Work through the list in order. Hide the notes when you know what to do.
-
Eat som tam
Green papaya pounded in a mortar with lime, fish sauce, garlic, chilli and dried shrimp. It is made to order, and you can say the number of chillies out loud while it is being pounded.
Ask for one or two chillies instead of the usual five if unsure; they are counted individually. The version with salted crab, som tam pu pla ra, is pungent and fermented, and it is not the place to start.
-
Try tom yum
A hot and sour soup built on lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves with prawns. It comes clear, nam sai, or with coconut milk and chilli paste, nam khon, and those are two different dishes.
The lemongrass, galangal and lime leaves in the bowl are aromatics rather than food and get pushed aside. The clear version is hotter; the coconut one is softer.
-
Eat khao man kai
Poached chicken with rice cooked in chicken stock and fat, served with a ginger and soy sauce and a bowl of broth. A plain dish that lives entirely on the quality of its sauce.
Look for stalls with a pink sign and hanging birds; it is a recognisable genre. The sauce comes separately and goes on the rice rather than the chicken.
-
Try pad krapao
Meat stir-fried hard with holy basil, garlic and chilli, served over rice with a fried egg on top. The most ordered lunch in Thailand and the default when nobody can decide.
Ask for kai dao, the fried egg with crisp edges; without it the dish is incomplete. The basil should be holy basil, krapao, rather than sweet basil; they taste different.
-
Try boat noodles
A dark, thick broth spiced and enriched with pork or beef blood, with noodles, meat and meatballs. Portions are tiny and people order five to ten bowls in a row.
The empty bowls are stacked into a tower and that is how the bill is counted. The blood sets during cooking and adds body rather than the taste people expect.
-
Build your own noodle bowl
A noodle stall where you choose the noodle, the broth and the toppings, then finish the flavour yourself from the four jars on the table: sugar, chilli in vinegar, dried chilli and fish sauce.
The four jars are not decoration: the soup is deliberately underseasoned so you can tune it. Sen lek is thin rice noodle, sen yai wide, ba mee egg noodle.
-
Eat khao kha mu
Pork leg braised for hours in a dark sauce with star anise and cinnamon, served over rice with a boiled egg and pickled mustard greens. Look for the stall with the whole leg on display.
The meat is cut off the bone in front of you; pre-sliced from a tray means it has been sitting. The garlic and vinegar chilli sauce is taken on the side.
-
Get to know Thai curries
Green curry is the hottest and uses fresh chilli, red is milder and made with dried, and massaman is sweet and spiced with peanuts and cinnamon, inherited from Persian traders.
Despite the colour, green is hotter than red. Massaman is the safest choice for anyone who does not handle heat well.
-
Try laab
A salad of minced meat with toasted rice powder, lime, chilli and mint, from the Isan north-east. Eaten by hand with sticky rice, rolled into a ball.
The toasted rice powder gives the nutty flavour and texture; without it the dish is not laab. Sticky rice is taken with the fingers of the right hand and used to scoop.
-
Grab moo ping with sticky rice
Pork skewers marinated with coconut milk and coriander root, grilled over charcoal, with a bag of sticky rice. The classic commuter breakfast by the metro from six in the morning.
Morning stalls disappear by ten; this is food on the way to work. The sticky rice comes in its own bag and is not optional.
-
Eat mango sticky rice Desserts and pastries
Ripe mango with sticky rice soaked in salted coconut milk, scattered with toasted mung beans. The best mango season runs March to June.
The coconut milk should taste faintly salty; the salt is the contrast rather than a mistake. Nam dok mai is the most fragrant variety.
-
Try kanom krok Desserts and pastries
Small coconut pancakes baked in a dimpled iron pan: crisp outside and almost liquid inside. Sold on the street by the dozen in a paper box.
Eat them immediately while hot; cold they lose the contrast of textures. They come topped with spring onion, sweetcorn or taro.
-
Get a banana roti Desserts and pastries
Thin dough stretched and fried in butter with banana, condensed milk and chocolate, then cut into squares. Late-night street food from the Muslim south.
The dough is stretched and slapped on the counter in front of you as part of the show. The classic version is banana and condensed milk, without chocolate or syrups.
-
Drink cha yen Non-alcoholic drinks
Strong orange spiced tea with condensed and evaporated milk, served in a bag over ice with a straw. The colour comes from dye, and that has been part of the drink since the mid-twentieth century.
The sweetness is adjustable: ask for wan noi, less sugar. Its neighbour at the same stall is oliang, iced black coffee with sugar.
-
Drink fresh lime juice Non-alcoholic drinks
Lime juice with water, sugar and a pinch of salt — the standard non-alcoholic drink in the heat. The salt is there to replace what you sweat out rather than for flavour.
It is sold at the same stalls as fruit smoothies. Coconut water straight from the nut is the other reliable option and costs very little.
-
Drink local beer over ice Local alcohol
Thai lager is drunk over ice, which is not barbarism but necessity: at thirty-five degrees a bottle warms up in five minutes. A bucket of ice arrives automatically.
Shops in Thailand cannot sell beer during certain hours of the day, and the schedule changes, so check locally. Restaurants and bars are not affected.
-
Try ya dong Local alcohol
A strong herbal root infusion sold by the shot from street carts and chased with pickled fruit. Cheap, strong and entirely local.
You spot the cart by the row of glass jars with roots inside. The shot is chased with a slice of pickled mango or plum, handed over with the drink.
