EATING IN THAILANDHABITS & CUSTOMSmonth. Other easy, though less common, venues for vegetarian meals
include Indian restaurants, which usually feature a vegetarian section
on the menu.
The phrase ‘I’m vegetarian’ in Thai ispŏm gin jairr (for men) or dì·chăn
gin jairr (for women). Loosely translated this means ‘I eat only vegetarian
food’, which includes no eggs and no dairy products – in other words,
total vegan.
Habits & Customs
Like most of Thai culture, eating conventions appear relaxed and infor-
mal but are orchestrated by many implied rules.
Whether at home or in a restaurant, Thai meals are always served
‘family-style’, that is from common serving platters, and the plates appear
in whatever order the kitchen can prepare them. When serving yourself
from a common platter, put no more than one spoonful onto your plate
at a time. Heaping your plate with all ‘your’ portions at once will look
greedy to Thais unfamiliar with Western conventions. Another impor-
tant factor in a Thai meal is achieving a balance of fl avours and textures.
Traditionally, the party orders a curry, a steamed or fried fi sh, a stir-fried
vegetable dish and a soup, taking great care to balance cool and hot, sour
and sweet, salty and plain.
Originally Thai food was eaten with the fi ngers, and it still is in certain
regions of the kingdom. In the early 1900s, Thais began setting their
tables with fork and spoon to aff ect a ‘royal’ setting, and it wasn’t long
before fork-and-spoon dining became the norm in Bangkok and later
spread throughout the kingdom. To use these tools the Thai way, use a
serving spoon, or alternatively your own, to take a single mouthful of
food from a central dish, and ladle it over a portion of your rice. The fork
is then used to push the now food-soaked portion of rice back onto the
spoon before entering the mouth.
If you’re not off ered chopsticks, don’t ask for them. Thai food is eaten
with fork and spoon, not chopsticks. Whenfa·ràngg (Westerners) ask for
chopsticks to eat Thai food, it only puzzles restaurant proprietors. Chop-
sticks are reserved for eating Chinese-style food from bowls, or for eat-
ing in all-Chinese restaurants. In either case you will be supplied with
chopsticks without having to ask. Unlike their counterparts in many
Western countries, restaurateurs in Thailand won’t assume you don’t
know how to use them.
BEYOND THE STREET STALLRead any food magazine article about eating in Thailand, and you will inevitably fi nd
gushing references to the glories of the country’s street food. While much of the food
sold from mobile carts and streetside stalls is indeed very tasty, it certainly isn’t the
case that only street food is good. In fact, in our research, we’ve found that the best
places to eat are anything but mobile, but rather are the long-standing, family-owned
restaurants typically found in aged Sino-Portuguese shophouses. The cooks at such
places have likely been serving the same dish, or limited repertoire of dishes, for several
decades, and really know what they’re doing. The food may cost slightly more than on
the street, but the setting is usually more comfortable and hygienic, not to mention the
fact that you’re eating a piece of history. While such restaurants rarely have English-
language menus, you can usually point to a picture or dish. If that fails, turn to p785 and
practise your Thai.
So do indulge in a street cart or two – they’re a fun part of the Thailand experience –
but be sure to try a few old-school restaurants as well.