Thai food culture
Thai cuisine offers tasty, and often but not always spicy, foods where the ingredients should be fresh and fresh with a base in meat, fish, seafood, and vegetables. Inspiration comes from other Asian countries and to Sweden, Thai cooking is said to have come in the 1980s.
Common ingredients in Thai food culture
Tastes and methods in Thai cooking originate from other Eastern countries. Many spices come from India and frying and frying are originally from China. The spicy food gained momentum during the 16th century when missionaries from Portugal brought chili from South America to Thailand.
Some of the most common ingredients in Thai cooking are bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, celery, fish sauce, coconut milk, ginger, rice, noodles, shrimp paste, turmeric, lemongrass, soy sauce, sesame oil, mushrooms, eggs, oyster sauce, tamarind, tamarind.
Both beef and pork are common. Fish of different kinds and seafood such as shrimp and crab are often seen in Thai cuisine. Vegetables of various kinds are added abundantly. You often mix minima, beans, and sprouts of different kinds, peas, onions, chestnuts, and other raw materials with a different taste, appearance, and texture. Thai food is not only a wonderful taste experience but often a beautiful sight to the eye as well.
How to eat Thai food – culture
It is common to eat with your fingers or with chopsticks in Thailand. When you eat food you start with at least 2-3 starters. Some kind of soup is common. They are served all at once and eaten by everyone. Then the main course follows the same pattern, that is, you eat several different, at the same time and together.
You prefer not to mix in the way we do for example at Christmas tables and buffets here in Sweden. Instead, take some rice or noodles with one of the dishes.
You eat it up and then take more of the same or one of the other dishes. It happens that you eat both starters and main courses at the same time, according to the same concept of taking more many times but one dish at a time. After the starters and main courses, you finish the meal with a dessert. It is often made up of exotic fruits.
Common exotic fruits from Thailand are rambutan, lychee, mango, durian, longan, pineapple, jackfruit, mangosteen, thai banana which are available in different varieties and chompoo.