Thai Food

Thai food is renowned for its fiery but fragrant dishes spiced with lemon grass, basil and chili and you can eat well and cheaply even in the smallest provincial town.

Throughout the country most inexpensive Thai restaurant specialized in one general food type or preparation method – a ‘noodle shop’, for example might do fried noodle and noodle soup plus a basic fried rice but nothing else; a restaurant displaying whole roast chicken and ducks will offer these sliced or with chilies and sauces served over rice; and ‘curry shop’ serve just that. As often as not, the best and most entertaining places to eat are the local night markets (talaat yen), where third-odd “specialist” pushcart kitchens congregate from about 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on permanent patches in most towns, often close to the fruit and vegetable market or the bus station. Each stall is front-ed by tables and you can choose your food from wherever you like.

Rice Specialties :
Khao man kai Chicken served over marinated rice
Khao na kai/pet Chicken/duck with sauce over rice
Khao niaw Sticky rice
Khao rat kaeng Curry over rice
Khao tom Rice soup

Other Dishes:
Hawy thawt Omelette stuffed with mussels
Kai pat naw mai Chicken with bamboo shoots
Thawt man pla Fish cakes
Tom khaa kai Chicken coconut soup
Tom yam kung Hot and Sour prawn soup
Yam nuea Spicy beef salad
Som tam Spicy papaya salad

Thai Drinks

Thais don’t drink water straight from the tap, and nor should you: plastic bottles of drinking water (nam plao) are sold countrywide, even in the smallest villages. Night markets, guesthouses and restaurant do a good line of fresh squeezed fruit juices and shakes, as well as fresh coconut milk (nam maprao) and freshly squeezed sugar cane juice (nam awy), which is sickeningly sweet.

Thai Fruits

Custard apple (July-Sept). Inside the knobby, muddy green skin you'll find creamy, almond-colored blancmange-like flesh, having a strong flavor of strawberries and pear with a hint of cinnamon, and many seeds.

Durian (April-June). Thailand's most prized, and expensive, fruit has a green-yellow, spiky exterior and grows to the size of a football. Inside, it divides into segment thick, yellow-white flesh which gives off a disgustingly strong stink that's been compared to a mixture of mature cheese and caramel. Not surprisingly, many airlines and hotels ban the eating this smelly delicacy on their premises. Most Thais consider it the king of fruits, while most foreigners find it utterly foul in both taste and smell.

Guava (year-round). The apple of the tropics has green textured skin and sweet, crisp flesh that can be pink or white and is studded with tiny edible seeds. Has five times the vitamin C content of an orange and is sometimes eaten cut into strips and sprinkled with sugar and chili.

Jackfruit (year-round). This large, pear-shaped fruit can weigh up to twenty kilograms has a thick, bobbly, greeny-yellow shell protecting sweet yellow flesh. Green, unripe jackfruit is sometimes cooked as a vegetable in curries.

Lychee (April-May). Under rough, reddish-brown skin, the lychee has sweet, richly flavor white flesh, rose-scented and with plenty of vitamin C, round a brown, egg-shaped pit.

Longan (July-Oct). A close relative of the lychee, with succulent white flesh covered in brittle skin.

Mangosteen (April-Sept). The size of a small apple, with smooth, purple skin and a fleshy inside that divides into succulent white segments which are sweet though slightly acidic.

Papaya (year-round). Looks like an elongated watermelon, with smooth skin and yellowy-orange flesh that's a rich source of vitamins A and C. It’s a favorite in fruit salad and shakes, and sometimes appears in its green, unripe form in salads, notably som tam. Pomelo (Oct-Dec). The largest of all the citrus fruits, it looks rather like a grapefruit, though it is slightly drier and has fewer flavors.

Rambutan (May-Sept). The bright red rambutan's soft, spiny exterior has given it its name rambut means "hair" in Malay. Usually about the size of a golf ball, it has a white, opaque flesh of delicate flavor, similar to a lychee.

Rose apple (year-round). Linked in myth with the golden fruit of immortality, the rose apple is small and egg-shaped, with white, rose-scented flesh.

Sapodilla (Sept-Dec). These small, brown, rough-skinned ovals look a bit like fruit and conceal a grainy, yellowish pulp that tastes almost honey-sweet.

Tamarind (Dec-Jan). A Thai favorite and a pricey delicacy - carrying the seeds is to make you safe from wounding by knives or bullets. Comes in rough, brown pods containing up to ten seeds, each surrounded by a sticky, dry pulp which has a sour, lemony taste.

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