A Guide to Tasty Thai Food

Food from Thailand has become increasingly popular in the western world during the past decade. Many Thai restaurants have sprung up in all the major cities and town. Thai food can be found available as pre cooked ready meals in the major supermarkets along with many of the main ingredients if one chooses to have a go at cooking it at home.

There are good reasons why Thai food has become so popular. Many more people are discovering Thailand and its exotic cuisine whilst on holiday and wish to be reminded after returning home. The rise in living standards has given people more opportunities to eat out and try previously unaffordable eastern dishes.

Thai food is renowned for being full of flavour and spice. The Thais like their food very spicy and to the western palate this can often make the food inedible, being far too hot. Fortunately the food can be eaten with fewer spices whilst keeping its full fresh flavour.

Thai dishes are quick to cook, most taking less than 12 minutes to prepare.

Thai food is usually eaten with rice or noodles, which compliment the main dishes, such as curries, stir fries, salads, soups and sauces. Thai food is usually a mixture of salty, hot, sweet and sour tastes.

Some of the most popular Thai dishes include Green Curry, Somtam, Tom Kha and Tom Yam.

Thais usually eat with a spoon but chopsticks can be used for eating noodles.

Thais take their food seriously and often use the phrase 'have you eaten yet?' as a greeting instead of the commonly used 'hello' that most westerners use. They also have a popular phrase 'full heart' to sum up their feeling of contentment after eating a good meal.

A Must Read Guide to Eating Thai Food

Although popularly considered as a single cuisine, Thai food is actually better depicted as four regional cuisines relating to the four main regions of the country: Northern, North-eastern, Central and Southern. For instance Southern curries have a tendency to contain coconut milk and fresh turmeric, while north-eastern dishes often incorporate fresh lime juice. Thai cuisine has been influenced by Chinese stir fry and Indian curries while maintaining a unique taste of its own. Like Vietnamese food, Thai food is known for its enthusiastic use of fresh (rather than dried) herbs and spices as well as fish sauce.

A few tips when dining with Thais include...

Don't wait for all of the food to be served before you start, Thai meals are leisurely affairs and the food just keeps on coming.

Don't use your fork to put food in your mouth, use it to push your food onto your spoon.

Never order one dish that you aim to eat by yourself Thai meals are always communal, allow other to tuck in.

Pay the bill if it comes to you; in Thai society the person who is apparently the richest pays. As a foreigner nine times out of ten this will be you! It is not common to "split the bill".

But by the same token don't try to donate if someone else is paying the bill, it takes away from their status and is considered a "loss of face".

Never leave your chopsticks in the bowl, it denotes death and is very bad luck!

If you are travelling to Thailand and have read this and decided it might be easier not to bother to join a group of Thai people for dinner, please do, you will find Thai people to be kind hearted and generous. Explain that you are unfamiliar with their culture and they will not take offense at any faux par.....in fact if you explain the situation they will most likely ignore or make a joke of any mistake and no offence will be taken!