Thai cuisine is known for its balance of five fundamental flavors in each dish or the overall meal - hot (spicy), sour, sweet, salty and bitter (optional). Although popularly considered as a single cuisine, Thai food is really more accurately described as four regional cuisines corresponding to the four main regions of the country: Northern, Northeastern (or Isan), Central and Southern. Southern cuisine, for example, usually contains lots of heat from chillies while Northeastern tends to include lime juice in the ingredients.
Instead of a single main course with side dishes found in Western cuisine, a Thai full meal typically consists of either a single dish or rice with many complmentary dishes served concurrently.
Rice is a staple component of Thai cuisine, as it is of most Asian cuisines. The highly-prized, sweet-smelling jasmine rice is indigenous to Thailand. Steamed rice is accompanied by highly aromatic curries, stir-fries and other dishes, incorporating sometimes large quantities of chillies, lime juice and lemon grass. Curries, stir-fries and others may be poured onto the rice creating a single dish called khao rad kang, a popular meal when time is limited. Sticky rice substitutes ordinary rice in Northern and Northeastern cuisine. Noodles, are popular but usually come as a single dish, like the stir-fried Pad Thai or noodle soups.
There is kind of meal called nam prik, which refers to sauce. The sauce is prepared by crushing together various ingredients such as ginger, garlic, chilli, etc. by mortar and pestle according to the recipe. It is then served with vegetables such as cucumbers, cabbage and string beans. The vegetable is then dipped into the sauce and eaten with rice.
With the exception of noodle soups, Thai food is generally eaten with a fork and a spoon, rather than with chopsticks. The fork, held in the left hand, is used to shovel food onto the spoon. However, it is often common practice for Thais and hill tribe peoples in the North and Northeast to eat sticky rice with their right hands by making it into balls that are dipped into side dishes and eaten. Muslims also frequently eat meals only with their right hands.
One of the important ingredients is nam pla, a very aromatic and strong tasting fish sauce. Many Thai dishes in the Central and Southern regions use a wide variety of leaves rarely found in the West, such as kaffir lime leaves. Usually fresh kaffir lime leaves' characteristic flavour appears in nearly every Thai soup (e.g. the hot and sour Tom yam), stir-fry or curry from those areas. It is frequently combined with garlic, galangal, ginger and/or fingerroot, together with liberal amounts of chillies, blended together to make curry paste. Fresh Thai basil is needed for the authentic fragrance of certain dishes such as Green curry. Other typical ingredients include the small green Thai eggplants, tamarind, palm, coconut sugars and coconut milk.
Many Thai dishes are familiar in the west. In many dishes below, different kinds of meat can be chosen as the ingredient, such as beef, chicken, pork or seafood.
Throughout the country there are many interpretations and variations on these common dishes. Other dishes from the northern part of Thailand include unique sauces, such as nam prik num and exotic foods such as raw beef, fermented fish paste and deep fried larvae (also enjoyed in the Northeast). The culinary creativity even extends to naming: one tasty larva translates as "freight train" and the smallest, hottest chillies are known as phrik khii nuu, literally "mouse shit chillies"