลากราย) or shrimp (Tod man kung, ทอดมันกุ้ง)

Northeastern Shared Dishes

Som tam
  • Som tam (Thai ส้มตำ) grated papaya salad, pounded with a mortar and pestle. There are two main variations: Som tam poo (ส้มตำปู) with crab, and Som tam Thai (ส้มตำไทย) with peanuts.
  • Larb (Thai ลาบ) - sour salads containing meat and gravy.
  • Namtok (Thai น้ำตก) - sour salads containing meat and gravy, with rice roasted and ground into powder.
  • Yam (Thai ยำ) - various sour salad, such as with glass noodles (Yam Wun Sen, ยำวุ้นเส้น), or with seafood (Yam Talae, ยำทะเล).
  • Tom saep (Thai ต้มแซบ) - Northeastern-styled hot & sour soup
  • Gai yang (Thai ไก่ย่าง) - marinated and grilled chicken
  • Sticky rice (Thai ข้าวเหนียว)
  • Namprik num (Thai น้ำพริกหนุ่ม) - mix of green chili and sauce

Miscellaneous

Throughout the country there are many interpretations and variations on these common dishes. Other dishes from the northern part of Thailand include unique sauces, such as nam prik num (น้ำพริกหนุ่ม), and exotic foods, such as raw beef, fermented fish paste, and deep fried larvae (also enjoyed in the Northeast). The culinary creativity even extends to naming: one tasty larva translates as "freight train" and the smallest, hottest chillies are known as phrik khii nuu, literally "mouse shit chillies".

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