60 Fun Facts About Thai Food

Traditional Thai cuisine balances which four flavours?

Deep-frying, stir-frying and steaming were all methods borrowed from Chinese cooking.

Which Thai dish ranked highest, at number four, in CNN Travel's 2011 'World's 50 Best Foods'?

Pad thai came fifth and som tam sixth, giving Thailand three of the top six.

In the traditional four categories of Thai cooking, the word 'yam' refers to which kind of dish?

The other three are tom (boiled), tam (pounded) and kaeng, the curries; frying and steaming were later Chinese imports.

Which now-essential Thai ingredient only arrived from the Americas in the 16th or 17th century?

Before chillies, Thai cooks used black pepper, long pepper and Sichuan pepper for heat.

Thai desserts like foi thong (golden egg threads) adapt recipes from which European country's cuisine?

The dishes are credited to Maria Guyomar de Pinha, a woman of Japanese-Portuguese-Bengali descent who married a Greek adviser to King Narai.

Tables and chairs entered Thai dining as part of a Westernisation drive under which king?

Fork and spoon followed a generation later; today Thais push food with the fork in the left hand into the spoon in the right.

Chopsticks are mainly used in Thailand for what?

Even stir-fried noodles such as pad thai and pad see ew are eaten with fork and spoon in the Thai fashion.

In Isan and northern Thailand, sticky rice is rolled into balls and used as what?

By custom only the right hand is used to shape the balls, which are then dipped into side dishes.

What is Thailand's prized fragrant rice, khao hom mali, called in English?

Thai Red Cargo rice, an unpolished long grain with a reddish-brown husk, is nuttier and chewier by comparison.

Kapi, indispensable for Thai curry pastes, is made from what?

A French visitor in 1687 described it as a mustard-like sauce made of 'crayfish corrupted'.

Palm sugar, the traditional sweetener in Thai cooking, is made from the sap of what?

Lime and tamarind supply the sour notes that balance it.

Which herb, 'distinctively redolent of cloves' with purple-tinged stems, perfumes green curry?

The basil that stars in the stir-fry phat kaphrao is a different plant altogether.

The blue colour in some Thai sweets and rice comes from the flowers of which plant?

Banana flowers and the blossoms of Sesbania grandiflora are eaten as vegetables in salads and curries.

Which Thai province, host of the World Durian Festival, grows half of Thailand's durians?

Thailand was the world's top durian exporter in 2018, and China bought about 90 percent of its fresh durian exports in 2021.

Durian's smell has led hotels and public transport in Singapore and which Thai city to ban it?

The species name Durio zibethinus comes from the Italian for civet, whose musk the odour reminded people of.

What is Thailand's most sought-after durian cultivar, prized for creamy flesh and small seeds?

Chanee resists Phytophthora infection best, while Kan Yao is prized for its longer sweet-but-odourless window.

The popular pad thai origin story credits which prime minister with promoting noodles during a rice shortage?

Food writer Kasma Loha-unchit counters that Thai Chinese immigrants invented it, arguing a dish named 'Thai' in Thailand betrays a non-Thai origin.

The Thai word kuai tiao, for rice noodles, is borrowed from which Chinese dialect?

Its cousins include kuyteav in Cambodia, hu tieu in Vietnam and kway teow in Malaysia and Singapore.

How many Thai restaurants worldwide did Thailand's 2001 Global Thai Restaurant Company aim to open?

The push nearly tripled the number of Thai restaurants globally within seventeen years.

The 'wan' (sweet) in the Thai name of kaeng khiao wan curry actually refers to what?

The colour comes from fresh green chillies, and the curry tends to be more pungent than the milder red curries.

Red curry gets its colour from what?

Its Thai name kaeng phet literally means 'spicy curry', and the paste is traditionally pounded moist in a mortar.

Thai yellow curry, kaeng kari, is most typically served with chicken or beef and which starchy vegetable?

Its spice mix of cumin, turmeric and fenugreek is Indian-influenced, and it is eaten with rice or the round noodles khanom chin.

Massaman curry's use of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg reflects roots in which religious community?

Pork versions are rare and are not eaten by observant Thai Muslims; chicken simmered with peanuts is the classic form.

Green papaya salad, som tam in Thai, is believed to have been created by which people?

It spread through Thailand from Isan, where the population is largely ethnic Lao; the papaya itself came from the Americas in the 17th century.

The 'tam' in som tam refers to what preparation method?

Across the Mekong the dish is called tam mak hoong, literally 'pounded papaya'.

Which historian traces the origins of tom yum back to a sour prawn soup from India?

In Thailand the two main styles are tom yam nam khon, creamy, and tom yam nam sai, clear.

Tom kha kai means "chicken galangal soup", but the earliest recorded version (c.1890) used which bird?

Chicken later took over, and shrimp versions are called tom kha kung.

Galangal, the rhizome that flavours tom kha and tom yum, belongs to which plant family?

Greater galangal, Alpinia galanga, is also known as Siamese ginger; some Thai cooks substitute ordinary ginger.

Northern Thai khao soi is thought to have come via which caravan traders from Yunnan?

Because of those halal origins it is still usually made with chicken or beef, never pork, and it is one of the few northern dishes using coconut milk.

Phat kaphrao, a popular Thai dish, is meat stir-fried with garlic, chilli and which herb?

It arose around the reign of Rama VII when Chinese immigrants sold it in restaurants, and is often topped with a fried egg.

Larb, the minced meat salad popular in Isan and northern Thailand, originated in which country?

It is considered lucky food there and traditionally served at weddings and New Year; a raw version is nicknamed 'tiger food'.

Pla ra, the pungent seasoning of Isan cooking, is made by fermenting fish with salt and what?

The mixture sits in a closed container for at least six months and was already common food in the Ayutthaya kingdom.

Fish sauce is made by salting fish and fermenting them for up to how long?

Food scholars split East Asia along a 'bean-fish divide': fermented fish in the southeast, fermented beans in China, Korea and Japan.

The Romans made a fish sauce comparable to Thai nam pla; what was it called?

Pliny the Elder described it as 'the liquor from putrefaction', and it was made in Roman Spain almost entirely from mackerel.

Sriracha sauce takes its name from a town in which Thai province?

The Thai original is credited to housewife Thanom Chakkapak in the 1930s; the American rooster-bottle version dates from the early 1980s.

In Thailand, sriracha is most often used as a dipping sauce for seafood and what?

Cantonese immigrants in Si Racha sold a garlic and chili sauce for decades before the first commercial bottles appeared.

The Thai name for the tiny bird's eye pepper, phrik khi nu, literally means what?

It rates around 50,000 to 100,000 Scoville units, less than a habanero but far hotter than any jalapeño.

Citrus hystrix, the knobbly fruit whose leaves flavour tom yum, is known by what Thai-derived name?

Its Malay and Javanese names mean 'warty lime', a nod to the fruit's bumpy skin.

Which king said during his 1907 European tour that, apart from omelette, he most missed nam phrik?

French missionary Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix had noted in 1838 that most Thais lived on rice, dried fish and greens soaked in the spicy relish.

Khanom chin rice noodles originated with which people, despite 'chin' meaning Chinese?

The name probably comes from the Mon words for 'boiled noodles', and the rice is fermented for three days before extrusion.

Which mango varieties are traditionally used for mango sticky rice?

The rice is steamed, then steeped in salted, sweetened coconut milk that is heated but never boiled.

Thai iced tea gets its base from which type of tea?

Sweetened with sugar and condensed milk, it is called cha yen, 'cold tea', and in Thailand is not usually brewed with spices.

Street cook Jay Fai, famous for her crab omelette, is instantly recognisable for cooking in what?

Her shophouse on Maha Chai Road won a star in the inaugural 2018 Michelin Guide to the Thai capital.

Kaeng tai pla, a fiercely pungent curry from Thailand's deep south, is named for a sauce made from what?

The dish is a speciality of Phatthalung Province and is served with fresh vegetables to tame it.

Miang kham, the 'one bite wrap' snack, is traditionally wrapped in the leaves of which plant?

Fillings include roasted coconut, shallots, lime with peel, dried shrimp and peanuts, topped with a palm-sugar syrup.

Which region of Thai cuisine uses the most coconut milk and fresh turmeric, echoing Indian and Malay cooking?

Northern Thai cooking, by contrast, uses coconut milk in only a handful of dishes.

Chef McDang argues that the difference between royal Thai cuisine and everyday Thai food is what?

A French envoy in King Narai's day similarly reported that court food was much like village food, just served boneless and bite-sized.

What is 'oliang'?

Arabica coffee was introduced to the northern highlands as a replacement crop for opium.

The single-plate meal khao rat kaeng literally means what?

Diners at these shops say whether they want dishes served separately or piled on one plate with rice.

A traditional Thai family meal is built around which crucial component, according to Chef McDang?

Khrueang chim may be a chili relish, nam phrik, or a coconut-milk dip called lon; soup, curry, a fried dish and a stir-fry round out the spread.

Thailand is sometimes claimed to be the world leader in eating what?

They are eaten whole, in chili pastes and in fortified foods, especially in Isan and the north; most taste bland deep-fried.

Which king introduced the fork and spoon to Thailand after touring Europe in 1897?

Today most Thais eat with the fork in the left hand pushing food into a spoon in the right, which goes to the mouth.

Which Thai dish did CNNGo rank number one in its 2011 list of the world's most delicious foods?

The Indian-Malay style curry of stewed beef uses roasted dried spices such as coriander seeds, rare in other Thai curries.

Which wife of King Narai's Greek adviser is said to have brought Portuguese-style sweets to Thailand?

Of mixed Japanese-Portuguese-Bengali ancestry, she was born in Ayutthaya and married Constantine Phaulkon.

Ho mok pla, a spicy fish and coconut-milk souffle, is traditionally steamed in a cup made of what?

It is topped with thick coconut cream before serving; banana leaves also serve as packaging for ready-made food.

Sai ua, a spiced grilled pork sausage, comes from which region of the country?

Northern dishes share much with Shan State in Burma and Yunnan in China; the sausage is often served with fresh ginger and chillies.

The Thai names for soy sauces such as si-io dam are loanwords from which Chinese dialect?

Si-io dam is black soy sauce, si-io khao light, si-io wan sweet, and taochiao fermented whole soy beans.

In what liquid is the rice for khao man kai steamed?

The rice is cooked with garlic and served with boiled chicken and a spicy dipping sauce, one of Thailand's many Chinese-influenced single-plate meals.

Cha-om, a leaf used in Thai curries and omelettes, comes from what kind of tree?

The young feathery leaves of Acacia pennata feature in the Lanna-style curry kaeng khae.

Strawberries and other temperate fruits were introduced to Thai highland farms to replace what crop?

Cabbages, tea and arabica coffee were promoted for the same reason in the cooler hill regions.