Comments on: How to eat like a Thai

By: Bo

Bo — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:28:34 +0000

Hello there, I am from Thailand. I am 100% Thai and I was born and lived in Thailand. My translation may be off, I apologize.

I’ve read your website. It is organized and easy to read. Unlike other websites I’ve seen so far. They make the letters too large or the design are messy. I like your style settings.

I love how you describe the rice section. It’s quite describable and true
Other sections are also informative. Your ideas are are written well. Thanks for sharing! =)

By: cee

cee — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:11:50 +0000

lp -

thanks for writing! i'm glad the site has been helpful to you in thailand.

By: LP

LP — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:48:01 +0000

I love your website. It’s very informative but also I like the clear and stylish design.
I live in Thailand (I’m English) and this has been very helpful to me learning how to pronounce the names of ingredients – I find shopping quite hard work sometimes when no labels are written in English (I can understand some spoken Thai but not read it!)
Thank you so much & I look forward to more recipes…!

By: cee

cee — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:47:48 +0000

Neil -
To say you're full in Thai is "im laew". "Im" means full, and "laew" puts it into the past tense. You can hear how to pronounce it here: http://www.thai-language.com/mp3/P200020.mp3

I think the best thing to say might be "the food is very tasty" = "ahaan arroy maak". You can hear that spoken here: http://www.thai2english.com/search.aspx?q=อาหารอร่อยมาก - it's very slow, but you get the idea.

By: cee

cee — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:31:17 +0000

Marlen, Rebecca and Lucas -
Yes, Lucas is right. Just eat around those things. You’re not supposed to eat them. It’s authentic for them to be left in the bowl when it’s served to you.

You are not supposed to eat the galangal, lemongrass or lime leaves. Many also don’t eat the shallots or chilies. The latter is up to you!

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:59:31 +0000

I believe the Thai phrase for saying “I’m full” at the end of a meal is “Im rau” (spelling probably wrong). In Chinese I think the phrase is “Chur Bow-la” (again, bad spelling), which translates to “full/happy”, and “How Chur!” means “Tasty!”.

Are there other simple phrases that I can say to my Thai server/host at the end of the meal to show my appreciation for the food and their hospitality?

By: Lucas

Lucas — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:18:39 +0000

To Marlen & Rebecca:

I don’t mean to butt in, but I noticed that your queries had thus far gone unanswered.

The “inedible items,” such as galangal slices, lemongrass pieces and lime leaves are, to my knowledge, eaten around and left in the bottom of your bowl. While many Westerners fish them out of their bowl and leave them on the side of a plate, I am not certain if this is proper Thai practice.

Just my 2¢ … if wrong, I am more than willing to be corrected.

Lucas

By: rebecca

rebecca — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:14:16 +0000

Marlen, I have the same problem! I went to a Thai restaurant lastnight for the first time (lovely food btw) and there were huge slices of ginger and sticky lemongrass and limeleaves. Now the soup itself was gorgeous, but i left the forementioned items. Was this correct?

By: Marlen

Marlen — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:47:44 +0000

The Thai restaurant i frequent in CA includes a variety of ingredients in their soups. Are patrons expected to eat everything? Particularly referring to slices of ginger, large half-leaves of basil, and diced (but tough) lemongrass.

By: jett

jett — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:30:38 +0000

As Pim said, bottled water are easy to find and pretty safe. One caution about pre-bottled water sold on the street, avoid those soft-opague-cheap-plastic-looking bottles with tear off caps. Those are mostly made by smaller (or even homemade) companies and are know to give your belly a churn (I’m Thai and I still got sick from it) especially those found on islands around thailand.

happy cooking!