The Top 10 Cuisines of Thailand!

It only takes a day or two to become addicted to Thai cuisine after eating dishes flavored with galangal, cardamom, lemongrass, coconut milk, and chili peppers. Their taste and smell has such a powerful effect on the pleasure center of the brain that the desire to indulge the receptors of the tongue and nose with something like this again will arise periodically against your will.

Tom Yum (Tom Yum Gung)

The most famous and popular Thai dish is Tom Yam, which usually has the epithet “sour” added to its name, although it is both sweet and salty and, traditionally, very spicy. It is very thick, and almost everything in the house is put into it. In coastal areas, for example, shrimp, and in the villages in the north, mushrooms. Obligatory ingredients are tomatoes, lime leaves, and sesame seeds. The basis of Tom Yum soup is coconut milk, and in the “basic” version, “Nam Sai” is added to its name. But if the recipe also includes coconut cream (something similar to our sour cream), then “Nam Con”. Such a soup is more caloric, and the sourness in it is less pronounced.

Kung Som (Gang Som)

The second most popular dish of Thai cuisine is Kung Som. It is essentially a light vegetable soup made with meat broth. The taste is traditional for Thailand – a combination of sour, sweet and spicy. The main ingredients are stewed cabbage, carrots, and green beans. There is a recipe where scrambled eggs and acacia leaves are added to this soup. Then “Cha Om Kai” is added to the name. This soup is served with fresh herbs and the obligatory chili peppers.

Pad Thai

Rice for Thais, like all Southeast Asians, is a staple of the diet. Therefore, the recipes for Thai rice dishes cannot be counted, Pad Thai is one of the favorites. Rice noodles, quite large in size, which are fried with shrimp, adding to it anything you can find edible at home. For example: tofu, bean sprouts, green onions… The dish is topped with lemon juice and fish sauce, and pepper is traditionally added. The ready noodles are poured with egg. The result is a kind of casserole. Depending on how cooked the egg is, it can be thick and semi-liquid or chunky. On top, it is poured with lime juice, vinegar, some gourmets add sugar.

Panang Gai

Panang Gai is a favorite Thai dish of chicken cooked in a Red Curry sauce and doused with a cream of whipped coconut milk that enhances the taste experience. Served with finely chopped lemongrass leaves to stimulate the appetite and suppress feelings of fullness.

Gai Pad Pongali

Thai scrambled eggs called Gai Pad Pongali, which consists of chicken, onions and tomatoes. It differs from the European one, which consists of bacon and tomatoes, with a killer portion of spices. The yellow curry paste and finely chopped parsley, which is liberally sprinkled on Thai eggs, are used. It’s a dish that many people eat in the morning, but they have no idea it’s Thai.

Pad Krapao

A very tasty Thai dish Pad Krapao is popular mainly among tourists because meat is not very common in the Thai diet, and also because each chef can prepare it in his or her own way. For example, they can use meat in pieces or as minced meat. The type of spices used also varies. The main ingredients are meat, garlic, basil and chili pepper. There are recipes in which it is allowed to deviate from the canons and use chicken or fish fillets. It is prepared according to the “stir-fry” technique – quickly frying in hot oil.

Green, red and yellow curry

The main ingredients in green, yellow and red curry are: green chili peppers, lime leaves, lemongrass, basil, shrimp paste, coconut milk. Depending on the recipe, it changes color. Green curry is the spiciest and hottest, red curry is a little milder, and yellow curry, which is almost safely tolerated by Europeans. It is a basic condiment for rice.

Kung Massaman (Gang Massaman)

Kung Massaman is a Thai sauce that falls out of a searing sour-sweet symphony of flavors. It’s sweet and moderately spicy. It is based on yellow curry with coconut milk, zira, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It comes from the southern provinces of Thailand bordering Malaysia and is considered a halal dish. It is served with boiled potatoes and meat (beef), poultry, tofu mushrooms.

Keo Wan (Gang Keow Wan)

Keo Wan is one of Thailand’s national cuisine dishes made with green curry paste. Additional ingredients are: bamboo shoots, eggplant, basil, marrow, lemongrass leaves. Serve thick with rice and boiled chicken.

Som Tam

The most famous and equally unusual salad in Thailand. First of all, the ingredients for it are not chopped, but ground in a mortar. Second, they often add a fermented fish sauce, known in Vietnam as Nhyok Nam, which is sharp and fragrant, a real challenge for European stomachs. The ingredients used are chili peppers, garlic, tamarind juice, tomatoes, lime juice, cane (sugar) paste, beans, green papaya, crab meat or shrimp.

As you can see, Thailand’s dishes are quite appetizing and appealing, but if you decide to taste all the delights of Southeast Asian cuisine, first assess the health of your stomach and start with small portions. Bon appetit!