Thai Food

By:   Carl Hanson

Time for Thai

Thai cooks use quick preparations like stir-frying, blanching, poaching and parboiling to emphasize the freshness of choice ingredients.

Essential Flavors

Fertile with a varied geography and long coastline, Thailand provides great culinary diversity. In Thai cooking, rice serves as the starchy foil for the flavorful soups, seafood dishes and salads created from this abundance. Fresh is the name of the game.

Spice is Nice

Thais know spicy. Much of the unique flavor of Thai food comes from a pleasing combination of fiery spice, aromatic herbs and piquant condiments. Chili peppers, fish sauce, shrimp paste, limes, coriander and coconut milk contribute complex flavors.

Open to Influence

Openness to trade and foreign cultures left Thais keen to the culinary splendor of India, Europe, the Middle East and China. Thais were quick to incorporate foreign foods (including tomatoes and chilies from the Americas) into their already rich repertoire.