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Transliteration

Thai food, dish by dish

Every dish explained properly: what it is, what is in it, how spicy it really arrives, and the language for it at every level, from pointing at it on day one to the idioms it powers in native speech. Photos show the real plate.

How a Thai dish name is built

The list above is the dishes that earn a page of their own. The menu taped to the wall of the shophouse in your soi has more than that, hand-written, often with no English and no photographs. You do not have to learn it item by item. Thai dish names are assembled out of a small stock of parts, and once you can hear the parts you can read most of a menu you have never seen before.

The frame is cooking method + main ingredient + qualifier, and it is written in that order. ผัดกะเพราหมูสับ is ผัด phàt, stir-fried, plus กะเพรา gà-phrao, holy basil, plus หมูสับ mǔu sàp, minced pork. In a name built that way nothing is hidden and nothing is idiomatic: the name is the recipe, in sequence, and the shop expects you to read it that way. The names that refuse to work like this are gathered at the foot of this page.

Two things about the order will save you a great deal of guessing.

The first is that Thai puts a describing word after the thing it describes. When the method word comes second it is working as an adjective: ไก่ย่าง is chicken-that-has-been-grilled, ปลาเผา is fish-cooked-in-the-fire, ข้าวผัด is rice-that-has-been-fried. When the method word comes first it is the verb of the dish, and everything after it is what went into the pan: ผัดกะเพรา is a stir-fry of holy basil, ต้มยำกุ้ง is a boiling-and-souring of prawns. Which of the two patterns a dish uses tells you what the cook thinks the dish is. ข้าวผัด is a rice dish. ผัดกะเพรา is a stir-fry, and the rice under it is assumed rather than named, which is why the same food turns up on boards as กะเพราราดข้าว, holy basil poured over rice.

The second is that the final slot is where the choices live. It is usually a protein, sometimes a region or a style, and it is the part you change when you order: หมู mǔu pork, ไก่ gài chicken, ทะเล thá-lee seafood, ไทย thai the Thai-style version, รวมมิตร ruam-mít mixed. A board that reads ผัดกะเพรา with a column of prices beside หมู, ไก่, กุ้ง and ทะเล is not four dishes. It is one dish and a menu of last slots.

Here is the frame doing its work on dishes that have a page on this site. Read each name left to right and the parse falls out.

What the frame never tells you is how hot the dish will be, whether there is fish sauce in it, whether coriander goes on top, or whether the cook reaches for the MSG. Those are decided at the pan and not on the board, and the words for controlling them are further down this page.

The cooking methods

Twenty-four method words, and two more that sit in the same slot on a board without being methods at all. The method word usually comes first in a dish name, and most learners pick it up long after the ingredient words, which is the wrong way round: it tells you what will physically be in front of you. Each one below says what it does to the food and names real dishes that use it.

The dishes on this site that show these methods most clearly:

The proteins, the vegetables and the starch

The method word tells you what happened. The next word tells you what it happened to. The animal is usually the last word in the name, which makes it the easiest part to swap when you order, and these are the twelve you will meet.

Then the vegetables. These eighteen come round again and again, and they sit in a name exactly where the proteins do: after the method, before the qualifier.

Underneath all of it is the starch, and the starch has its own vocabulary. ข้าว khâao is rice and also, in ordinary speech, food itself: กินข้าวหรือยัง gin khâao rěu yang means have you eaten, not have you eaten rice. ข้าวสวย khâao sǔay is plain steamed rice, ข้าวเปล่า khâao bplàao is the same thing said another way, and ข้าวเหนียว khâao nǐao is sticky rice, which belongs to the northeast and the north rather than to the whole country.

Noodles are counted separately, and a noodle shop asks two questions before anything else: which noodle, then น้ำ náam or แห้ง hâeng, in the broth or drained with the broth in a separate bowl. เส้น sên is the word for a noodle: เส้นใหญ่ sên-yài wide flat rice noodles, เส้นเล็ก sên-lék narrow flat ones, เส้นหมี่ sên-mìi thin round rice vermicelli, บะหมี่ bà-mìi yellow egg noodles, วุ้นเส้น wún-sên transparent glass noodles, and ขนมจีน khà-nǒm-jiin fresh fermented rice noodles. ก๋วยเตี๋ยว gǔay-dtǐao is the word painted on the shopfront; it is a loanword, and it is dealt with in the last section of this page.

Once the bowl arrives, the four jars on the table are ปรุง bprung, the seasoning you are expected to do yourself: fish sauce, chilli in vinegar, ground chilli, sugar. A bowl reaches you deliberately under-seasoned, and the jars are how you finish it.

Finally the seasonings, because these are what you will be naming when you want something left out: พริก phrík chilli, กระเทียม grà-thiam garlic, ตะไคร้ dtà-khrái lemongrass, ข่า khàa galangal, ใบมะกรูด bai-má-grùut kaffir lime leaf, มะนาว má-naao lime, มะขาม má-khǎam tamarind, กะเพรา gà-phrao holy basil, โหระพา hǒo-rá-phaa sweet basil, สะระแหน่ sà-rá-nàe mint, ผักชี phàk-chii coriander, กะทิ gà-thí coconut milk, น้ำปลา náam-bplaa fish sauce, ซีอิ๊ว sii-íu soy sauce, น้ำมันหอย náam-man hǎwy oyster sauce, กะปิ gà-bpì shrimp paste, and ผงชูรส phǒng-chuu-rót, monosodium glutamate.

Saying how hot it should be, and how it should arrive

The dish name is fixed. Everything after it is negotiable, and the negotiation runs on a small stock of words. This is the part of a Thai menu that is not written down, and it is the part that decides whether the plate in front of you is edible.

Start with heat. เผ็ด phèt means hot with chilli and only that. Hot in temperature is ร้อน ráwn, a completely different word, and confusing the two is how a foreigner ends up with a lukewarm plate of bird chillies. The scale you will actually use runs ไม่ใส่พริก mâi sài phrík do not put chilli in, ไม่เผ็ด mâi phèt not spicy, ไม่ค่อยเผ็ด mâi khâwy phèt not very spicy, เผ็ดน้อย phèt náwy a little spicy, เผ็ดมาก phèt mâak very spicy. Say it before the cook starts, not after.

Be honest with yourself about what those words buy you. Only the first one names an ingredient, and naming the ingredient is the instruction a kitchen takes literally. ไม่เผ็ด and เผ็ดน้อย hand the decision to somebody whose baseline is not yours. At a ส้มตำ mortar the useful instruction is not an adjective at all but a number: ใส่พริกสองเม็ด sài phrík sǎwng mét, put in two chillies. Counting the chillies out loud is ordinary behaviour there, not a foreigner's apology.

The other taste words work the same way, as a bare adjective tacked onto the order: หวาน wǎan sweet, เค็ม khem salty, เปรี้ยว bprîao sour, จืด jèut unseasoned. หวานน้อย wǎan náwy is worth having ready, because it is how you stop a coffee or a tea arriving as syrup. จืด deserves a second look: it is not an insult but a category, which is why แกงจืด is named that on purpose.

Then how it arrives. With any stir-fry the shop may ask ราดข้าวหรือแยกจาน râat khâao rěu yâek jaan, over the rice or on a separate plate. Answer ราดข้าว râat khâao or แยกจาน yâek jaan. Taking it away is the answer to a question the shop asks first: กินที่นี่หรือกลับบ้าน gin thîi-nîi rěu glàp bâan, eat here or take it home. Answer กินที่นี่ gin thîi-nîi or เอากลับบ้าน ao glàp bâan, and add ใส่ถุง sài thǔng, in a bag, if you want it bagged rather than boxed. Portion size is ธรรมดา tham-má-daa for the ordinary one and พิเศษ phí-sèet for the larger one, and พิเศษ is charged as the larger one, so ask what it comes to if that matters to you.

Last, the frame for taking something out. There is a fuller version of this, with audio and with the ครับ and ค่ะ particles, in ordering food and street food; what follows is the short form you need while you are still reading the board. ใส่ sài is to put in, ไม่ใส่ mâi sài is do not put in, and ไม่ใส่ plus a noun is a complete, polite, entirely unremarkable request.

On that last point, be careful about what a dish name promises. It names the main ingredient, and what it leaves out is the seasoning that goes in at the pan. ผัดผัก is a vegetable stir-fry and is very often finished with fish sauce or oyster sauce. แกงจืดเต้าหู้ names the tofu and not the broth it is sitting in, which is usually pork. So do not read a name as a statement about what is in the bowl: ask ใส่อะไรบ้าง, then take out what you need with ไม่ใส่.

If you eat no animal products at all, the two words are กินเจ gin jee and มังสวิรัติ mang-sà-wí-rát. กินเจ is strict and is understood instantly; ordering food sets out what it does and does not cover. มังสวิรัติ is the ordinary word for vegetarian. Neither label does the work on its own. A curry is the hard case, because the paste is mixed before the cooking starts and กะปิ shrimp paste is commonly in it, so a curry is out unless the kitchen is a เจ one or you have asked and been told plainly. At a ส้มตำ mortar the working order is ตำเจ dtam jee, which the stall will understand as no fish sauce and no dried shrimp. And if the issue is pork rather than meat in general, say ไม่กินหมูครับ mâi gin mǔu khráp and follow it with ไม่ใส่หมูสับ mâi sài mǔu sàp, because minced pork turns up unannounced in soups and omelettes.

One limit on all of it. ไม่ใส่ is a preference frame and a kitchen hears it as one. For anything that would actually harm you, use แพ้ pháe, carry it written in Thai as well as spoken, and accept that a shared wok, a shared sauce jar and an open tub of ถั่วป่น make cross-contamination normal at a cart. For a serious allergy that is a reason to choose a different dish rather than to negotiate this one. The full set of allergy sentences, with audio and with both speakers, is on ordering food.

Reading the region off the menu

Thailand does not have one cuisine, and the shop you are standing in front of has usually told you which one it cooks before you have read a word. Four regions, plus the Thai-Muslim strand that came up the peninsula, plus the Thai-Chinese shophouse trade that cuts across all of them, plus the sweets, which are a separate vocabulary again. A clay mortar and a rotisserie mean one thing. Trays under glass mean another. A pot of coconut curry on a gas ring means a third. Once you can place a shop the menu shortens sharply, because each strand draws on a different quarter of the vocabulary above.

Central · ภาคกลาง phâak-glaang

The cooking that travelled abroad as Thai food. Coconut milk and palm sugar do a lot of the work, the balance aimed at is sweet against salty against sour, and the rice is steamed jasmine rather than sticky. The names to look for begin with แกง and then name a paste or a colour, or begin with ผัด and then name what went into the wok, with ต้ม for the soups. This is also the region of the rice-and-curry shop, ร้านข้าวแกง ráan khâao-gaeng, where you point at the trays and it goes over rice.

Northeastern · อีสาน ii-sǎan

You can place this kitchen from the pavement: a clay mortar being worked, a charcoal grill turning chickens, and bags of sticky rice hanging up. Coconut milk barely appears. What you get instead is lime, fresh chilli, fish sauce, ปลาร้า bplaa-ráa fermented fish, and ข้าวคั่ว khâao khûa toasted rice powder. The method words that dominate are ตำ, ลาบ, ย่าง, หมก and อ่อม, the rice is ข้าวเหนียว eaten with the fingers, and the compliment is different too: อร่อย à-ràwy works anywhere, but แซ่บ sâep is the northeastern word for delicious-with-fire and it is the right one to use at this counter.

Northern · ภาคเหนือ phâak-něua

Lanna cooking, and a northerner will tell you plainly that it is not central Thai food. Pork-forward, herb-heavy, built on dry-spice pastes rather than wet ones, and mostly without coconut milk, ข้าวซอย being the well-known exception. Sticky rice again. The giveaway on a menu is not น้ำพริก náam-phrík in general, which every region has, but the northern two listed as dishes in their own right: น้ำพริกหนุ่ม náam-phrík nùm, the green-chilli one, and น้ำพริกอ่อง náam-phrík àwng, the pork-and-tomato one, with raw vegetables and แคบหมู khâep mǔu, pork crackling, to dip into them. A shop advertising itself will simply write อาหารเหนือ aa-hǎan něua, northern food.

Southern · ภาคใต้ phâak-dtâi

The region Thais themselves warn each other about before ordering. Turmeric, ขมิ้น khà-mîn, colours a great deal of it yellow. Fresh chilli goes in hard, and กะปิ gà-bpì shrimp paste turns up constantly. Southern shops elsewhere in the country advertise as ข้าวแกงใต้ khâao-gaeng dtâi, and the trays tend to be darker and drier than the central equivalent. If you have learned that เผ็ดน้อย gets you a manageable plate, this is the region where that assumption stops holding. The names to recognise are แกงไตปลา gaeng-dtai-bplaa, แกงเหลือง gaeng-lěuang, คั่วกลิ้ง khûa-glîng and ข้าวยำ khâao-yam. None of them has a page here yet.

The Thai-Muslim strand

A few lines on most menus and a whole trade of its own where it is concentrated, in the south and in the old Muslim quarters of the cities. No pork, so ไก่ and เนื้อ do the work หมู does elsewhere. The seasoning is warm rather than sharp: cinnamon, cardamom, cumin and roasted peanut instead of lime and fresh chilli, which is why แกงมัสมั่น tastes unlike any other แกง on the board. The night-market end of the same strand is charcoal and a flat iron: ไก่สะเต๊ะ gài sà-dté is the skewer this kitchen sells, the หมูสะเต๊ะ on a Bangkok pavement is the pork version the Thai-Chinese trade made of it, and โรตี is cooked on its own iron alongside. Where the shop is halal it will say so on the sign, and the peanut sauce and the pickle beside the skewers, อาจาด à-jàat, come from this kitchen rather than from a Thai one.

The Thai-Chinese shophouse

Not a region at all, and hard to avoid: it is the shop on the corner of nearly every soi. It came with Teochew and Hainanese migration and it kept its own vocabulary: the wok and the flat iron, the braising pot at the front, soy and white pepper where a Thai kitchen reaches for fish sauce and lime, and noodles rather than rice under a great deal of it. The tells are ก๋วยเตี๋ยว painted on the glass, a metal pot of ขาหมูพะโล้ khǎa-mǔu phá-lóo going brown at the front, a tray of ปาท่องโก๋ bpaa-thâwng-gǒo, fried dough sticks, and a cabinet of hanging roast duck. It is also where the address words change: in a Chinese-Thai market you will hear เจ๊ jée for the older woman running the stall and เฮีย hia for the older man, rather than พี่. ผัดซีอิ๊ว and ราดหน้า come out of this kitchen too, even though they sit on a central Thai board.

The sweets · ของหวาน khǎwng-wǎan

A separate vocabulary, and the section heading to look for at the bottom of a printed menu. ของหวาน is literally sweet things and is the menu word. ขนม khà-nǒm is the everyday word for a sweet or a snack, and it is the front half of a great many of the names: ขนมครก, ขนมชั้น khà-nǒm chán, ขนมถ้วย khà-nǒm thûay. Be careful with it, because ขนมจีน is not a sweet at all, which is the trap waiting in the last section of this page. The building materials are short: กะทิ coconut milk, palm sugar, ข้าวเหนียว sticky rice, ไข่ egg, and salt, which is in nearly all of them, because a Thai sweet is built to be cut rather than left sweet. Ice is its own category: น้ำแข็งไส náam-khǎeng sǎi is shaved ice with syrups and toppings poured over it.

The names that do not decompose

The frame covers most of a menu and then it stops. Some dish names are loanwords. Some are the names of pastes rather than of methods. Some parse perfectly into Thai words that tell you nothing useful about what will arrive. These have to be learnt whole, and the list below is not the whole of it. ข้าวมันไก่ hides มัน, the rendered fat the rice is cooked in rather than the tuber of มันเผา; ข้าวขาหมู hides ขา, a leg; ก๋วยเตี๋ยวเรือ hides เรือ, a boat; and สะเต๊ะ in หมูสะเต๊ะ is borrowed the way โรตี is. What the frame buys you is a first guess at a board you have never seen, not a guarantee.

One habit closes the gap for everything not on that list. Take the name apart in the order it is written, find the method word wherever it sits, then the thing it is attached to, then the last slot, and if any part refuses to yield, ask ใส่อะไรบ้าง rather than guessing. That is the whole method, and it works on a hand-written board you have never seen.

Next, the language that goes round the food: ordering food, street food, at a restaurant, and the classifiers you need to say how many plates, bowls or skewers.

Want the ordering language first? Ordering food phrases and numbers and prices.