About Thai Food

Thai cuisine, exotic and yet so delicious and varied in its tastes, is a form of art. It presents an enormous range of dishes and a subtle blend of flavors. Creativity in cooking stems partly from the Thais' love of good food, and partly from the wealth of ingredients available.

Eating Thai Food

Thai food is eaten with a fork and spoon. Most dishes are served in bite-sized slices or chunks obviating the need for a knife. The spoon is used to convey food to the mouth.
Chopsticks is used only with food that served in a bowl such as noodle and rice soup.

A typical Thai meal might include :

Titbits :
Appetizers or snacks, including spring rolls, sa-tay and crispy rice cakes with dipping sauce. These represent the creative nature of the Thais.

Salads :
The balance of tastes and flavors are essential. Major tastes are hot, sour, and salty. Spiciness comes in different degrees according to individual person. The most common form of salad are Beef Salad (Yum-Nua) Noodle Salad (Yum Wun Sen).

Dips :
Dips could be the major dish of a meal when accompany with vegetables and some sort of meats like fried Mackerel, grilled and sliced beef or pork. The most popular dip is Shrimp Paste Dip (Num-Prig-Ka-Pi) made from chilies, garlic, dried shrimps, lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar and shrimp paste.

Main Dishes :
These could be shrimp sweet and sour, omelets with ground pork, and a stir-fried dish like spicy chicken basil help make the meal more complete.

Soups :
Unlike the western meal, Thai soup is served along side all other. Traditional Thai soups are unique because they embody more flavors and textures than can be found in other types of food.

Curries :
There are varieties of Thai curries. The major ingredients of Thai curry are fresh herbs and dried spices. A simple Thai curry paste consists of dried chilies, shallots, lemon grass, galangal, kefir lime rind and shrimp paste. This is base curry for more complexes such as Panang curry, Musamun curry. The most common curries dishes are red or green chicken/beef curry.

Desserts And Fresh Fruit :
To complete the meal Thai dessert like sweet sticky and ripe mango.

Single Dishes :
The other form of Thai food come in a complete meal in one dish, they include rice and noodle dishes such as Khao Pad and Pad Thai or chicken curry top over rice. These single dishes mostly consumed in launch time.

Key Ingredients :

Rice
Soul food of the Thai people. The northern and northeastern people prefer glutinous rice, while the rest eat long-grained rice esspecialy the most popular and world's best rice "Hom-Ma-Li".

Thai Basil
Many varieties of Thai basil with different fragrances are used in Thai cooking. The most common are :
Bai Horapha (Sweet Basil), which has a slight aniseed flavor and a reddish purple color at the leafstalk, often sprinkled on curries.
Bai Kaphrao (Holy Basil), often stir-fried with meat, which has hotter flavor, and slightly hairy.
Bai Maenglak (Hoary Basil), a milder form often sprinkled over soups and salads. When these are not available, western sweet basil may be used, though the taste will be somewhat different.

Chili
Several different types of chili (Phrik) are used in thai cooking. As a general rule, the smaller the chili, the hotter it is. The hottest of all are the tiny red or green Phrik Khi Nu, followed by the slightly larger Phrik Chi Fa. Dried chilies (Phrik Haeng) and ground chili powder (Phrik Pon) are also used.
Coriander (Cilantro)
Called Phak Chi in Thai, this is essential to many Thai dishes. Not only are the leaves used, but also the stems, roots and seeds, all of which impart a different flavor.

Coconut Milk
The wonder fruit, coconut, every parts of it are used in many ways. It's meat is used to make coconut milk by grating the white flesh, soaking it in hot water, and then squeezing out liquid through a fine sieve, which is used as a base in most of Thai cooking such as soups, curries and dessert too.

Fish Sauce
Nam Pla in Thai, this salty, brownish liquid made from fermented small fish or shrimp is the heart in Thai's cooking as a condiment to provide a salty flavor and also used in dipping sauce and dressings.

Galangal
A relative of the ginger root, galangal (Kha) imparts a delicate, unique flavor. It is used fresh, dried or powdered.

Ginger
Knobby, light brown colored rhizome comes in two varieties, young and mature.It is used in various ways in Thai cooking for foods and drinks too.

Garlic
Thai garlic (Krathiam) is smaller than the western variety. It is used both fresh and pickled in Thai cooking. Minced fresh garlic is used in almost Thai dishes.

Kaffir Lime
Both the fruit and leaves of this shrub, Makrut Thai, lend a distinctive taste to many Thai food especially curry pastes. There is no real substitute though.

Lemon Grass
This tall, grass-like plant, known as Takhrai, has small bulbous roots and a lemony flavor and aroma, is an essential in Thai cooking. The bud and base leaves are chopped and pounded for many dishes, as well as, for a refreshing herbal tea.

Lime
Thai used lime more over lemon, to provide sourness like in shrimp soup, beef salad and most dipping

Palm Sugar
Known in Thai as Nam Tan Pip, this is derived from the fruit of the palmyra palm and comes in the form of dried thick pancakes.

Tamarind
The pulp of the pod of the tamarind tree (Makham) adds a sour taste to a number of meat, fish dishes and soups.

Turmeric
Khamin in Thai, this is another member of the ginger family and provides a bright yellow color to some Thai curries and Sa Te.

Chili paste (nam prik paow)
This is made with sugar, shallot, soya bean oil, garlic, dried chili, fish sauce, dried shrimp and tamarind paste. It can be eaten as a dipped or use in Tom Yum soup.

Shrimp paste
It is an essential ingredient in a variety of dishes and one of curry ingredients. Made from tiny shrimp called Kaoy which have been salted, dried, pounded and then left to ferment in the hot humid conditions until the aroma is very pungent.