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The simplest and most ubiquitous dish is gŏo·ay ěe·o nám, a bowl of noodles served most commonly with pork stock along with meatballs and various vegetables, including a garnish of pàk chee (coriander leaf). This dish is eaten around the clock as a quick snack before work, after shopping, post-clubbing or in between the real meals.

The most famous gŏo·ay ěe·o dish among foreigners is undoubtedly gŏo·ay ěe·o pàt tai, usually called pàt tai for short. Taking the form of thin rice noodles stir-fried with dried or fresh shrimp, bean sprouts, tofu, egg and seasonings, the dish is traditionally served with lime halves and a few stalks of Chinese chives and a sliced banana flower.

Another kind of noodle, kà·nŏm jeen, is produced by pushing rice-flour paste through a sieve into boiling water, much the way Italian-style pasta is made. Kà·nŏm jeen is a popular morning market meal that is eaten doused with various spicy curries and topped with a self-selection of fresh and pickled vegetables and herbs.

The third kind of noodle, bà·mèe, is made from wheat flour and egg. It’s yellowish in colour and is sold only in fresh bundles. After being briefly par-boiled, the noodles are mixed with broth and meat, typically barbecued pork or crab, and you have bà·mèe nám. Served in a bowl with a small amount of garlic oil and no broth, it’s bà·mèe hâang. Restaurants or vendors selling bà·mèe typically also sell gée·o, a square of bà·mèe dough wrapped around ground meat.

Finally there’s wún·sên, an almost clear noodle made from mung-bean starch and water. Sold only in dried bunches, wún·sên (literally ‘jelly thread’) is prepared by soaking in hot water for a few minutes. The most common use of the noodle is in yam wún sên, a hot and tangy salad made with lime juice, fresh sliced prík kêe nŏo (tiny chillies), shrimp, ground pork and various seasonings. Other uses include oo òp wún·sên, bean-thread noodles baked in a lidded clay pot with crab (or sometimes shrimp) and seasonings, or gaang jèut, a bland, Chinese-influenced soup containing ground pork, soft tofu and a handful of the noodles.

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Thai Food by David Thompson is widely considered the most authoritative book on Thai cooking.

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Curries & Soups

In Thai, gaang (it sounds somewhat similar to the English ‘gang’) is often translated as ‘curry’, but it actually describes any dish with a lot of liquid and can thus refer to soups (such as gaang jèut) as well as the classic chilli paste–based curries for which Thai cuisine is famous. The preparation of the latter begins with a krê·uang gaang, created by mashing, pounding and grinding an array of fresh ingredients with a stone mortar and pestle to form an aromatic, extremely pungent-tasting and rather thick paste. Typical ingredients in a krê·uang gaang include dried chilli, galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime zest, shallots, garlic, shrimp paste and salt.

Thai curry cuisine revolves around three primary gaang. Gaang pèt (hot curry) is the most traditional and is often used as a base to create other curries. This curry paste should be quite spicy, with its deep red colour coming from a copious number of dried chillies. Gaang pá·naang, by contrast, is a relatively mild curry where the heat is brought down by the presence of ground peanuts. Gaang kěe·o whn, literally ‘sweet green curry’, substitutes fresh green chillies for red, and somewhat unusually, dried spices such as cumin and coriander. A few extra seasonings such as bai má·gròot (kaffir lime leaves), bai hŏh·rá·pah (sweet basil leaves) and nám lah (fish sauce) may be added to taste just before serving.

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NOODLE MIXOLOGY

If you see a steel rack containing four lidded glass bowls or jars on your table, it’s proof that the restaurant you’re in serves gŏo·ay ěe·o (rice noodle soup). Typically these containers offer four choices: nám sôm prík (sliced green chillies in vinegar), nám lah (fish sauce), prík òn (dried red chilli, flaked or ground to a near powder)