Q 01/05

Traditional Thai cuisine balances which four flavours?

A) Salty, sweet, sour and bitter

B) Sweet, bitter, umami and hot

C) Sweet, sour, salty and spicy

D) Sour, bitter, salty and smoky

Answer · why

C) Sweet, sour, salty and spicy

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

Q 02/05

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

A) Massaman curry

B) Som tam

C) Tom yum kung

D) Pad thai

Answer · why

C) Tom yum kung

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

Q 03/05

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

A) Grilled meats

B) Spicy salads

C) Pounded foods

D) Boiled dishes

Answer · why

B) Spicy salads

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

Q 04/05

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

A) Galangal

B) Coconut

C) Lemongrass

D) Chili peppers

Answer · why

D) Chili peppers

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

Q 05/05

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

A) Portugal

B) Netherlands

C) France

D) Spain

Answer · why

A) Portugal

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