Thai Food in Thailand

Thai Food in Thailand.
Thai food is an amazing variety of tastes, textures, traditions and colours. To be Thai is to eat Thai food. I have not come across a people so in love with their own cuisine. I believe it is one of the reasons why Thai people find it difficult to travel when the new country has little of their home food available.

The 4 main regions of Thailand, Bangkok, the North the North east and and the South all have their Thai food specialities. I lived in the south for 17 years and so if this isn't a complete list it is because my knowledge is biased to that region.

Thai curries
Thai curries vary by colour! Red curry is a strong hot curry from a red chili paste and has lighter variants like the Nam Prik pau that is sweeter and works well with shell fish. The famous and popular Green curry is quite sweet and uses green tomatoes and green pea like bean that pops in your mouth when you bite through it. The Yellow curry is the mildest and has a madras flavour to it. This versatile curry is good with all the meats, fish and shellfish. Jungle curry is a particularly spicy and dark food that has exceptionally strong tastes and uncommon local vegetables in it.

Thai Food in Thailand Curries with Green Curry in the foreground

Thai SoupThe Tom Yum soup is the iconic dish of Thailand that blends a chicken broth, mushroom, chili and lemon flavour and is served with rice. It creates a refreshing and light dish that is highly popular with tourists. Tom Ka Khai soup is a light coconut and chicken broth soup popular with children. This chicken dish is another favourite amongst travellers as it is an interesting taste without the strong chili tastes. Geng Liang is a light soup with a vegetable broth base and an egg which is supposed to be good for women during pregnancy.

Thai Food in Thailand Tom Yum

Thailand Travel- a personal view

First impressions of Thailand travel
My first impressions of arriving in Phuket Thailand are a bit hazy as I spent most of my time on Phi Phi Island. Still, I spent a fun night in Patong savouring the possibilities of real food after 4 weeks in the mountains of Nepal. I had been given some Thailand travel time by my then boss at Out There Trekking company, guiding a group of trekkers near the Annapurna's range.

After Nepal, Thailand struck me as a place well used to receiving westerners to it's shores and yet distinctively original. I could sense a proud people, sure of who they were and yet gracious in receiving people to their land. What also hit me like a sledge hammer were the smiles. The nick name of the land of smiles is no joke as you are greeted politely with a smile wherever you travel. The new hot surroundings and the smiling world around me was liberating so I felt free but there was more to come.

Thailand Travel-a Thai Smile

One of the reasons I love to travel is my love of new and interesting tastes in the food I eat. Having spent time in the Indian subcontinent and a year in Japan I was well used to being surprised by new food, but the sheer variety of dishes in Thailand just swept me away. Later on I tried to work it out. If you are in the tropics with many growing conditions, virtually every type of animal, vegetable, fruit and grain can grow.  Add to this the seas being full of every type of marine life and you have the recipe for some great food.  Thai people are nothing without their love of food so now I find it no surprise that the list of different food types is seemingly endless. When I first arrived I couldn't seem to find one day or meal where they same food was on offer. It was simply spectacular.

Thailand Travel-Phat Thai