Food in Thailand
April 12, 2010 by Pattaya Girls
Filed under Thailand Travel Guide
Author: Ramin Assemibr
Source: ezinearticles.combr
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Thailand is a country that is best being explored with all your senses – specially your tastebuds though! Because Thai people love their food. And if you have an adventurous tongue, then youll appreciate the diversity that Thai food has to offer too.
The most popular Thai dishes
Some of the most favourite dishes among foreign visitors to Thailand are Pad Thai (fried noodles), Tom Yam Kung (a sour-spicy shrimp soup), Tom Ka Gai (a chicken curry with coconut milk) and the Massaman Curry (a speciality from southern Thailand).
Ingredients of Thai Cuisine
The probably most noticable ingredient of Thai cooking is: chili. Even though its not an original Thai ingredient – it has just been introduced to Thailand a couple of hundred years ago by Portugese traders who brought it from South America – its hard to imagine Thai cooking without chillis nowadays.
Fortunately for you, most Thai people nowadays know that Westerners prefer a milder taste and often have a hard time dealing with original Thai spiciness and will prepare dishes mai ped (not spicy) if cooking for European or American visitors.
Coconut milk is another popular ingredient. Its being made by pressing with flesh of coconuts with water, and gives a meal a nice, mild, soft, round note that counterbalances the spiciness.
Lemongrass is also a commonly used ingredient because it makes a dish taste pleasantly fresh. Different sorts of herbs like Thai basilicum, ginger, galangal, tumeric and cilantro are also commonly used. Note that in Thai cuisine, herbs are almost always used fresh, not dried. This is partly because fresh herbs tend to cool the body down in comparison to dried herbs, which often have heating properties.
Eating in Thailand: A Shared Experience
There is a distinct difference between the eating habits of Thai people and people from European or American descent. Western people tend to order separate dishes, even when eating together. Thai people on the other hand order several dishes which will then be positioned in the middle of the table. Everybody gets his own plate of rice, and then everybody eats from these foodladen plates. It is not common to load your own food on your own table. Instead, you always take another spoonful from the shared plate, mix it with some rice, and eat it, and take another spoonful from the shared plates. Loading up food on your on plate is considered impolite for Thai people.
Vegetarian Food in Thailand?
Many people are under the impression that Thailand is a country where there are lots of vegetarians. However, this is not the case. Even most vegetarian dishes (like fried mixed vegetables) are prepared with either fish sauce or oyster sauce (both of which are made from either fermented fish or oyster essence). If you communicate that you are vegetarian however, they will prepare vegetarian food for you, but you should then learn to communicate that in Thai before arriving in Thailand.
Beancurd is most often also just another condiment in a dish, and seldom the main ingredient. Even though it is commonly used in Thailand, it most often is just added to a dish that contains meat for bigger variety.
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pRamin Assemi loves Thai food and Thai culture – if you plan to a target=_new href=http://raminassemi.com/blog/ rel=nofollowvisit Thailand/a, be free to contact him for travel advice. Hes always glad to share his experiences with other visitors to the land of smiles./pbr
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Thailand Cuisine
November 15, 2009 by Pattaya Girls
Filed under Thailand Travel Guide
If you are looking for an internationally famous food then it is none other than Thai Food. The Thai cuisine is very famous worldwide as it constitutes amazing blend of aquatic animals, plants and herbs. One can find all the five elementary tastes: sweet, spice, bitter, salty and sour. While tasting the popular Thai dishes you will find lime juice, garlic, chilies, lemon grass and fish sauce as common ingredients. Basically the distinctiveness of Thailand Food depends upon, by whom it is cooked and for what occasion it is cooked. One can see a little influence of Chinese cuisine on Thailand Food.
Rice is one of the principle food ingredients that is omnipresent in all kind of Thailand Food. The jasmine rice and sticky rice are the kinds of the rice taken by Thai people. The fresh herbs are used while preparing Thailand Food as it increase the quality of the aroma of the food. A single time meal consists of a hot cup of soup, a curry dish with condiments, a dip accompanying fish and vegetables. Also you can add some spice salad to the meals to make it heavier. The balance of spicy taste is maintained by the cooks while serving the spicy and non spicy dishes. For desserts you can enjoy the Thai sweets and fresh fruits.
The tools utilized normally by Thai people to have their meals are spoons and forks. Thailand has maximum number of Buddhist population, so one can see the impact of Buddhism in Thailand Food.
The Thailand Food is served with roasted duck or pork topped on it. In that case one needs to have a fork obviously. If you are having a noodle soup then you can have it with the help of chopsticks too. One can see the influence of Chinese, Indian and Japanese styles in Thailand food culture.
If we take a look at Thailand food menu we will find that some of the dishes are really tempting and delicious:
- Titbits: Hors d’oeuvre and snacks like rolls, puffed rice cake, satay etc.
- Dips: Made from chilies, garlic, lime juice, fish sauce etc
- Curries: The ingredients in Thai curries are powdered dried spices and fresh herbs.
- Salad: The Thai salads are normally sour, salty and sweet which are topped by different kind of meat textures.
- Desserts: No Thai dish is complete without sweet dishes. The Thai people like to take something very sweet after a spicy treat.
- Soups: Soup is the main dish when accompanied with rice is preferred to be taken by Thai people. One can find the quality of herbs and spices used in the soups.
Thai people are usually fond of eating rice with their meal and therefore whenever you stay with a Thai family, then be very cautious because you might end up putting on too much weight. Tastes of Thai Food can be amended to suit individual desire. All those who have eaten exotic Thai Food will in no way fail to order them again whenever their preferred dish is available.
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