Thai Food

Thai cuisine
Thai cuisine is known for its balance of five fundamental flavors in each dish or the overall meal - hot (spicy), sour, sweet, salty and bitter (optional). Although popularly considered as a single cuisine, Thai food is really better described as four regional cuisines corresponding to the four main regions of the country: Northern, Northeastern (or Isan), Central and Southern. Southern curries, for example, tend to contain coconut milk and fresh turmeric, while northeastern dishes often include lime juice.

Northern Thai Shared Dished
Khao soi (Thai: ) - crispy wheat noodles in sweet chicken curry soup (a Northern dish)

Namprik num (Thai: ) - dipping sauce made from roasted eggplant, green chillies, and garlic grounded together in a mortar and pestle.

Central Thai Shared Dishes
Tom yam (Thai: ) - hot & sour soup with meat. With shrimp it is called Tom yam goong or Tom yam kung (Thai: ), with seafood (typically shrimp, squid, fish) Tom yam talae (Thai: ), with chicken Tom yam gai (Thai: ).

Gai Pad Khing - Ginger chicken.
Tom kha gai (Thai: ) - hot sweet soup with chicken and coconut milk.
Satay (Thai: ) - grilled meat, usually pork or chicken, served with cucumber salad and peanut sauce (actually of Indonesian origin, but now a popular street food in Thailand).
Red curry (Gaeng Phet lit. 'hot curry', Thai: ) - made with copious amounts of dried red chillies
Green curry (Gaeng khiew-waan, Thai: ) - green curry, made with fresh green chillies and flavoured with Thai basil, and chicken or fish meatballs. This dish is one of the spiciest of Thai curries.
Massaman curry (Thai: ) - an Indian style curry, usually made by Thai-Muslims, containing roasted dried spices, such as coriander seed, that are rarely found in other Thai curries.
Pad prik (Thai: ) - usually beef stir fried with chili, called Neua pad prik (Thai: )
Pad kaphrao (Thai: ) - beef, pork or chicken stir fried with Thai Holy basil.
Pad pak ruam (Thai: ) - stir fried combination of vegetables depending on availability and preference.
Panaeng (Thai: ) - dry curry with beef (Panang beef, Thai: ), chicken, or pork. It includes some roasted dried spices similar to Massaman curry.
Tod man (Thai: ) - deep fried fishcake made from knifefish (Tod man pla krai, Thai: ) or shrimp (Tod man kung, Thai: )
Boo Jah (Thai Crab Cakes) - crab cakes with pork, garlic, and pepper served with a simple spicy sauce, such as Sri Rachaa sauce, sweet-hot garlic sauce, nahm prik pao (roasted chili paste), or red curry paste and chopped green onions.
Choo-Chee Plah Ga-Pong - snapper in choo-chee curry sauce (thick red curry sauce)

Northeastern Shared Dishes
(See also Cuisine of Laos)

Som tam

Som tam (Thai: ) grated papaya salad, pounded with a mortar and pestle. There are three main variations: Som tam poo (Thai: ) with salted black crab, and Som tam Thai (Thai: ) with peanuts, dried shrimp and palm sugar and Som tam plara (Thai: ) from north eastern part of Thailand (Isaan), with salted gourami fish, white eggplants, fish sauce and long bean.
Larb (Thai: ) - sour salads containing meat, onions, chillies, roasted rice powder and garnished with mint.
Namtok (Thai: ) - made with beef and identical to larb, except that the beef is cut into thin strips rather than minced.
Yam (Thai: ) - general name for any type of sour salad, such as those made with glass noodles (Yam Wun Sen, Thai: ), or with seafood (Yam Talae, Thai: ).
Tom saep (Thai: ) - Northeastern-style hot & sour soup
Gai yang (Thai: ) - marinated, grilled chicken
Sticky rice (Thai: )
Namprik num (Thai: ) - dipping sauce made from roasted eggplant, green chillies, and garlic grounded together in a mortar and pestle.

Thai food is known for its enthusiastic use of fresh (rather than dried) herbs and spices as well as fish sauce.

Thai food is popular in many Western countries especially in Australia, New Zealand, some countries in Europe such as the United Kingdom, as well as the United States, and Canada.

Instead of a single main course with side dishes found in Western cuisine, a Thai full meal typically consists of either a single dish or rice khao (Thai: ) with many complementary dishes served concurrently.

There is a uniquely Thai dish called nam prik (Thai: ) which refers to a chile sauce or paste. Each region has its own special versions. It is prepared by crushing together chillies with various ingredients such as garlic and shrimp paste using a mortar and pestle. It is then often served with vegetables such as cucumbers, cabbage and yard-long beans, either raw or blanched. The vegetables are dipped into the sauce and eaten with rice. Nam prik may also be simply eaten alone with rice or, in a bit of Thai and Western fusion, spread on toast.

Thai food is generally eaten with a fork and a spoon. Chopsticks are used rarely, primarily for the consumption of noodle soups. The fork, held in the left hand, is used to shovel food into the spoon. However, it is common practice for Thais and hill tribe peoples in the North and Northeast to eat sticky rice with their right hands by making it into balls that are dipped into side dishes and eaten. Thai-Muslims also frequently eat meals with only their right hands.

Often Thai food is served with a variety of spicy condiments to embolden dishes. This can range from dried chili pieces, or sliced chili peppers in rice vinegar, to a spicy chili sauce such as the nam prik mentioned above.

The ingredient found in almost all Thai dishes and every region of the country is nam pla (Thai: ), a very aromatic and strong tasting fish sauce. Shrimp paste, a combination of ground shrimp and salt, is also extensively used.

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