Thai Food Culture

Thai Food Culture

A Thai meal typically consists of a soup,a curry dish, or alternatively one salad and a spicy sauce with fish andvegetables as a dip.  All dishes areserved together, so that one may take in the contrast between the sharp andsoft components in a balanced relationship.

Very often, raw food will beserved.

The basis of most meals is the preparation in asmall mortar of a spice mixture of garlic, small red or green chili peppers,and various herbs.  After this paste isprepared, it is added to a little oil standing over an open flame wok.

Then the other ingredients, such as meat,fish, pasta, and vegetables are successively added and simmered.

Food stalls all over Thailand are widespread.  At these food stalls, in markets or on sidewalks, different dishes will be offered, such as meat, poultry, fish, soups, fruitsand vegetables (grilled, boiled, or raw) and various gaeng dishes.

Table manners

Originally, Thai food was eaten with thefingers, which in some regions, for some courses, is still the case today.  Beginning of the nineteenth century, King Mongkut, inspired by his many trips abroad, led the custom of eating at leastone course with a spoon and a fork.

This quickly became in vogue in therestaurants of Bangkok,and it was not long until it was customary all over the country to use a spoonand a fork.  A knife is not usedbecause the food comes from the cook already chopped into bite-sized pieces of food, in portions to fit the spoon.

Formost Thais, it is considered bad manners to put the fork in the mouth, except when using little fruit forks.

Chopsticks areonly used in Chinese restaurants or to eat Chinese and Vietnamese (pho) noodledishes, and thus do not belong to the true Thai cuisine.  When chopsticks are used, noodle soups are eaten with a spoon in the left hand, and chopsticks areused in the right hand for pasta, meat and vegetables.