Lana SG
My name is Lana, I am a professional linguist/ translator and am in love with writing, too!
I was born, brought up and educated in Russia, continued my education and got married in India, now I am living in Thailand and have no idea where I will find myself tomorrow! I love learning languages, travelling and getting to know about other cultures. I know Russian, English and Hindi; some bits of German, Turkish and Tatar, now learning Thai, and have great plans for at least 5 more languages!:)
I am happy to share a few articles regarding Russian, Indian and Thai cultures with you.
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Traditional Thai Cuisine
Thai cuisine gained a world-wide reputation for the unusual spicy and sweet-and-sour taste of the dishes and their significant aroma.
Thai cooking has been developing over the years in accordance with the outside influences, especially from China and the West. However, some major typical methods and essential basic ingredients still remain the same as they were centuries ago.
Almost all Thai dishes are cooked with fresh ingredients, including vegetables, poultry, meat and seafood. Fish sauce and shrimp paste are traditionally used instead of salt. Main ingredients include plenty of lime juice and lemongrass, garlic, Thai chillies, coconut milk, galanga, black pepper, tamarind juice, palm sugar and basil. Lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves are present in almost of the Thai dishes, giving them minty and citrus fragrance and that specific Thai sourish taste.
Sauces and curries usually contain lots of garlic and chillies of different types. Galanga (or galanga root) is a kind of ginger well interacting with other ingredients. It gives lightly acid taste and helps reduce the smell of meat. Coconut milk is a base to almost all Thai food: be it a meat course or a dessert.
Rice is a king of all dishes, an essential part of any meal. It is very much respected by Thais, who can be very picky about their rice being cooked properly, that is with right temperature and cooking times. There are plenty of rice varieties, but the finest quality Thai rice is "jasmine fragrant rice", known in the world for its sweet, inviting smell when cooked.
Traditional Thai cooking methods are grilling, boiling or stewing and baking. One more popular Thai cooking method is "Yam", basically a kind of salad, though very different from the western type. Usually it is a mixture of green papaya, fish sauce, lemon juice, chili and garlic along with small shrimps or minced pork/beef. Chinese quick-frying method has become very popular, and an extensive use of noodles in Thai recipes appeared, thanks to the same influence.
Various "Tom Yam's", a kind of a spicy sweet-and-sour soup have become a visiting card of Thai cuisine. Different Thai curries cooked rather quickly in comparison with Indian curries are also very popular. If the food is plain, that is cooked without any spices and even salt, it is served with sauces and condiments, which usually give different flavours to the same dish. Some can be sweet and sour, others are very pungent and spicy.
One more peculiarity of traditional Thai cuisine is a small size of the food pieces. Big chunks are inappropriate and should be cut into small pieces, shredded or minced. Most Thai sweet dishes are based on fruit, some vegetables (like sweet potato), coconut milk and sticky rice. A lot of them come with extremely sweet and flavoured syrup. Traditional drinks include fruit juices with a pinch of salt, filtered coffee and a Chinese-style weak tea.
Among spirits rice whisky is a big favourite. The guiding principle of any Thai food is harmony in tastes and textures within individual dishes and the entire meal.
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