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Thailand Dining
Thai Cuisine
Thai cuisine is distinctive, thanks to liberal use of spicy
ingredients, and combines the best of Chinese and Indian
culinary traditions - - noodles, curries, sweet and sour dishes,
lengthily cooked and fast-cooked ingredients, exotic spices and
condiments - - while retaining its own very special character.
International Food
Chinese food in Thailand, normally quite bland is second to
none. Major European, Levantine, Asian and Oriental cuisines are
represented in gourmet restaurants. American, English and
Continental breakfasts are served in most hotels and numerous,
ubiquitous coffeeshops specialise in European dishes.
Western-style fast food shops, snack bars and icecream parlours
gain increasing popularity with Thais.
Restaurants
and Foodshops
Food parks, or centres, usually in large shopping malls and
hotels, are unusual Thai ventures. Numerous restaurants offer
every
imaginable type of Asian cuisine and huge colour pictures of
dishes assist diners in their choices.
Open-air garden restaurants, and riverine restaurants, are more
peaceful and are favoured in the evenings by most Bangkokians.
Menus are extensive. Service is prompt. Prices are reasonable.
All kinds.of regional Thai food can be sampled. Special dinners
can be enjoyed on boats cruising the Chao Phraya River. Soft
breezes, candlelight dining and distant music create romantic
moods.
Seafood restaurants are also popular. They offer a wide choice
of fresh ingredients, charcoal grilled or broiled to individual
requests, and a fine selection of local and imported wines.
Some tourist-oriented restaurants present selected Thai
classical and folk dances. Guests sit around low tables, often
in traditional surroundings, with teak panelling and floors,
classic paintings and precious porcelain. A combination of Thai
cuisine, music, silk, orchids and graceful dances creates
memorable evenings.
Eating in
Thailand
"FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD" would be an appropriate song for
the gourmet traveller to sing when visiting Thailand, for Thai
cuisine is surely one of mankind's most delicious and exciting
culinary art forms.
Once almost unknown outside Thailand, the delights of Thai
cuisine are now to be found in countless restaurants
around the world, but they are best enjoyed, of course, in their
country of origin.
Although it draws heavily on several of the great Asian culinary
traditions, particularly Indian and Chinese, Thai food is
unique, for its subtle combination of myriad ingredients,
spices, herbs and sauces.
The tastes of Thailand range from hot curries to mildly aromatic
desserts and can sometimes surprise the visitor, for instance in
the combination of both sweet and salty elements in the same
dish.
The huge variety of natural ingredients used, and the complexity
of recipes will certainly be one of the greatest treats in store
for lovers of fine food when visiting Thailand.
One popular misconception about Thai cuisine is that it is
invariably hot -'chilli hot', that is. In fact, many dishes are
no hotter or spicier than any other Asian style. Chilli is often
an optional ingredient which diners add to their taste.
What makes Thai food so appealing. ly different is the inclusion
of all kinds of exotic and aromatic herbs as well as (no1
necessarily hot) spices. Of these, garlic-Thai garlic is
slightly less pungent than it! European counterpart - pepper,
coriander and liberal doses of nam pla, a fermented fish sauce,
are the most commonly used.
Like other Asian nations, Thailand has rice as its staple. The
long grain variety is the most popular and is usually cooked by
steaming, without the use of additives, The result is that it is
light and fluffy and so fragrant that it can be eaten by itself.
Another variety of Thai rice is more glutinous, a sticky texture
that is especially popular in the North.
Noodles of various kinds can also form the basis of a meal or
used in dishes such as pad Thai, fried noodles with baby shrimp
and bean curd.
To the basic rice and noodles are added various other dishes. In
Thai cooking, frying, boiling, steaming, barbecuing and baking
are main methods employed.
A combination of herbs and spices, freshly ground, can either be
put directly into the pan for frying with the main ingredients
or added to soups and stewed dishes. Alternatively, a paste
featuring chilli, lemon grass, coriander root, garlic, shrimp
curd and pepper is used.
A typical family dinner may well have fish, pork and chicken on
the same menu. All dishes including soup are served at the same
time, the soup being in individual bowls and the main dishes
being communal, with diners taking only spoonfuls of each at a
time and mixing it with the rice on their plates. A spoon and
fork are the usual eating utensils, with chopsticks being used
by ethnic Chinese.
The menu at a typical Thai restaurant will be amazingly long and
will be a testament to the cook's creative imagination. The
various dishes on offer can be broken down into seven main
categories: soups, poultry, meats, seafood, rice and noodles,
vegetables and salads, and desserts
Soups
Thai soups can feature virtually any kind of ingredient, from
mushrooms and pumpkin to shrimp and catfish, or any type of
meat.
Some are flavoured with coconut milk, while others are based on
fish or meat stock. Probably Thailand's most famous soup is tom
yum gung, a hot and soup prawn mixture with a tongue-tingling
taste achieved by mixing the flavours of chilli, lemon grass and
fresh lime juice.
Main Dishes
Thailand produces excellent poultry, including chicken, duck and
pigeon. These may be cooked in many ways, wrapped in pandanus
leaves, made into a curry, barbecued, casseroled, or stuffed
with tomatoes, onions, or even ground pork.
Meats are invariably cut into small pieces which are then cooked
in various ways. Among the favourite methods of preparation are
fried with garlic and Thai pepper, or as part of a curry,
particularly gaeng keowan, green curry.
Thailand's seas and inland waterways provide a huge selection of
fresh and dried seafood. These include lobsters and crayfish,
prawn, crab, mussels, clams and an almost endless variety of
fish, The cooking methods for these vary from steaming to
frying, or as part of a soup. Fish is often served with a thick
or spicy sauce, then sprinkled with crispy fried garlic.
Certainly worth trying are gaeng garee gung, lobster and prawn
curry; poo pad pong garee, curry powder and chilli crab; tort
mun pla, fried fish cakes and plakapong-kow nuang, steamed sea
bass.
Vegetables
These are rarely simply boiled in the western way. Rather, they
are stir-fried with garlic and oyster sauce, or steamed, in
which case they are often eaten with small fried fish and a
pungent shrimp sauce, Salads, too, hardly resemble their western
counterparts. A typical salad might include beef and chilli,
plus strips of lettuce and tomato, or green mango, As an
alternative, there is a green papaya salad, known as som tum,
which also features ginger, lime juice, fish sauce, chopped
dried shrimps and peanuts.
Desserts
To round off a great meal, Thailand offers some really delicious
desserts. Often made from rice, tapioca or types of jelly, these
are mixed with fruit, fresh or preserved, and chipped ice, They
provide the perfect complement to a rich and spicy meal. Not to
be missed are sankaya gap kanoon. coconut custard with jackfruit
pieces, kow-neeo ma- muang sticky rice with mango and eye-teem
kati, coconut ice-cream.
Finally, a word about Thai fruits. These are abundant in number
and variety, but among the best are pineapple, banana, orange,
pomelo, mangosteen, rambutan and lychee.
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