Thai food is internationally famous. Whether chilli-hot or comparatively blands, harmony is the guiding principle behind each dish. Thai cuisine is essentially a marriage of centuries-old Eastern and Western influences harmoniously combined into something uniquely Thai. The characteristics of Thai food depend on who cooks it, for whom it is cooked, for what occasion, and where it is cooked to suit all palates. Originally, Thai cooking reflected the characteristics of a waterborne lifestyle. Aquatic animals, plants and herbs were major ingredients. Large chunks of meat were eschewed. Subsequent influences introduced the use of sizeable chunks to Thai cooking.
With their Buddhist background, Thais shunned the use of large animals in big chunks. Big cuts of meat were shredded and laced with herbs and spices. Traditional Thai cooking methods were stewing and baking, or grilling. Chinese influences saw the introduction of frying, stir frying and deep-frying. Culinary influences from the 17th century onwards included Portuguese, Dutch, French and Japanese. Chillies were introduced to Thai cooking during the late 1600s by Portuguese missionaries who had acquired a
taste for them while serving in South America.Thais were very adapt at 'Siamese-ising' foreign cooking methods, and substituting ingredients. The ghee used in Indian cooking was replaced by coconut oil, and coconut milk substituted for other daily products. Overpowering pure spices were toned down and enhanced by fresh herbs such as lemon grass and galanga. Eventually, fewer and less spices were used in Thai curries, while the use of fresh herbs increased. It is generally acknowledged that Thai curries burn intensely, but briefly, whereas other curries, with strong spices, burn for longer periods. Instead of serving dishes in courses, a Thai meal is served all at once, permitting dinners to enjoy complementary combinations of different tastes.
A proper Thai meal should consist of a soup, a curry dish with condiments, a dip with accompanying fish and vegetables. A spiced salad may replace the curry dish. The soup can also be spicy, but the curry should be replaced by non spiced items. There must be a harmony of tastes and textures within individual dishes and the entire meal.
Eating & Ordering Thai Food
Thai food is eaten with a fork and spoon. Even single dish meals such as fried rice with pork, or steamed rice topped with roasted duck, are served in bite-sized slices or chunks obviating the need for a knife. The spoon is used to convey food to the mouth.
Ideally, eating Thai food is a communal affair involving two or more people, principally because the greater the number of diners the greater the number of dishes ordered. Generally speaking, two diners order three dishes in addition to their own individual plates of steamed rice, three diners four dishes, and so on. Diners choose whatever they require from shared dishes and generally add it to their own rice. Soups are enjoyed concurrently with rice. Soups are enjoyed concurrently with other dishes, not independently. Spicy dishes, not independently. Spicy dishes are "balanced" by bland dishes to avoid discomfort.
The ideal Thai meal is a harmonious blend of the spicy, the subtle, the sweet and sour, and is meant to be equally satisfying to eye, nose and palate. A typical meal might include a clear soup (perhaps bitter melons stuffed with minced pork), a steamed dish (mussels in curry sauce), a fried dish (fish with ginger), a hot salad (beef slices on a bed of lettuce, onions, chillies, mint and lemon juice) and a variety of sauces into which food is dipped. This would be followed by sweet desserts and/or fresh fruits such as mangoes, durian, jackfruit, papaya, grapes or melon.
Sweet, Sour, Salt and Heat
What makes Thai food so delicious and distinctive among other Southeast Asian food is the unique blend of fresh herbs, spices and other ingredients that combine for a perfect balance of sweet, sour, salt and heat that leaves your mouth feeling clean and your tastebuds popping in the afterglow. Among its many appeals, travel in Thailand should be rated as the world's top destination for a culinary adventure!
I had never been a breakfast eater, but I found the food in Thailand so irresistable that I was soon happily eating three meals a day, and taking full advantage of the street food found everywhere! I often indulged in the traditional Thai breakfast of rice soup with seafood or pork, seasoned with ginger, chiles, cilantro and the omnipresent fish sauce, and crested with crispy fried onion flakes and garlic; on many mornings, on the way to the train or bus or a wat, I joined the throngs of city dwellers for a sweet snack of fresh, juicy papaya spiced up with a salt, sugar and chili dip from a street vendor.
Thai food is now popular in restaurants around the world: green curry with chicken, red curry with beef, pad thai, and irresistably aromatic creations with thai sweet basil, chili and cilantro lording over seafood, chicken or pork. If you want to experience the truly authentic versions of these and less familiar dishes and street food while you travel in Thailand, understanding a few Thai food terms will get you started on your culinary adventure.
Alot of Thai recipes are fairly easy to create in your own kitchen, with the fresh ingredients and cooking utensils now widely available in Asian markets and local produce markets even outside of major cities.
More and more supermarkets are carrying brand name curry powders, curry pastes and other prepared mixes and frozen meals replicating popular Thai dishes, and some are quite good.
But, if you enjoy authenticity, adventure and creativity in your kitchen, try some of the food recipes from the Recipe Box. Once you have a few of the essentials mastered, you'll be infusing the flavours and aromas of Thai cooking into your meals on a regular basis.
