Food & Drink

Food is one of the true joys of traveling in Thailand. If you aren't familiar with Thai cooking, imagine the best of Chinese food ingredients and preparation combined with the sophistication of Indian spicing, topped off with red and green chilis. You can find nearly any style of Thai (and international) cooking in Bangkok, from fiery curries from the south to mild northern cuisine. Basic ingredients include a cornucopia of shellfish, fresh fruits, and vegetables -- lime, asparagus, tamarind, bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms (many different kinds), morning glory, spinach, and bamboo shoots -- and spices, including basil, lemongrass, mint, chili, garlic, and coriander (cilantro). Thai cooking also uses coconut milk, curry paste, peanuts, and a large variety of noodles and rice.

Among the dishes you'll find throughout the country are: tom yam goong, a Thai hot-and-sour shrimp soup; satay, charcoal-broiled chicken, beef, or pork strips skewered on a bamboo stick and dipped in a peanut-coconut curry sauce; spring rolls (similar to egg rolls but thinner and usually containing only vegetables); larb, a spicy chicken or ground-beef concoction with mint-and-lime flavoring; salads, made with nearly any ingredient as the prime flavor, but most have a dressing made with onion, chili pepper, lime juice, and fish sauce; pad thai ("Thai noodles"), rice noodles usually served with large shrimp, eggs, peanuts, fresh bean sprouts, lime, and a delicious sauce; khao soi, a northern curried soup served at small food stalls; a wide range of curries, flavored with coriander, chili, garlic, and fish sauce or coconut milk; spicy tod man pla, fried fish cakes with a sweet honey sauce, served in the north and made from glutinous rice, prepared with vegetables and wrapped in a banana leaf; and Thai fried rice, a simple rice dish made with whatever the kitchen has on hand. ("American fried rice" usually means fried rice topped by a sunny-side-up egg and sometimes accompanied by fried chicken.)

A word of caution: Thais enjoy incredibly spicy food, much hotter than is tolerated in even the most piquant Western cuisine. Protect your palate by saying "Mai phet, farang" meaning "not spicy, foreigner." Also note, most Thai and Chinese food, particularly in the cheaper restaurants and food stalls, is cooked with lots of MSG (known locally as "Ajinomoto" because of the popular Japanese brand widely used), and it's almost impossible to avoid. If you want them to leave MSG out of your food, say "Mai sai phong churot."

Traditionally, Thai menus don't offer fancy desserts. The most you'll find are coconut milk-based sweets or a variety of fruit-flavored custards, but the local fruit is luscious enough for a perfect dessert. Familiar fruits are pineapple (served with salt to heighten the flavor), mangoes, bananas, guava, papaya, coconut, and watermelon, as well as the latest rage, apples grown in the royal orchards. Less familiar possibilities are durian, in season during June and July, which is a Thai favorite, but an acquired taste, as it smells like rotten onions; mangosteen, a purplish, hard-skinned fruit with delicate, whitish-pink segments that melt in the mouth, available April to September; jackfruit, which is large, yellow-brown with a thick, thorned skin that envelopes tangy-flavored flesh, available year-round; litchi; longan, a small, brown-skinned fruit with very sweet white flesh available July to October; tamarind, a spicy little fruit in a pod that you can eat fresh or candied; rambutan, which is small, red, and hairy, with transparent sweet flesh clustered round a woody seed, available May to July; and pomelo, similar to a grapefruit, but less juicy, available October to December. Some of these fruits are served as salads -- the raw green papaya, for example, can be quite good.

The Thai family usually has an early breakfast of khao tom, a rice soup (made from leftovers) to which chicken, seafood, or meat may be added. Typically, it's served with a barely cooked egg floating on top and a variety of pickled vegetables, relishes, and spicy condiments to add flavor. It's widely available, even at the poshest hotels.

The Thais take eating very seriously, so businesspeople allow 2 to 3 hours for lunch. A formal business luncheon consists of several dishes, but most casual diners have a one-course rice, noodle, or curry dish. For two people, you'll be fine ordering two hot dishes and perhaps a cold salad (mostly of the "not spicy" variety). Most restaurants throughout the country offer lunch from noon to 2pm; in fact, many close until 6 or 7pm before reopening for dinner.

Thais usually stop at one of the ubiquitous food stalls for a large bowl of noodle soup (served with meat, fish, or poultry), or dine at a department store food court or market where they can buy snacks from many different vendors and have a seat. Snacking from street-side food stalls -- some would claim the source of the best Thai food -- is popular throughout the day. A note on etiquette: You won't see Thais walking down the street munching. Take a seat while you eat.

Dinner is the main meal, and consists of a soup (gaeng jued); curried dish (gaeng ped); steamed, fried, stir-fried, or grilled dish (nueng, thod, paad, or yaang); a side dish of salad or condiments (krueang kiang), steamed rice (khao), and some fruit (polamai). Two Thais dining out may share four or five dishes (typically balanced as sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and piquant), always helping themselves to a little portion at a time (so as not to appear gluttonous). Dishes are brought to the table as they're cooked and eaten in any order, family style. Use the serving spoon provided to put a little on your plate.

Drinks--Thailand is a drinking culture and every town hosts bars, karaoke and dance clubs as well as street-side drinking establishments. Liquor and beer are widely available in stores, restaurants, and hotels with few restrictions on sale (though all bars now close at 2am). Several fine varieties of beer are brewed in the country; the best known is Singha, and there's locally brewed Kloster (German) and Carlsberg (Danish) as well as imported Heineken. Beer Chiang is a popular malt-liquor that really packs a wallop and costs little. Most vineyard wine is imported and often incredibly expensive -- due in part to high import duties -- but it's increasingly popular and readily available in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and at the beach resorts.

Mekong and Sang Thip are two of the more popular local "whiskeys," even though they're actually rum (fermented from sugarcane). Thais will either buy a bottle or bring one to a restaurant where they can buy ice and mixers -- usually cola or soda water. Waiters will keep the glasses full all the time and again, take care with this stuff as it do pack a punch (and some of the cheaper varieties are reputedly laced with some nasty chemicals).

Non-alcoholic drinks run the gamut and you'll find the likes of Coke and Pepsi, as well as ultra-sweet Fanta and fruit drinks, at every turn. Don't miss the fruit shake vendors in most city centers; they offer smoothies done with ice, fresh fruit of your choice and sugar or sugarcane juice all spun-up in a blender. Sweet local specials like "Gek Huey", or Crysanthemum juice, are a real treat. Water is also served at most meals, either affordable bottled water or filtered water served in pitchers with ice in glasses.