Thai cuisine | Taste is Not the Only Benefit
Thai cuisine | Taste is Not the Only Benefit
Thailand is popular for its THAI CUISINE! There are many people around the world who prefer Thai cuisine over any other food. The forte of this cuisine is that, Thai foods are a combination of light preparation and strong and dominating spices, flavor and aroma. The secret to a delicious Thai food recipe depends on the perfect blend of different tastes as sweet, sour, salty and a pinch of bitter.
Thai cuisine in itself has a huge variety of ingredients and preparation styles. They encourage using its ingredients fresh even including the herbs and spices being used in it. Local farmers are key to the success of Thai cooking. The commonly used herbs in this cuisine would be cilantro, lemongrass, Thai basils and mint. Commonly, it is the flavoring ingredients that can determine the taste of a dish. In Thai cuisine, the flavoring ingredients common are ginger, galangal, tamarind, turmeric, garlic, soy beans, shallots, white and black peppercorn, kaffir lime and, of course, chilies.
Sauces and pastes are inseparable parts of Thai dishes. ‘NAM PLA’ a very common clear liquid sauce used in Thai cuisine, is a pungent tasting and aromatic fish sauce. It is made off fermented fish and tastes salty. Thai Fish sauces are a must have element in almost all Thai food. PLA RA is also another fish sauce like NAM PLA but with opaque liquid and fish pieces in it. KAPI is shrimp paste made of fermented shrimps and salt that can instantly give in the prawn flavor to the Thai dish being made. Apart from these there are a variety of sauces as the Nam Phrik( chilly paste) for instance, that are a huge contribution to Thai cuisine. Thai Dishes have also borrowed a bit of Chinese sauces to be a major part of their cuisine as the si-io dam (dark soya sauces), si-io khao( light soya sauce) Namman Hoi ( oyster sauce) etc.
Rice is the main grain of Thai and other Asian cuisine. The famous Jasmine Rice is the most prominent part of this cuisine. Steamed rice accompanied with curries, stir fries and such are commonly the style of its consumption. Another manner of the eating rice would be a mixture of rice and curries forming a complete dish in itself. Noodles, another main form of food followed here, are made off rice, wheat, mung bean flour and other six different types. It is usually presented as a single dish like the stir fried PAT THAI (a noodle soup).
Thai dishes use a wide variety of vegetables, herbs and such that are not common in the west. Like for example, Kaffir lime leaves, galangal etc. Besides these, they use leaves, flowers and fruits of trees that are usually not made a part of the food in the west like, banana leaves and flowers, neem leaves and flowers etc. In the common ingredients, Thai cuisine includes eggplants, broccoli, chilies, bamboo shoots, sprouts, tomatoes, corn etc. Fruits are another part of Thai cuisine as they are served usually after meals. Thailand usually produces fruits as mango, jackfruit, durian, rose apple, pineapple, pomelo etc. Tamarind fruit are used in making dishes sour and palm sugar made to sweeten the dish. Coconut vinegar, coconut milk and fresh coconut water are the usual products extracted from coconut palm.
Thai food provides health benefits as reflected in the slim appearance of its people. A diet of fish, vegetables, spicy dishes, soups and salads is sure to keep the doctor away. Thailand’s love of food comes out in the flavor presentation and the pride the Thai people put into every dish.
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