Cuisine

Thai

อาหารไทย

A granite mortar still does more work in a Thai kitchen than a blender does. Hot, sour, salty and sweet are balanced in the same bowl, not served as four separate ideas. Fish sauce, lime, palm sugar and chilli are the usual levers. Central and southern cooking use coconut milk more readily; the northeast does not. Pad thai is soaked rice noodles, tamarind, egg and peanut, cooked fast enough that the noodles take sauce without collapsing. Pad krapow is minced meat, garlic, chilli and holy basil over rice, often with a fried egg.

Bangkok court cooking sat beside Chinese noodle shops, Malay coconut curries and Lao-related food from the northeast. Chilli is American in origin and now structural. Pad thai was promoted as a national noodle dish in the twentieth century. Som tam and larb are Isaan plates that restaurant Thai food exported without always naming the region. Khao soi, with its coconut broth and fried noodle crown, is a northern hybrid that does not taste like a central sour soup. Mango sticky rice is a ripe-fruit dessert, not a garnish.

Pounding bruises aromatics so they release oil; chopping them into a pan is a weaker substitute. Wok heat should be high enough for pad thai to sear, not stew. Tom yum goong is a sour-hot broth with lemongrass, galangal, lime leaf and prawn. Moo ping is grilled, coconut-marinated pork eaten with sticky rice or a sharp dip. Coconut appears often in the centre and south; Isaan heat is drier, louder with toasted rice and lime.