Quick history of Thai cuisine
Among the cuisines of Southeast Asia, Thai food is unique. Thai cooking is completely identifiable in its own right, incorporating all 5 tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and spicy. Thai people have taken foreign influences and transformed them into a cuisine uniquely their own.
The 'Tai' people migrated from valley settlements in the mountainous region of Southwest China (now Yunnan province) between the sixth and thirteenth centuries, into what is now known as Thailand, Laos, the Shan States of upper Burma, and northwest Vietnam. Influenced by Chinese cooking techniques, Thai cuisine flourished with the rich biodiversity of the Thai peninsula. As a result, Thai dishes today have some similarities to Szechwan Chinese dishes.
The influence of the foreign trade was also important. The Portuguese brought their sweets to King Narai's court in the seventeenth century. Some say Buddhist monks from India brought curry to Thailand. Indian curry and Muslim cuisine were introduced at a palace feast in honour of King Rama I at the turn of the 18th century. Some of these dishes are still popular today including Massaman curry and yellow curry (Gaeng Garee). Massaman curry contains many dried spices including cinnamon and nutmeg. Yellow curry can be spiced with turmeric, cumin, ground coriander seed and red chili powder.
Thailand's regional cuisines
Thai food varies from region to region due to geography and history. In the West, most Thai restaurants serve Bangkok-style cuisine, so travelling in Thailand is a culinary adventure of discovery.
In the Central Bangkok region, food is hot, salty, sweet and sour. Steamed jasmine rice is served with different types of 'nam prik' (dipping sauces) and soups. Tom yam gung (prawn soup with lemon grass) is a favorite dish. Prepared dishes usually contain many condiments and dried spices.
In the North around Chiang Mai, food is mild or hot, salty and sour, but rarely sweet. Sticky rice (glutinous) is served with steamed vegetables, 'nam prik oong' and soups or Northern-style curries are common. The North is also well-known for 'naem', a sour sausage made of fermented minced pork, wrapped and steamed in banana leaf.
Food in the Northeast (Issan) is hot, salty and sour. Papaya salad som tahm, sour chopped meat salad ('koi'), and sour minced chicken, beef, or pork salad Laab are favourites. Many condiments are used but not many spices in this region. Meals are based on sticky rice and 'nam prik pla raa' (spicy dipping sauce of fermented fish and chilies) accompanied by raw wild and cultivated vegetables and herbs .
Food in the South is renowned for being strong in taste - very hot, salty and sour. Spicy curries are eaten every day, especially coconut curry. Generally Southerners eat more fish than meat, because they reside close to the sea. The most common dipping sauce is 'nam prik gupi' also called 'nam chuke', eaten with raw vegetables and fried fish.
Five tastes of Thai cuisine
Thai food has a combination of five major tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and hot.
These flavours are achieved by combining various spices. Coriander, garlic, tumeric, ginger, lemon grass, cardamom, basil and pandan leaves are popular fragrant spices. Chili peppers and white pepper create hotness. Shrimp paste, fish sauce and tamarind round out the many flavours.
(Note: All of these grocery items can be bought in our online marketplace).
The masterful blending of these five flavours, is what makes Thai dishes so unique.
Some of the ingredients used to achieve these 5 tastes can be:
Sweet - palm sugar
Sour - lime, tamarind, raw mango, sour pineapple or other sour fruits
Salty - sea salt or fish sauce
Bitter - bitter gourd (ma-rah) or raw leaves from various plants and trees
Hot - chili peppers - fresh or dried; peppercorns, fresh or dried
Any or all of these 5 flavours can occur in any one dish- a dish can be predominantly one or an artful blend of all five. For example, Tamarind juice served over ice is seasoned with a pinch of salt- it is both sour and salty - Aroy Maak (delicious)!
Presentation and serving of Thai food
Traditionally, the Thai meal is served all at once, family-style, not in courses. Dishes are served warm or at room temperature, unlike Western hot off the grill, which creates a more relaxing dining experience! Rice though is preferably served steaming hot in a shallow bowl for each diner, similar in size to Western soup plates.
The meal is eaten with a fork and spoon (chopsticks are for noodles only). The fork is used to push the rice onto the spoon. Knives are not necessary because everything is cut into small pieces before cooking. The correct method of eating with a spoon and a fork is to hold the fork in the left hand and to use it to push the food onto the spoon. The fork is never used to eat directly from (similar to the Western table knife).
Diners take a small spoonful of a dish from a communal serving bowl and put it onto their rice in their individual rice plates. The diner mixes the food into the rice and eats the spoonful. No one hoards one dish or takes more than one can eat in a couple of spoonfuls. Soup is sipped noisily from a spoon, from the communal serving bowl at a family meal.
Traditionally, Thai food is not served with alcohol but at an informal meal, beer can be served. Cold water is usually the beverage of choice and normally drank only after the meal is finished.
Tables and chairs once absent, are now virtually a requirement in modern Bangkok homes. In the countryside, diners often sit on a straw mat on the floor, though tables and chairs are also making headway there.
Knives, once considered vulgar at the table, are now becoming common in modern city homes. In the countryside traditional styles continue, but are under pressures to change, with more foreign influences.
