Thai food

The four regional kitchens

Knowing which part of the country you are in tells you what to order.

• The centre, around Bangkok — the familiar one. Curries with coconut milk, pad thai, tom yum, and a balance of sweet, sour, salty and hot.
• The north, around Chiang Mai — milder and less sweet, with Burmese and Chinese influences. Khao soi, a curry noodle soup, is the dish to seek out, along with sai ua sausage and nam prik dips with sticky rice.
• The northeast, Isan — the hottest and the most pungent. Som tam (green papaya salad), larb, grilled chicken and sticky rice. This is the food that has spread most successfully around the world.
• The south — coconut, turmeric and seafood, with curries that are hotter and less sweet than the centre's. Massaman and the yellow curries belong here.

How to order

Thai food is designed to be shared. Dishes arrive when they are ready rather than in courses, and a table orders several and passes them round with rice.

Street stalls and simple restaurants often have one dish and do it well, which is why the best pad thai you will eat may come from a cart with a single wok. Sit down, point, eat, leave. That is the whole transaction.

Useful words: mai phet means not spicy, phet nit noi is a little spicy, and aroi means delicious. Spice levels are adjusted for foreigners more often than you would think — if you want it as locals eat it, say phet phet.

The dishes worth seeking out

Beyond the names you already know, these are the ones that repay a detour.

• Khao soi — northern curry noodles with crispy egg noodles on top. A Chiang Mai speciality and hard to find done well elsewhere.
• Som tam — raw papaya pounded with lime, chilli, fish sauce and peanuts. Ask for it with dried shrimp or with salted crab.
• Moo ping and khao niao — grilled pork skewers with sticky rice, the standard street breakfast.
• Khao mok gai — Thai-Muslim chicken biryani, sold from carts with yellow rice.
• Boat noodles — small, intense bowls of pork or beef broth, historically served from boats on the canals.
• Mango with sticky rice — the seasonal dessert, at its best in the hot season.

Spice, and how to survive it

Thai chillies are genuinely hot, and "not spicy" in a tourist restaurant and "not spicy" at a local stall are different claims. Assume the first, and be specific if you are at the second.

The antidote is rice, sticky rice, or something milky — not water, which spreads the capsaicin around. Sugar helps too, which is why so many Thai dishes have a sweet note.

If you have a low tolerance, start with the northern and central dishes and work towards the Isan ones. And be aware that nam prik — the chilli dips — are usually hotter than they look.

Water, ice, fruit and food safety

Tap water is not for drinking. Bottled water is cheap and everywhere, and refilling stations are increasingly common.

Ice in drinks is safe in practice: commercial ice in Thailand is made in factories from filtered water and delivered in sealed bags. The old advice about avoiding ice is out of date.

Street food is generally fine where it is busy and cooked to order. Avoid anything that has been sitting out in the heat, and be cautious with raw vegetables and cut fruit from stalls that have no running water.

If you have allergies, carry a written card in Thai. Nut and shellfish allergies in particular are poorly understood in a cuisine built on peanuts and fish sauce, and "no peanuts" is not a phrase that translates safely in conversation.