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The Finest Food in all the world
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These savoury titbits can be eaten alone or as side dishes. Traditional favorites include stuffed dumpling, satay, crisp-fried noodles topped with sweet-and-spicy sauce, and spring rolls.
Usually served with vegetables, meat or fish, chili dips are very versatile. A dip can be a main dish or side dish, added to a pan of fried rice to flavor it, or drizzled on chips to liven them up. A cook will make up a bowl of dip from whatever is available, including chilies, garlic, onion, shimp paste, sour tamarind etc.
Thai salads, called yam, are sour, sweet and salty. A simple dressing works equally well for meat, seafood, vegetable and fruit salads. This is made from fish sauce, lime juice and a dash of sugar. The heat comes from the fiery little chilies, but just how hot a salad should be depends on the texture and flavor of the meat, vegetable or fruit used. Fresh herbs such as marsh mint, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and cilantro are usually used as garnish.
Thai soups are either hot and spicy or clear and bland. The soup is served not as a first course but together with the other dishes, and can be spooned onto the plate of rice the same as the other dishes.
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Thai desserts are sweet, but not intensely so. Sticky rice with ripen mango, banana or flour dumpling in sweetened coconut cream and seasonal fruits in sugar syrups with crushed ice are favorites. Fresh fruit is always on hand to end a Thai meal.
The heart of all Thai curries is the curry paste, which is made from fresh herbs and spices. The paste is cooked in coconut cream before the meat or vegetables are added. Main ingredients in most curry pastes are chili, garlic, shallot, galangal, coriander root and krachai, the latter a small indigenous root.
Growing interest internationally in the therapeutic value of herbs and spices has also helped popularise Thai cuisine. A large number are indigenous to the country, and many more have long been cultivated here. They have a long tradition of use in medicine, and consequently cooks understand their therapeutic qualities in addition to their flavors.
Coriander, in all its forms, is probably the most widely used herb. The fresh leaf is used in countless dishes for its distinctive perfume, the roots are pounded together with garlic and black pepper to form a seasoning, while the seeds are both a seasoning and an ingredients. Basil is another essential, with three kinds being commonly used : the large-leafed sweet basil appears in soups and seafood, The smaller lemon basil in soups and as a salad ingredient, while holy basil is added to stir-fries. Spearmint leaves are used in salads and often eaten raw, as is mint. Lemongrass is so closely associated with Thai food that it has become a popular restaurant name, and adds its citrus tang to tum yum, the spicy soup that has become the country?s national dish. Lime is squeezed into or over many dishes, while the skin and fragrant leaves of the kaffir lime are used as an ingredient and a garnish. Ginger is fresh or powdered, while its close relative, galangal, adds its rooty texture to soups and curries. Another member of the ginger family, turmeric, adds its bright yellow-orange color to southern Thai cooking. Cumin, cinnamon and cardamom have migrated from India, and find their way into curries. Large amounts of garlic are used, along with shallots. Spring onions are eaten raw, or as an ingredient. Pandan leaf is used as an attractive wrapping for seasoned morsels of chicken or pork rib. Peppercorns are believed to have been the main source of heat before chilies arrived in Thailand, and are added whole while still on the stalk, or dried and ground as a seasoning. Jasmine essence, lily buds, morning glory, cloves, saffron, sesame, and many other herbs and spices that add flavor, aroma and texture, all find their way into Thai cuisine in some form, adding to the healthy and nutritious quality of a meal.
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