The Meals We Eat
Lots of people have written to me and asked me about meals in Thailand. Now it's time for me to make the page up.
In Thailand, we have 3 meals same as other countries. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are the main meals but Thai people like to have snacks between meals. A lot of snacks. We eat our meals with a spoon and fork or sometimes with chopsticks if we have noodles. All food is cut up when it is cooked so we don't need to use a knife!
In my family, we don't really cook meals ourselves. We often eat takeaway food which we bring back to the house. But if we cook ourselves, my dad will be the cook, he cooks better than my mum. We do not always have our meals together because we are not often home. I always go back home late after working at Srinai school on my web site. On those days I usually eat at a roadside noodle stall. If I go back home early, we shall eat dinner together in front of the TV. Most meals we eat are rice topped with meat and vegetables or noodles. Lunch and dinner are about the same but lunch usually has one dish but dinner it is normal to have three or four dishes to share. It is not polite to put all food on your plate in one go. You just take a spoonfull at a time. This is good when we go out to a restaurant. We can try many different dishes.
BREAKFAST:
| Ba-me is egg noodle soup with pork and vegetables. | Pad Pak is fried vegetables. | Pad Bai Kha Praew is spicy basil with chicken (pork, shrimp, etc.) |
| Pad Nhor Mai is Chicken (pork) with bamboo shoots. | Kaeng Khee-o Whan is green curry with beef. | Tomyam Kung is spicy lemongrass soup with shrimp. |
| Som-Tam is Papaya spicy salad. | Pla-muk neung ma-nao is steamed squid with lemon and chili. | Pad Mama is fried noodle with beef and vegetables. |
| oke is rice porridge with pork. | Kai Jee-o is omelette. | Khao Mun Khai is chicken and rice. |
Introducing Thai Food
Thai food is widely known for being hot and spicy since almost all Thai food is cooked with basic ingredients such as garlic, chillies, limejuice, lemon grass and fresh coriander leaf and fermented fish sauce (nam pia) or shrimp paste (kapi) to make it salty.Since rice is the staple food in Thailand, it is usually eaten at every meal with soups, curries, fried vegetables and nam phrik. Nam phrik is a hot sauce, prepared in a variety of ways and differs from region t oregion: nam phrik pla pon is a ground dried fish and chilli sauce, nam phrik pla raa is a fermented fish and chilli sauce, nam phrik kapi is a shrimp paste and chilli sauce, nam phrik oong is a minced pork, tomato and chilli sauce. In general, the basic ingredients of nam phrik include shrimp paste, garlic, chilli, fermented fish sauce and iemon juice.
Other common seasoning in Thai food include galingale (khaa), blackpapper, ground peanut, tamarind juice, ginger and coconut milk. As a result, it takes hours to prepare a proper Thai meal in the traditional way as it involves so much peeling and chopping and pounding so it needs time to prepare in advance.
In fact, Thai food varies from region to region, for example, glutinous or sticky rice is more popular in the North and Northeast than steamed rice. Moreover, in some rural areas, certain insects are also eaten e.g. crickets, silk worm larvae, red ant larvae. At the same time, Thai desserts are often made from sticky rice or coconut milk, flour, egg and coconut sugar while a variety of fruit is available all the year round.
Meanwhile, the basic characteristic taste of Thai food in different parts of the country can be described in different ways: in the central region, food is hot, salty, sweet and sour. Rice is served with different types of nam phrik and soups e.g. tom yam kung (prawn soup with lemon grass. Dishes us
ually contain a lot of condiments and spices. In the North, food is mild or hot, salty and sour, but never sweet. Sticky rice is served with boiled vegetables, nam phrik oong and soups or curries. The North is also well-known for its sausage called "naem" which consists of fermented minced pork. It has a sour flavour and is sold wrapped in cellophane and banana leaf.
Food in the Northeast is hot, salty and sour. Their favourite foods include papaya salad (som tam), sour chopped meat salad "koi", sour minced meat salad (lard) . People use a lot of condiments but not many spices. Their meals generally consists of sticky rice and nam phrik pla raa accompanid by a lot of vegetableas including those found growing wild. On the other hand, food in the South is renowned for being very hot, salty and sour-tasting. Curries are popular and made with a lot of spices and condiments. Khao yam (a mixture of rice) raw vegetables and fermented fish sauce or boo doo is also a common dish. Generally southern people eat little meat and other varieties of nam phrik are not so popular, the most common one is nam phrik kapi.
Though the major portion of Thai food is described as being spiced and chilli hot, it currently enjoys worldwide popularity especially the exotic Tom Yam Kung, a uniquely piquant prawn soup that is renowned for it simplicity, creativity, artistic flair and delicious taste. Above all, the tastes of Thai cuisines can be amended to suit individual desire, for example, by reducing the amount of chillies in certain dishes to lower the heat or increasing amount of lime juice to increase sourness. Visitors who have tried the exotic Thai food will never forget to order them again whenever their favourite dishes are available.
This story comes from "Essays on Thailand" by Thanapol Chadchaidee. It is used here with his permission. The book contains 60 essays about Thailand written in Thai and English.
Top 10 Thai Food
Have you ever tried Thai food? Do you like it? Thai food is one of the things that every foreigner should try when they come to Thailand. At my old school, when we have visitors from other countries we always take them out to eat. We take them to a Thai restaurant to try Thai food and also teach them about table manners too!
Not long ago, the Office of the National Culture Commission announced the top ten Thai dishes best liked by foreigners. In cooperation with the Ministry of Foreigner Affairs, the Office had conducted a survey of Thai restaurants all over the world to find out ten favourite Thai dishes of foreigners. In the survey 1,000 Thai restaurant around the world were asked to fill in a questionnaire. However, only 500 restaurants which have Thai chefs and offer the authentic Thai food were qualified for being taken into consideration.
The results were the top ten Thai dishes which are listed below in order of their percentages of popularity:
- Tom Yam Kung (spicy shrimp soup) 99% (recipe)
- Kaeng Khiao Wan Kai (green chicken curry) 85% (recipe)
- Phat Thai (fried noodles of Thai style) 70% (recipe)
- Phat Kaphrao (meat fried with sweet basils) 52% (recipe)
- Kaeng Phet Pet Yang (roast duck curry) 50%
- Tom Kha Kai (chicken in coconut soup) 47%
- Yam Nua (spicy beef salad) 45%
- Mu or Kai sa-te (roast pork or chicken coated with turmeric) 43% (recipe)
- Kai Phat Met Mamuang Himmaphan (chicken fried with cashew nuts) 42% (recipe)
- Phanaeng (meat in coconut cream) 39% (recipe)
Tom Yam Kung Kaeng Khiao Wan Kai Phat Kaphrao 
Kai Phat Met Mamuang Himmaphan Phanaeng Phat Thai
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