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| Eating in Thailand |
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Savour Thai delicacies and you will be amazed at the
unlimited range! What makes Thai food so appetizing is the inclusion of
all types of aromatic and exotic herbs and spices. Try the tongue-tingling
Tom Yam Kung to whet your tastebds or dine at floating raft restaurants or
popular sidewalk stalls. Come discover and be amazed by the
wide variety of
authentic Thai cuisine.
 "FOOD,
GLORIOUS FOOD" would be an appropriate song for
the gourmet traveller to sing when visiting Thailand, for Thai cuisine is
surely one of mankind's most delicious and exciting culinary art
forms.
Once
almost unknown outside Thailand, the delights of Thai cuisine are now to
be found in countless restaurants around the world, but they are best enjoyed, of
course, in their
country of origin.
Although it draws heavily on several of the great Asian culinary
traditions, particularly Indian and Chinese, Thai food is unique, for its
subtle combination of myriad ingredients, spices, herbs and
sauces.
 The tastes of Thailand range from hot curries to mildly
aromatic desserts and can sometimes surprise the visitor, for instance in
the combination of both sweet and salty elements in the same
dish.
The
huge variety of natural ingredients used, and the complexity of recipes
will certainly be one of the greatest treats in store for lovers of fine
food when visiting Thailand.
One popular misconception about
Thai cuisine is that it is invariably hot -'chilli hot', that is. In fact,
many dishes are
no hotter or spicier than any other Asian style. Chilli is
often an optional ingredient which diners add to their
taste.
What
makes Thai food so different is the inclusion of all kinds of exotic and
aromatic herbs as well as (no1 necessarily hot) spices. Of these,
garlic-Thai garlic is slightly less pungent than its European counterpart
- pepper, coriander and liberal doses of nam pla, a fermented fish sauce,
are the most commonly used. Like other Asian
nations, Thailand has rice as its staple food. The long grain variety is
the most popular and is usually cooked by steaming, without the use of
additives, The result is that it is light and fluffy and so fragrant that
it can be eaten by itself. Another variety of Thai rice is more glutinous,
a sticky texture that is especially popular in the North. Noodles of various
kinds can also form
the basis of a meal or used in dishes such as pad Thai, fried noodles with baby shrimp and
bean curd. To the basic rice and
noodles are added various other dishes. In Thai cooking, frying, boiling,
steaming, barbecuing and baking are main methods employed.A combination of herbs
and spices, freshly ground, can either be put directly into the pan for
frying with the main ingredients or added to soups and stewed dishes.
Alternatively, a paste featuring chilli, lemon grass, coriander root,
garlic, shrimp curd and pepper is used.
A typical family dinner may well
have fish, pork and chicken on the same menu. All dishes including soup
are served at the same time, the soup being in individual bowls and the
main dishes being communal, with diners taking only spoonfuls of each at a
time and mixing it with the rice on their plates. A spoon and fork are the
usual eating utensils, with chopsticks being used by ethnic
Chinese.
The
menu at a typical Thai restaurant will be amazingly long and will be a
testament to the cook's creative imagination. The various dishes on offer
can be broken down into seven main categories: soups, poultry, meats,
seafood, rice and
noodles, vegetables and salads, and desserts
 Soups
Thai soups
can feature virtually any kind of ingredient, from mushrooms and pumpkin
to shrimp and catfish, or any type of meat.
Some are flavoured with coconut
milk, while others are based on fish or meat stock. Probably Thailand's
most famous soup is tom yum gung, a hot and soup prawn mixture with
a tongue-tingling taste achieved by mixing the flavours of chilli, lemon
grass and fresh lime juice.
Main Dishes
Thailand produces excellent
poultry, including chicken, duck and pigeon. These may be cooked in many
ways, wrapped in
pandanus leaves, made into a curry, barbecued, casseroled, or stuffed with
tomatoes, onions, or even ground pork.
Meats are invariably cut into
small pieces which are then cooked in various ways. Among the favourite
methods of preparation are fried with garlic and Thai pepper, or as part
of a curry, particularly gaeng keowan, green curry.
Thailand's seas and
inland waterways provide a huge selection of fresh and dried seafood.
These include lobsters and crayfish, prawn, crab, mussels, clams and an
almost endless variety of fish, The cooking methods for these vary from
steaming to frying, or as part of a soup. Fish is often served with a
thick or spicy sauce, then sprinkled with crispy fried garlic.
Certainly worth
trying are gaeng garee gung, lobster and prawn curry; poo pad pong garee,
curry powder and chilli crab; tort mun pla, fried fish cakes and
plakapong-kow nuang, steamed sea bass.
 Vegetables
These are rarely simply boiled in the western way.
Rather, they are stir-fried with garlic and oyster sauce, or steamed, in
which case they are often eaten with small fried fish and a pungent shrimp
sauce, Salads, too, hardly resemble their western counterparts. A typical
salad might include beef and chilli, plus strips of lettuce and tomato, or
green mango, As an alternative, there is a green papaya salad, known as som tum, which also features ginger, lime juice, fish sauce,
chopped dried shrimps and peanuts.
Desserts
To round off a great meal,
Thailand offers some really delicious desserts. Often made from rice,
tapioca or types of jelly, these are mixed with fruit, fresh or preserved,
and chipped ice, They provide the perfect complement to a rich and spicy
meal. Not to be missed are sankaya gap kanoon. coconut custard with
jackfruit pieces, kow-neeo ma- muang sticky rice with mango and eye-teem
kati, coconut ice-cream.
Finally, a word about Thai fruits. These are
abundant in number and variety, but among the best are pineapple, banana,
orange, pomelo, mangosteen, rambutan and lychee. |
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Information that help you plan your trips to Thailand
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