Thai cuisine

Thai cuisine is the national cooking style of Thailand and its people, built around light dishes that highlight aromatic herbs and spicy heat. Its hallmark is a balanced interplay of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy flavors, achieved with fresh ingredients and techniques like stir-frying, steaming, and deep-frying—methods that came from Chinese cuisine. Traditional Thai dishes generally fall into four categories: boiled dishes, spicy salads, pounded foods, and curries.

In 2011, an online poll of 35,000 people by CNN Travel ranked the "World's 50 Best Foods," and seven Thai dishes made the list—more than from any other country. These included tom yum kung (4th), pad thai (5th), som tam (6th), massaman curry (10th), green curry (19th), Thai fried rice (24th), and nam tok mu (36th).

Thai cuisine has long exchanged influences with neighboring cuisines, especially those of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia. According to the monk Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikku, Indian cuisine taught Thais how to use spices and make herbal medicines, and brought plants like sarabhi and phikun. The 1908 cookbook *Mae Khrua Hua Pa* by Lady Plian Bhaskarawongse traces a strong culinary line from the Sukhothai period (1238–1448) through Ayutthaya (1351–1767) and the Thonburi period (1767–1782), rooted in the daily routines of Siamese government officers and royal cooking. Thonburi-era food resembled Ayutthaya’s, with the addition of Chinese dishes due to international trade.

Western influences began in 1511 when Portuguese diplomats arrived at the Ayutthaya court. This led to dishes like foi thong (adapted from Portuguese fios de ovos) and sangkhaya (a custard using coconut milk instead of cow’s milk). These are said to have been introduced in the 17th century by Maria Guyomar de Pinha, a woman of Japanese-Portuguese-Bengali ancestry born in Ayutthaya, who married Greek adviser Constantine Phaulkon. The most significant Western impact was the chili pepper, brought from the Americas in the 16th or 17th century; it and rice are now two of Thailand’s most essential ingredients. Portuguese and Spanish ships also introduced tomatoes, corn, papaya, pea eggplants, pineapple, pumpkins, culantro, cashews, and peanuts.

Regional variations reflect neighboring states, climate, and geography. Northern Thai cuisine shares dishes with Burma’s Shan State, northern Laos, and China’s Yunnan Province. Isan (northeastern) cuisine resembles that of southern Laos and is influenced by Vietnamese food. Southern Thai cuisine, rich in coconut milk and fresh turmeric, shares traits with Indian, Malaysian, and Indonesian cooking. More precisely, Thai cuisine breaks into five regional styles: Bangkok (with Teochew and Portuguese influences, plus some royal cuisine); Central Thai (from the rice-growing plains, using coconut milk heavily); Isan (arid Khorat Plateau, influenced by Laos and Khmer cuisine); Northern Thai (cooler highlands, once the Lanna Kingdom, sharing ingredients with Isan); and Southern Thai (Kra Isthmus, with complex curries and heavy use of chilies and spices, influenced by Malay and Pattani traditions).

Thai royal cuisine traces its roots to the cosmopolitan palace cooking of the Ayutthaya kingdom (1351–1767). Its refinement, techniques, presentation, and ingredients greatly shaped the cuisine of the central plains, and it was itself influenced by Khmer royal cuisine through palace cooks brought to Ayutthaya.