Influence and Western popularity

Thai cuisine has been 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 fresh (rather than dried) herbs and spices as well as fish sauce.

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. 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, a popular meal when time is limited. Sticky rice khao neow  substitutes ordinary rice in rural 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 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 shovel 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.

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. Fresh - kaffir lime leaves' characteristic flavour 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, 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.

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  - 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  - wide rice noodles in gravy, with beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, or seafood. (Originally from China)

Khao Pad Naem  - Fried rice with fermented sausage (typically from the Northeast).

Pad see ew  - noodles stir-fried with soysauce 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).

Kow Pad Gai - fried rice with chicken

Central Thai Shared Dishes

Tom yam kung Tod man pla krai with dipping sauce 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.

Tom kha gai  - hot sweet soup with chicken and coconut milk.

Satay  - grilled meat, usually pork or chicken, served with 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 ) - sweet green curry, made with fresh green chillies and flavoured with Thai basil, and chicken or fish meatballs.

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  )

 

Northeastern Shared Dishes

Som tam 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 shrimps and palm sugar and Som tam plara  from north eastern part of Thailand ( Isaan ), 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.

Namtok  - made with beed 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

Namprik num  - dipping sauce made from roasted eggplant, green chillies, and garlic pounded together in a mortor and pestle.

Desserts

Kao niao ma muang - Sticky rice and riped mango

Kao niao Durian - Sticky rice and durian in coconut milk

Kluay buad chee - Banana in coconut milk

Foi Tong , Tong yib , Tong yod

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 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" and the smallest, hottest chillies are known as phrik khii nuu , literally "mouse shit chillies".

Nam prik pla too is particularly common in central Thailand because of its low cost. It consists of 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.