Thai Food Dips

Nam Jim Kai: This is a multi - purpose dip which is predominantly sweet in taste. Sugar forms the base, but fish sauce, garlic and red chilli round out the flavour. It complements barbecued chicken, skewered pork, grilled cuttlefish, fried wanton, spring rolls or batter fried shrimp. There are other variations to this sweet dip. If cucumber slices, crushed peanuts and a bit of vinegar are added, the dip is used with fried bean curd and fried fish cakes.

---

Ajaat: This is a light dip. The main ingredients are crunchy cucumber slices, thinly sliced red chillis and onions in a syrup of sugar, salt and vinegar. Ajaat is eaten with some kinds of curries to cool down the pungent richness, and always accompanies Thai satay.

---

Satay Sauce: This satay is very similar to the original Indonesian dip. It has the same peanut base but the Thai version is less viscous and has more "bite" to it. The main ingredients are peanuts, coconut milk, chilli and curry base pounded to an even consistency and seasoned with sugar and salt.

---

Nam Phrik: All Thais love Nam phrik or chilli dip. With variations, it is eaten in every area and every house as it is the tastiest and least expensive accompaniment to a Thai rice meal. Nam phrik pla thu or chilli dip with Thai mackerel is popular throughout the country but especially in the central Thailand. Any Thai back from a long trip abroad is likely to request this favourite on the first day he is home. Newcomers to Thailand may take a while to get used to the taste and smell. Recipes vary according to regional preferences and the specific type of nam phrik dip to be made, but the basic ingredients are garlic, chilli, shrimp paste or shrimp power, seasoned with fish sauce, lime and palm sugar. All these are pounded together into a lumpy paste. For other variations of nam phrik, the chilli, shrimp paste, onions or shallots and garlic are lightly grilled. Nam phrik is eaten with fresh or boiled vegetables.

---

Phrik Kap Klua: A common sight in Thailand is the roadside fruit vendor, since Thais often starve off the effects of heat and thirst with fresh fruit snacks. Along with his raw and pickled, mangoes, ripe pineapple, fresh guava, etc. the fruit vendor always has an ample supply of phrik kap klua. It is made from a mixture of sugar, salt and crushed chilli.

Sauces and Dips

Foreigners who have just come to Thailand are often baffled by the array of small bowls, each containing different colored sauces, laid out for a typical Thai meal.

At a typical Thai dinner, there are many sauces and dips on the table, sometimes they are more than the main dishes. Thais like tasty food and believe in satisfying everybody individual taste. So although the main dishes are already prepared to the cook's satisfaction, each person is still allowed leeway to season some more with a good range of sauces and dips.

1. Dry chilli powder	2. Vinegar with chilli pieces
3. Vinegar with chilli powder	4. Sugar

At a noodle shop, you may see this common scene. At each table there is a set of four containers which Thais call Khrueng Phuang or ring of spices. After being served their hot bowl of noodles, nine out of ten Thais will automatically reach out for these condiments, spoon in some fish sauce, a bit or small spoon of sugar or chili powder and toss in a small spoon of pickled chilies in vinegar all this before having had their first taste. Then, after taking a few more mouthfuls, some may continue to season a few more times during the course of the meal. And as any Thai will confirm, it is the last few mouthfuls that are indeed the most delicious. Then it's time to order another bowl and start the seasoning process all over again.

The ring of condiments which contains fish sauce, sugar, vinegar and chili powder, mirrors the four tastes that form the basis of all Thai sauces and dips. The salty flavour comes through with the use of fish sauce or soy sauce. The sour taste comes from vinegar, lime or tamarind juice. The sweetness comes from sugar. And the spicy hot comes from chilli peppers, garlic and ginger root.

Thailand has a wide variety of chilli peppers. Most commonly used are the tiny but fiery phrik khi nu, the equally potent larger phrik lueng (yellow chili) and the larger red and green varieties called phrik chi fa, which are a little milder.

Sauces and dips are an essential part of Thai cuisine as they add even more flavour to the meal. The amount to be used is determined by each individual according to his own personal preferences. Sauces and dips come in many colours and textures. Some sauces are murky, some are clear. Some are a mixture of ingredients that have been finely chopped or coarsely crushed, while others have been pounded to a uniform colour and an even, thick consistency.

Sauces:

Each sauce and dip is a delicate blend of the four main flavours with usually one of the tastes predominating. Here are the sauces and dips you will be likely to encounter and their contents:

Fish Sauce: A staple in any Thai house, this brownish liquid is made of salt and fish essence. Though it has quite strong smell, no Thai dish tastes quite right without it.

Nam Pla Phrik: Fish sauce with thinly sliced phrik khi nu and a squeeze of lime (may add sliced garlic). This sauce complements fried fish and fried rice dishes, but it is used universally as a more sophisticated substitute for plain fish sauce.

Pickled Chilli in Vinegar: Fresh green and red chilli (phrik chi fa) are sliced and pickled in clear vinegar. This is used to give noodles and congee a sharp tangy taste.

Crushed Chilli in Vinegar: Fresh chilli coarsely pounded with vinegar added. This sauce is also used with noodle dishes.

Nam Phrik Siracha: This is a thick, orange chilli sauce made from red chilli, vinegar and sugar. It can be bought in Bottles at the markets. It is used as a sauce and a dip for seafood. 

Thai Food of the Northeast

Like Thai food of the north, Thai food of the northeast has steamed glutinous rice as a staple base to be taken with spiced ground meat with red pork blood, papaya salad or som tom, roasted fish, roasted chicken, jim-jaem, and rotted fish or pla rah. The northeast prefer to have their meat fried and the meat could be frog, lizard, snake, rice field rat, large red ants, insects etc. Pork, beef and chicken are preferred by well to do families.

Traditional Methods of Serving Thai Food in the northeast

Dishes are served in a large enameled food tray which sports a pattern of large and colorful flowers. Food is taken from the dishes is taken with steamed glutinous rice contained in a wicker basket (katib) made in the peculiar style of the northeastern people. Desserts mainly consisting of processed glutinous rice such as, khao niew hua ngog nang led, etc.

Thai Food of the South

Thai food of the south tends to be exceedingly chili hot compared with Thai food from other regions of Thailand. Specially favored dishes of the south are a whole variety of gang (spiced soup or curry) for examples, gang liang, gang tai pla, and budu sauce. Boiled rice mixed in budu sauce known as khao yam is a delicatessen of the southern people. Salty is taste, khao yam is taken with an assortment of vegetable. Considered special ties of the south are sataw, med riang and look niang.

Sataw is a green pod when stripped reveals green berries. Strawberries sometimes chopped into thin slices are cooked with meat and chili or simply added to any gang or maybe boiled with other vegetable in coconut milk, or taken raw with chili sauce. The berries can be preserved by pickling and eaten without further cooking.

Med riang is very much like a bean sprout but much larger in size and dark green in color. It is ready for eating after the outer skin is removed. It can be cooked with vegetable and meat or pickled for eating with gang, chili sauce or lon (ground meat or fish in chili sauce).

Look niang is a round berry in a hard and dark green skin. When the skin is removed it is ready for eaten. The inner layer may or may not be removed depending on individual taste. Look niang may be raw or with chili sauce, lon, gang liang especially gang tai pla. Ripe look niang boiled and mixed with coconut flakes and sugar is served as a dessert.

Thai Food of the North

Thai food of the north, in some way, is cooked with the sole thought for the taste for the northern people. The recipe consists of vegetable and ingredients available in their immediate vicinity. The common meal includes steamed glutinous rice, chili sauces which come in a host of varieties, such as "namprik noom", "namprik dang", "namprik ong" and chili soups (gang) such as gang hangle, gang hoh, gang kae. In addition there are also, local sausages such as sai ua, and nham; steamed meat, roasted pork, pork resin, fried pork, fried chicken and vegetable to go with them.

The northern people have penchant for medium cooked food with a touch of salty tastes almost to the exclusion of sweet and sour tastes. Meat preferred by the northern people is pork followed by beef, chicken, duck, bird etc. Sea food is the least known on account of the remoteness of the northern region from the sea.

Thai food of the north does not lack in varieties. These are dishes to be consumed at different times of the day. The northern breakfast known in the local dialect as khao gnai consisting mainly of steamed glutinous rice. Cooked in the early hours of the day, steamed glutinous rice is packed in a wicker basket made from bamboo splints or palmyra palm leaves. The farmer takes the packed basket to the working rice field and eat the glutinous rice as lunch, known in the dialect as "khao ton". Dinner or "khoa lang" is an familiar affair is served on raised wooden tray or "kan toke". The tray which is about 15 to 30 inches in diameter is painted in red.

Traditional Method of Serving Northern Food

The northern people are known to follow their traditions in a very strict and faithful manner, in particular the tradition of serving and partaking of the evening meal. Food is placed in small cups placed on "kantoke" which could be an inlaid wooden or brass tray depending on the economic status of the house owner. Served together with "kantoke" is steamed glutinous rice that is the staple food of the northerner packed in a wicker basket. There is also a kendi containing drinking water nearby. Water is poured from the kendi to a silver drinking cup from which water is drunk. After the main course come desserts and local cigars to conclude the evening meal.

Thai Food in the Central Region

The Thai in the central plain prefer food with smooth and lasting taste with a touch of sweetness. The way the food is served is an art in itself. The dinning table is often decorated with carved vegetable and fruit. Cuisine of the central plain sometimes combines the best of the foods from various regions.

Rice is strictly the staple food for every family in the central region. There are on the average three to five dishes to go with rice. Typical are soup, gang som (chili vegetable soup), gang phed (Thai red curry), tom yam (spiced soup) and so on. Chili fried meat dishes are for instances, pad phed, panaeng, masaman, fried ginger and green pepper, Thai salads or yam are yam tua pu, salad with sliced roasted beef. Dishes that regular feature fin a Thai meal of the central region are vegetable, namprik (chili sauce), platoo (local herring), and perhaps omelette (Thai style), fried beef of roasted pork. On the whole Thai meal should meet protein and vitamin requirements with plenty to spare.

Traditional Methods of Serving Thai Food of the Central Region

The central plain of Thailand has always been known for its progress and advance in all areas of human activity, be it intellectual, technological or cultural.

The Thai in the central region have adopted spoon and fork and a common ditching spoon as the standard cutlery set for Thai meals. For affluent families, napkins simply folded or folded into various geometrical shapes are also to be seen depending also on individual family's tradition and taste. Dishes, boiled rice and drinking water are laid on the dinning table and for the family which can afford the service of a maid, will be replenished by a waiting maid as the meal progresses. Less well to do families may do without shared spoons together, and family members take food from the