Food in Thailand is everywhere! Walking along the busy streets, you are surrounded by a swirl of smells and sounds of food cooking. The smokiness of fat cooking over a charcoal grill, the dense steam of aromatics cooking in the pot of the noodle vendor, the scream of noodles as they spill into hot oil in the wok of the nearby hawker and the rapid chattering of plastic stools being pulled into “dinner position” are just a few minute details of eating in Bangkok. Every two or three blocks, you will find streets (“soi” in Thai) where vendors display pictures of the food that they sell. Most of the vendors specialize in certain types of food, such as soup noodles, wok-fried noodles or rice etc.

Thai food seeks to achieve a balance among the various angles of taste and textural perception. Sweet, sour, salty, spiciness and umami (also called savoriness) are contrasted among each other, with different textural components of a dish that emphasize flavors. An example is pad ka prow – stir fried minced meat with Thai basil, chilies, lime juice and rice. The salt and umami is achieved through the use of oyster and fish sauce, while the sugar helps control the sensation of spice, achieved through the use of fiery hot bird’s eye chili. As the dish can veer towards being heavy (due to the oyster sauce), lime juice and Thai basil is used to “lighten” the dish. Your tongue is thrown into multiple directions, although unknowingly, you would just sigh (or grunt) and exclaim (in a sighing or grunting way) that the food is really tasty. Try tasting for the various components in a dish and you will be amazed at the multiple facets of taste in each bite!

 

Eating customs

Thai food, as most Asian foods, are meant to be shared. Portions are generally meant for two and are always accompanied with rice, with rice being the central focus of a meal. Curries, stir fries, soups and fish dish typically accompany the rice. Furthermore, the dishes are not coursed out like an European meal but are served at the same time. Thus, one would be having their soup with their rice, not before. “Kin Khao” or “eat rice” is the sign to start tucking in, although it might not be practiced as widely as each new generation develops different habits. One need not worry about stretching across the table, as someone on the other side of the table will often help spoon some food. At the end of the meal fresh tropical fruits are served as well as sweet desserts. To help with the hot weather, iced desserts such as Thai Chendol (green tapioca noodles with palm sugar sweetened coconut milk) are also served.

Traditionally, Thai food was eaten with the right hand. However, this was changed by Vice-King Pinklao, who was the brother of King Mongkut Rama IV. After watching American missionary Dr. D.B. Bradley demonstrate Western dining etiquette, Vice-King Pinklao chose to use the fork and spoon. The traditional ceramic spoon is sometimes used for soups. Chopsticks are only used with noodles and sticky rice is eaten by hand.

Techniques and regional influences

Thai food incorporates various cooking methods from various influences. For example, Chinese cooking technique influences are stir frying (Pad), deep frying (Toad) and steaming (Nung). Stir frying uses a very hot surface with a little oil and lots of tossing of ingredients in a single pan. Smokiness of a dish is produced through such a method. An example is pad Thai Deep frying creates crisp and crunchy textures by plunging the food into boiling oil. An example are the deep fried bananas with sesame seeds and sugar sold by the street vendors for 10 baht a packet. Steaming creates moist and delicate textures and pla nung manow is an example of steamed red snapper with lime garlic and chili.

Thai salads (Yum) are refreshing, healthy and amazingly tasty in their judicial use of lime juice, chili, fish sauce, sugar and various spices and herbs. An example is papaya salad or som tam. Clear broth soup (Gang jeud) can be made from grounded pork, grounded chicken or pork rib with all kind of vegetable, fresh tofu, or clear glass noodle. Grilling meat on a metal grate over hot coals or other heat source is a Malaysian influence and is called Yang. Thai satay and marinated grilled chicken are easily one of the favorite dishes for Thai people. Cooking food in a boiling broth with vegetables and meat is called Tom. An example is Tom Yum soup.

Ingredients

The basic ingredients of Thai cuisine are fresh tasting herbs (e.g. Thai basil, holy basil, cilantro and lemongrass), chilies (dried or fresh), fish sauce, and sugar. This is the base of many foods here, along with the starch component of rice and noodles.

 

Vegetables and herbs

Fresh vegetables are present in all Thai preparations. Used widely almost all dishes, vegetables are used for their health giving properties, their low cost (compared to meat) as well as their distinctive tastes that color a dish. Herbs such as Thai basil and kaffir lime leaves are used to give lightness to an otherwise “heavy” dish. They can be found floating in tom yum soup or mixed in a green curry. Stir fried morning glory, papaya and carrots with red chilies and lime juice are often found mixed in a tom sam salad. Other commonly used vegetables are sweet potato leaves and water spinach that are spinach tasting, different kinds of lettuce, green beans, coriander, parsley (with its long leaf variation), Chinese broccoli (Pak Kha Nar or gai lan) that are similar in appearance and taste to the broccoli rabe, beansprout and mushrooms, among others. Beansprouts (Thua Ngok) give crunch, a light freshness and cooling sensation that contrasts heavy or spicy dishes. Water chestnut (Haeo) too is used in a similar fashion to beansprouts as it shares similar textures. Yard long beans (Thua Fook Yao) are roughly 20 inches in length, similar to long beans and are used fresh or cooked in salads. The Thai eggplant (Ma Kheua) is mostly shaped like a globe and can range from the size of a marble to a ping pong ball, although they can also come in an elongated shape.

Many herbs and spices are known to have medicinal properties (click here if you want to know more about the medicinal propertieshttp://thaigrocer.com/herb_spice.html) and most of them are used for their unique flavor. Examples are galangal (a kind of ginger that is more pungent and has a slight citrus note), turmeric (a deep yellow cousin to the ginger that has earthy and almost saffron like notes), garlic, Thai basil (a smaller leaf cousin of the large leafed Italian basil and it has a more anise nose), lemon grass (a fibrous stemmed plant that has a distinctive citronella tone), mint, pepper and shallots. Fibrous herbs and curry bases are prepared by pounding them into a smooth paste using the mortar and pestle

 

Just like fresh vegetables, fresh fruits are also available in markets and in the streets displayed over chilled ice in a vendor´s chart. Different styles of apples, sweet pineapples, watermelon, several kinds of mangos, guavas (one of my favorites), pomegranate (and the juice they sell in the streets), oranges, big and small bananas are only a small part of the variety that Thailand offers in terms of fresh fruit. A special mention to the coconut, whose milk and cream are used for many curry and desert preparations.

Rice and noodles

Generally, there are 3 types of rice eaten in Thailand. There is sticky rice, which is more preferred in the North and North East of Thailand, Jasmine rice, which is a long grain rice that has a delicate scent of jasmine and black sticky rice, which has a nutty character and is often used in desserts with sweetened coconut milk.

Noodles are made from rice flour and can be roughly divided into rice noodles, mung bean and egg noodles (which use eggs and rice flour).

Within the rice noodle category, there are

1. Rice stick noodles (sen lek) which is often used to make Pad Thai
2. Big flat noodles (sen yai) which are soft, freshly made and is used in Pad See Ew
3. Rice vermicelli (sen mee) are fine rice noodles that are smaller in width than angel hair pasta
4. Rice flake noodles (sen kwai chap) are either square or triangular in shape and are often used in pig offal noodle soup (kwai chap)
5. Spring roll or wonton wrappers are square in shape and the former is larger than the latter.

Mung bean noodles (wun sen) are made from the green mung bean, are translucent and have a very toothsome texture. They are often used in salads, in soup or in the popular claypot crab dish called “poo ob woon sen”. Egg noodles (ba mee) are either flat or round and are often used in the dish “ba mee moo dang” which is egg noodles with barbeque pork and Chinese mustard greens.

Meat is often used in small amounts with pork and chicken being the most used followed by duck. Pork, chicken and beef are used in curries as well, although beef and pork is not widely used among the Buddhist and Muslim community respectively. Thailand’s proximity to the sea affords it plenty of seafood. Shrimp and squid is present in many meals like fried rice, tom yum soup and fried noodles. Other typical Thai preparations with sea products are deep fried fish with ginger or mussels in curry sauce.

Sauces

If this is not enough to activate all your taste buds, Thai sauces are the final category of ingredients that creates the particular savoriness of Thai cuisine. One may find them as dipping sauces and dressings. The most commonly used are fish sauce, oyster sauce, sweet black soy sauce and shrimp paste which are clear influences from sea products.

 

Fish sauce is made using salted, fermented fish while oyster sauce uses soy, caramel and oyster extract to create a deeper more savory sauce. Yellow bean sauce is a thick paste made from fermented soybeans  and it is used often in vegetable stir-fries. Light soy is light brown in color due to the initial extraction. Similar to its color, its flavor is more delicate than dark soy sauce, which is a more heavily extracted sauce. Dark sweet sauce (sauce dum) is black and has the consistency of honey. Its sweetness makes it a good dipping sauce. Sweet chili sauce (sauce prik) is spicy and sweet. Its inclusion of ginger and vinegar makes it a very appetizing dipping sauce.

Dessert:

Thai desserts are exotic and tropical fruit focused with a balanced mix of sweet and salty in many cases. Bananas, red rubies (water chestnuts coated in tapioca starch) or sweet corn in tapioca with sweet coconut milk, different kinds of jelly made from fruits and fresh and  sweet fruits are some examples of desserts in Thai cuisine.

 

Recipes:

The following  are a really small sample of typical recipes of Thai cuisine you must try in Bangkok:

Pomelo Salad

Ingredients:

½              Pomelo

2                              Shrimp

1T                           Dry Shrimp

2T                           Shallots

1 stalk                   Spring onion, 1” lengths

1T                           Chili in oil

1T                           Fish Sauce

1T                           Lime Juice

1t                            Sugar

 

Preparation

1)      Prepare the sauce by mixing the chili, fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar. Mix well

2)      In a bowl add pomelo, shrimp, dry shrimp, spring onion, shallots and coriander. Add sauce form 1.

Yellow Curry Paste

Ingredients:

3-4                          Dried & fresh chilies

½ tbsp                   Turmeric ginger (skin scraped)

3                              Shallots

5-6                          Garlic

½ tbsp                   Salt

½ tbsp                   Shrimp paste

2                              Lemongrass

½ tbsp                   Coriander seeds

½ tbsp                   Cumin seeds

½ tbsp                   Yellow curry powder

Preparation:

Simple – combine all ingredient in mortar. Using pestle, pound until you have a fine paste.

Optional – you can use a food processor, but the mortar & pestle is preferred. The paste will last several months in a fridge.

Pad Thai

Ingredients:

½ cup    Rice noodles, soaked and soft

1 tbsp                    Dry shrimp

1                              Egg

1 tbsp                    Garlic, minced

1 tbsp                    Shallot, minced

2 tbsp                    Vegetable oil

¼ cup                    Green onion, sliced in 1” lengths

½ cup                    Raw bean sprouts

1 tbsp                    Roasted peanut

1 tbsp                    Pickled white radish, minced

¼ cup                    Tofu, firm and cut

1               Lime, quartered – on the side

Pinch     Red chili powder, dried & ground – on the side

Seasoning sauce

3 tbsp    Fish sauce

3 tbsp    Palm sugar

3 tbsp    Tamarind sauce

1 tbsp    Chili sauce

Preparation

1)      In wok, heat oil and add garlic and shallots. Fry until fragrant

2)      Add bean sprouts, tofu, chives and pickled radish. Cook until 80% and leave it in the side of the wok.

3)      Add dry shrimps in the middle of the wok, cook until 80%. Put in one side of the wok.

4)      Add noodle with chicken broth, fish sauce, ground roasted peanuts, ground red chili powder, tamarind paste and sugar. Continue to fry, mixing everything. Leave it aside.

5)      Cook egg, break yolk. Once ready mix with everything and cook until dry, noodles have to be soft and translucent.

6)      Serve with bean sprouts and green onions next to meal.

7)      Top with ground peanut.

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