The atlas · A cuisine · Thailand
Thai
A cooking of balance, tasted and adjusted at every step: sour, sweet, salty and hot in the same mouthful, sharpened with herbs.
Where it comes from
Thai cooks talk about balance the way others talk about recipes: lime or tamarind for sour, palm sugar for sweet, fish sauce for salt, chilli for heat, often with a bitter or herbal edge — and every dish is tasted and corrected before it goes out. Chillies themselves only arrived in the sixteenth century, with Portuguese traders.
It isn't one cuisine but several: the refined court cooking of Bangkok, the grilled meats, sticky rice and fiery salads of Isan in the north-east, the northern curries of Chiang Mai, the turmeric-rich south.
Where in it
- Bangkok and the central plainsThe old court's refinement and a city of street stalls: coconut curries, pad thai and one-plate meals over a fierce flame, with rice from the Chao Phraya's paddies all round.Tom yumGreen curryPad thaiPad kaphraoKhao man gaiMango sticky rice
- Chiang Mai and the northThe old kingdom of Lanna, cooler and inland: sticky rice, milder curries, herby sausages and chilli dips, with Burmese and Yunnanese threads running through — khao soi most of all.Khao soi
- IsanThe Lao-speaking north-east, and the source of much of what Thailand eats on the street: som tam, larb, grilled chicken and sticky rice — sour, salty and very hot.Som tamLarb
- The southFrom Hat Yai to Phuket, the hottest cooking in the country, yellow with fresh turmeric and shaped by Malay and Muslim neighbours: dry-fried khua kling, sour fish curries, massaman.Khua klingMassaman curry
How it cooks
- Pounding the paste
- Aromatics ground in a granite mortar, hardest first — a blender can't give the same texture.
- Balancing
- Sour, sweet, salty, hot, adjusted spoon by spoon until none dominates.
- Cracking coconut cream
- Frying the paste in coconut cream until the oil separates and it smells cooked.
- Yam
- Salads dressed with lime, fish sauce, sugar and chilli — about the dressing more than the leaves.
Always in the kitchen
Cook from it
Tonight, with what's good in October
Its classics
ThaiTom yumA hot and sour broth scented with lemongrass, galangal and lime leaf, sharpened with lime and fish sauce — usually with prawns.No one here has made it yet
ThaiSom tamShredded green papaya pounded with chilli, garlic, lime, fish sauce and palm sugar, with tomatoes, long beans and peanuts.No one here has made it yet
ThaiGreen curryA curry of fresh green chilli paste fried in coconut cream, with Thai aubergine, basil and chicken or fish balls.No one here has made it yet
ThaiPad kaphraoMinced pork or chicken stir-fried hard with garlic, bird's eye chilli and holy basil, over rice with a crisp fried egg.No one here has made it yet
ThaiKhao man gaiPoached chicken on rice cooked in the chicken's fat and stock, with a sharp sauce of fermented soybean, ginger, garlic and chilli.No one here has made it yet
ThaiPad thaiThin rice noodles stir-fried with tamarind, fish sauce and palm sugar, egg, tofu and prawns, with beansprouts, chives and crushed peanuts.No one here has made it yet
ThaiMango sticky riceSticky rice soaked in sweet, salted coconut milk, served warm with ripe mango and a spoonful of coconut cream.No one here has made it yetThaiKhao soiEgg noodles in a coconut curry broth with chicken or beef, under a tangle of crisp fried noodles, with pickled mustard greens, shallot and lime on the side.No one here has made it yetThaiLarbMinced meat cooked briefly and dressed warm with lime, fish sauce, chilli and toasted ground rice, with shallot, mint and coriander.No one here has made it yetThaiKhua klingMinced meat dry-fried in a fierce southern curry paste until every crumb is coated, with shredded lime leaf — no coconut and no sauce.No one here has made it yetThaiMassaman curryA rich, mild coconut curry fragrant with cardamom, cinnamon and clove, with beef or chicken, potatoes and peanuts, sweet and sour with palm sugar and tamarind.No one here has made it yetHow it got here
1500s · from The AmericasChilliesChillies are American. Portuguese traders carried them to Southeast Asia in the sixteenth century, and within a few generations Thai cooking couldn't be imagined without them.Tom yum →
Cooked here
No one here has cooked Thai yet.