How to Eat the Thai Way
Thai food is internationally famous. Whether chilli-hot or comparatively bland, harmony is the guiding principle behind each dish. Thai cuisine is essentially a marriage of centuries-old Eastern and Western influences harmoniously combined into something uniquely Thai.
Traditionally, Thais ate with their hands, and in the rural areas or in some specialist restaurants this still occurs, especially when eating sticky rice and Isaan food. Nowadays they’re more refined and use a fork and spoon. Even single dish meals such as fried rice with chicken, or steamed rice topped with roasted duck, are served in bite-sized slices or chunks eliminating the need for a knife. The spoon is used to convey food to the mouth.
Ideally, eating Thai food is a communal affair involving two or more people, principally because of the greater the number of diners the greater the number of dishes ordered. Diners choose whatever they require from shared dishes and generally add it to their own rice. A typical meal might include a clear soup, a steamed dish, a fried dish, a hot salad and a variety of sauces into which food is dipped. This would be followed by sweet desserts and/or fresh fruits such as mangoes, papaya or melon.
I always spend my weekend cooking and baking and sometimes I have foreign friends coming over in my kitchen. We cook together and enjoy the food together. Often I hear questions like “how do you eat this?” because foreigners are not familiar with sharing the food so they were not sure how to do with it. Some put a lot of food into their rice plate and some just use their spoons taking the food directly from the soup bowl.
The polite way to do it is to take as much as you can eat in one or two mouthfuls with the serving spoon. Savour it and then move onto another flavour. Thais like to pick at food, helping themselves to the dishes one spoon at a time. Take your time and try everything.
There is no need to go to finishing school to survive a Thai dinner. Everyone is relaxed and friendly at the table; after all, food is something to be shared and enjoyed.
Vocabulary (kam sàp)
อาหาร /aahăan/ = food
ส้อม /sͻ́m/ = fork
ช้อน /chͻ́ͻn/ = spoon
ข้าว /kâao/ = rice
ไก่ /gài/ = chicken
เป็ด /bpèt/ = duck
มะม่วง /má-mûuang/ = mango
มะละกอ /má-lá-gͻͻ/ = papaya
ห้องครัว /hͻ́ng-kruua/ = kitchen
ทำอาหาร /tam-aahăan/ = cook
By Prae
Thai Language Teacher
