All around Thailand you'll hear people ask each other "Gin khao reu yung?" which literally translates as "Have you eaten rice yet?". So important is food to Thai culture that asking if someone has eaten is a common greeting. In fact, walking down any high street in Thailand can be a real assault on the senses. Food stalls and cafes serve freshly cooked delicacies every hour of the day making you check your watch and wonder if it's too early for lunch or dinner. Thai food finds its origins from all over the world and you can find traces of Chinese, Indian, Japanese and even Persian influences in Thailand's best-known recipes. There's so much more to discover than green or red curries and while it's not always tongue-burning, chilli is often used to compliment other exotic ingredients such as lemongrass, coriander, ginger and coconut - flavours not for the faint hearted! The food in Thailand is a legend in itself and with so many distinctive tastes available in each province, we thought we'd give you a quick overview. Bangkok Bustling Bangkok has it all. The markets and shops have all the ingredients you need to make dishes from every region - if you are prepared to bargain hard. You can have a go at becoming an expert bargainer and making a few of them with the help of a friend of ours called Goi. "We lead really busy lives here", says Goi, a working mother-of-two, "but on weekends, I take the kids to Chatuchak market for all the weekly groceries and then we cook up a huge feast for the family. It's fantastic to have everything on our doorstep". Central Thailand Rice is the staple food of Thailand and most of it is grown in the Central Plains. It can get swelteringly hot here at certain times of year and the locals sit by the breezy canals to cool down but the rice thrives in paddy fields which cover miles of countryside and glisten in the sun when flooded. Many of the people here live as they have done for centuries and have a very healthy life-style. They are fond of fresh vegetables like bok choi, snow peas, string beans, Chinese kale, straw mushrooms (het fang) and shiitake mushrooms (het hawm) as well as exotic fresh fruit such as langsat, longan and mangosteen, a purple ball that breaks open to reveal exceptionally sweet segments of white fruit. A lovely local lady called Daoraung gave us the following insider tip "the market in our village plays a big part of life here. It's busiest just after sunrise when I'm competing with neighbours to get the best of today's crops." Northern Thailand Northern Thailand is home to quite a variety of cuisine, as well as traditional Thai food such as fried riverfish curries with coconut and green or red curries with beef and pork, there are dishes influenced by the various hilltribe communities. Tim, a great cook who lives in picturesque Chiang Dao says ' I love a dish that is popular up here called Gang Som. You cook a special kind of whole fish with tamarind in a rich red sweet and sour sauce and put a flame under the dish, a bit like the things you get in an Indian restaurant, so as you tuck into the rest of your food, the sauce boils down and gets really thick and full of flavour." The North East or Isan Tim is originally from North East Thailand which is often called Isan and one of her specialities from there is Som Tam, the delicious but fiery papaya salad. Shredded papaya is pounded in a traditional Thai stone pestle and mortar with ingredients like lime, peanuts, garlic, fiery green chillies, a pinch of sugar and some fish sauce. Wonderful! Another typical dish is Kanom Jeen Nam-Ya, a curry made with a tasty sardine-like fish mashed together with chilli paste, galangal, ginger, lemon grass, lemon basil and spring onion. It is cooked with coconut milk to make a rich gravy and then laid on top of soft vermicelli noodles and served with large amounts of green salad. A delicious yet inexpensive way of entertaining large parties. The South The food in the south is heavily influenced by neighbouring Malaysia and a large Chinese population blending with Thai style cooking for delicious and distinctive flavours. The surrounding sea is the perfect place to catch your own fish and shellfish but there's also a huge annual vegetarian festival in the area. Coconuts and cashews are the typical crops here and plenty find their way into local dishes either to add creaminess or to intensify the strong taste of the food. "Our family recipes are so sought after," says Eh, Deputy Headman of a small village close to the beautiful beaches of the Andaman Sea, "that my sister Pa and I are thinking of starting a cooking school." Well-known dishes from the region include the delicious Kaeng Mat Sa Man, often known as Massaman curry which has a mild coconut base, Pad Thai, where flat rice noodles and prawns are combined with tofu, egg and peanuts, and Khao Yam, an intriguing breakfast salad a made with dried shrimp, bean sprouts and lemon grass. Wherever you decide to go, you are sure to discover a menu full of new favourite dishes full of the unmistakable taste of Thailand. But even better, with Tell Tale Travel you can learn how to pick your own fresh ingredients from the sea, rivers, fields and local markets and cook them in the kitchens of passionate local cooks. What could be more authentic? Tell Tale Tip, "If you can stand the heat, get into a Thai kitchen!" If you'd like to learn how to cook delicious Thai food and entertain your friends, have a look at our special cooking holiday itineraries above.
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