Thai cuisine has gained worldwide popularity for its unique blend of flavors: sweet, sour, salty with fiery spice. Dishes combine the best Asian ingredients with fragrant spices such as lemongrass, mint, cilantro, coconut or citrus and of course, ripe red or green chilis. These tasty concoctions are served over rice or noodles.
Some famous menu items include satay, appetizers of charbroiled chicken, beef or pork on bamboo skewers with a side dish of peanut sauce; tom yum, a hot and sour shrimp soup; pad thai, a noodle dish stir-fried with shrimp, chicken, eggs, bean sprouts topped with peanuts as a garnish; and various yellow, green or red vegetarian or meat curries.
This is not the time to be macho and ask for your meal to be prepared “Thai hot” unless you enjoy the sensation of a mouth on fire while sweat pours down your forehead onto your bright red face. They can provide as much heat as you can or cannot endure. The point is to enjoy ALL the flavors.
For dessert, coconut sticky rice is offered with slices of sweet juicy mango. Many other exotic tropical fruits are widely available. We are all familiar with naturally sweet pineapples, bananas, papaya and watermelon. You will also find guava, lychee, rambutan and jackfruit. Mangosteen has a hard purple nut-like shell protecting the soft white delicate flesh inside. And pomelo is akin to grapefruit.
If you care to participate in the sensory experience of preparing and enjoying an authentic Thai meal with a Thai chef, there are 2 very famous cooking schools in Bangkok: the long-standing program at the Bangkok Oriental Hotel and another at the Blue Elephant Restaurant and Cooking School.
Whether you live to eat or eat to live, bon appetite my friends!