This week’s featured country on Food Freeway is Thailand!
I won’t lie. I’m being kind of selfish… I love Thai food. I’m not talking about Thai takeout, or the kind of stuff you get premade (“Just microwave for two and a half minutes and you’ll have an authentic Southeast Asian meal!”), I’m talking about the genuine, intensely flavourful, exotic, spicy Thai food that can only be achieved by using the right ingredients and the right cooking methods.
Thai cuisine is very unique – yes, it’s influenced by its neighbors, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, and Malaysia (as well as its maritime neighbors, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India), but instead of just taking on the other cultures’ flavours, the Thai people took the dishes (think curry, from India), and made them their own.
The history of the country also plays a big part in the cuisine: as Thailand is the only nation in Southeast Asia that was never colonized, it has not had the European impact that so many others did; many of the people who originally migrated to Thailand were from China, so many aspects of Thai cooking are Chinese, especially in the north; and the southernmost provinces have changed hands with Malaysia in the past, resulting in heavily Malaysian-inspired food. See Thailand’s history here.
Thailand’s largest culinary influence is simply the environment. Where there is water, people eat freshwater fish or seafood. Where there isn’t, people opt for other proteins, like tofu, chicken, pork, or even insects. Rice (notably Jasmine rice) is eaten with every meal of the day, and is grown in abundance in the central area of the country. Fruits, vegetables, and herbs are plentiful, as the climate is tropical and the ground fertile (for the most part).
Some of the locally grown ingredients you’d likely find at a market include: cucumber, bean sprouts, yardlong beans (essentially really long green beans), pumpkin, eggplant, a variety of mushrooms, onions, bamboo shoots, tomatoes, mangosteen (my favourite!), pineapple, mango, papaya, rambutan, durian (many know it as the stinky fruit), watermelon, tamarind, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, garlic, Thai basil, cilantro, and of course, chilies. Regardless of the ingredients, the majority of Thai dishes will have a delicate balance of sweet, salty, sour, and spicy elements.
Dishes in Thailand vary, and are quite specific depending on where one is in the country. The dishes of the north are influenced by Lao cuisine (directly to the north), and Burmese cuisine (toward the east) and are generally not as spicy as they are further south. Examples of northern dishes include: Mu Ping (marinated, grilled pork skewers), tom saep (hot and sour soup), nam phrik ong (dried chilies, pork, tomato, and vegetables eaten with sticky rice), kai yang (grilled chicken), som tam (green papaya salad), and keep mu (deep fried pork rinds).
In the South, the cuisine is notably spicier and curries use more coconut milk and turmeric, lending a yellow colour to many meals. Examples of dishes here include: kaeng matsaman (Massaman curry), sate (grilled meat), and kaeng tai pla (sour vegetable curry made with shrimp paste and turmeric).
The dishes of central Thailand are a bit of a combination of the northern and southern-style cuisines. Here are some examples: phat thai (also known as pad thai – noodles fried with a somewhat sweet sauce, peanuts, egg, and seafood, chicken, or tofu), phat phak ruam (stir fried vegetables), pla nueng manao (steamed fish with a chili-lime dressing), kaeng phet (red spicy curry), tom kha kai (spicy soup with coconut milk, galangal mushrooms, and chicken), and kai phat khing (stir-fried chicken and ginger).
While many dishes can be found throughout the country (like phat thai, fried rice (khao phat), and phat khi mao (stir fried noodles and basil)), the tastes of the local people, and variants in geography and culture change, and so does the cuisine. One constant, however, is that most meals consist of rice served with one or many of the following: curry, soup, salad, stir-fried vegetables/fish/poultry/meat.
Are you a fan of Thai food? If so, what’s your favourite dish? Mine is stir-fried chicken with Thai basil and chilies!
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