Thailand - Understand & Survival (Chapter)

Eating in

Thailand

There’s an entire universe of amazing dishes once you get beyond ‘pad

thai’ and green curry, and for many visitors food is one of the main

reasons for choosing Thailand as a destination. Even more remarkable,

however, is the love for Thai food among the locals: Thais become just

as excited as tourists when faced with a bowl of well-prepared noodles

or when seated at a renowned hawker stall. This unabashed enthusiasm

for eating, not to mention an abundance of fascinating ingredients and

infl uences, has generated one of the most fun and diverse food scenes

anywhere in the world.

Kids may have a problem adjusting to Thai food; see the boxed text,

p 46 for some information on how to deal with this.

The Four Flavours

Simply put, sweet, sour, salty and spicy are the parameters that defi ne

Thai food, and although many associate the cuisine with spiciness, virtu-

ally every dish is an exercise in balancing these four tastes. This balance

might be obtained by a squeeze of lime juice and a glug of fi sh sauce, or

a tablespoon of fermented soybeans and a strategic splash of vinegar.

Bitter also factors into many Thai dishes, and often comes from the addi-

tion of a vegetable or herb. Regardless of the source, the goal is the same:

a favourable balance of four clear, vibrant fl avours.

Staples & Specialities

Rice & Noodles

Rice is so central to Thai food culture that the most common term for

‘eat’ is gin kôw (literally, ‘consume rice’) and one of the most common

greetings is Gin kôw rĕu yang? (Have you consumed rice yet?). To eat is

to eat rice, and for most of the country, a meal is not acceptable without

this staple.

Appon’s Thai
Food (www.
khiewchanta.
com) features
more than 800
authentic and
well-organised
Thai recipes –
many with helpful
audio recordings
of their Thai
names – written
by a native Thai.

SOMETHING’S FISHY

Westerners might scoff at the all-too-literal name of this condiment, but for much of Thai

cooking, fish sauce is more than just another ingredient, it is the ingredient.

Essentially the liquid obtained from fermented fi sh, fi sh sauce takes various guises

depending on the region. In northeastern Thailand, discerning diners prefer a thick,

pasty mash of fermented freshwater fi sh and sometimes rice. Elsewhere, where people

have access to the sea, fi sh sauce takes the form of a thin liquid extracted from salted

anchovies. In both cases the result is highly pungent, but generally salty (rather than

fi shy) in taste, and used much the same way as the saltshaker is in the West.