Become a Thai Food Connoisseur: Regions and Flavors

A Thai food connoisseur tastes for balance. The cuisine is defined by a characteristic balance of sweet, sour, salty and spicy, and the regions of Thailand tip that balance in different directions. On Mosey, the Thai badge counts the different places you have rated, so wide eating is rewarded with a record, not a prize.

What does a Thai food connoisseur look for?

First, the four moods of a dish. Traditional Thai dishes fall loosely into tom (boiled), yam (spicy salads), tam (pounded foods) and kaeng (curries). Knowing those words helps you order a spread that is not all the same texture.

Second, the always-present seasoning. Fish sauce, nam pla, is a salty, aromatic staple used in every region. Curry pastes are made by crushing chilies with ingredients such as garlic and shrimp paste in a mortar and pestle, and shrimp paste is essential to them. Chilies came from the Americas with the Portuguese and Spanish, and along with rice they are now among the most important ingredients.

How does regional Thai cuisine differ?

Thai cooking divides into five regional cuisines: Bangkok, Central, Isan, Northern and Southern. Here is the quick map:

• Central Thailand sits on rice-growing plains, and coconut milk is a major ingredient.
• Northern cooking comes from cooler valleys and mountains and shares many ingredients with Isan.
• Isan, in the arid northeast on the Khorat Plateau, is influenced by Lao and Khmer cooking.
• Southern cooking uses liberal coconut milk and fresh turmeric, and its complex curries and use of chilies and spices have influenced the wider cuisine.

Rice follows the map too. Sticky rice is common in the north and northeast, where it is shaped into balls by hand and dipped into side dishes. Central and southern areas favor non-glutinous jasmine rice.

Is royal Thai cuisine different?

Royal cuisine traces back to the palace kitchens of Ayutthaya, between 1351 and 1767, and it influenced Central Thai cooking. It emphasizes seasonal freshness and elaborate presentation. Chef McDang argues that the difference between royal and common food is mainly presentation and better ingredients, not a fundamentally different cuisine, which is a helpful warning against treating any single style as the real one.

What about Isan and southern Thai food on a menu?

If a menu advertises Isan dishes, expect grilled meats, pounded salads and sticky rice. If it advertises southern food, expect turmeric, coconut and stronger chilies. Many places in North America cook a central-Thai-leaning menu, so a place that names its region clearly is giving you a gift.

Ask about heat in plain words and ask whether the kitchen adjusts it. A connoisseur is not proving anything with spice; they are trying to taste the balance as intended.

How do you order a balanced Thai table?

Order one dish from each mood: something boiled or soupy, a spicy salad, a curry, and something grilled or fried. Add rice, sticky or jasmine depending on the region the menu names. Sharing keeps the table balanced because no single dish has to carry all four flavors.

Mention your heat preference early and be specific. "Medium, please" can mean different things in different kitchens, so describe what you usually enjoy and ask what the kitchen recommends.

What should you write in a Thai rating?

Name the dish and describe the balance: too sweet, bright with lime, deeply salty, properly hot. A line about the texture of the rice or the noodles is just as useful. After a few ratings you will notice that you lean toward one corner of the flavor square, and that is the beginning of knowing your own taste.

How do you rate Thai places on Mosey?

Thai is a cuisine family with four levels at five, ten, twenty and fifty different places: Sampler, Taster, Expert and Connoisseur. A level is never taken away, and repeat visits to one place count once.

Here is a path through the map:

1. Rate a place and name a curry by its color and base, such as a coconut-milk curry.
2. Rate a place that serves a pounded salad and sticky rice.
3. Rate a noodle dish and a rice dish separately.
4. Add the Thai tag to each rating, and note the heat level you chose.

There is no reward. The badge shows beside your name on a rating so other diners know you have rated five or more places of the same kind.

How can a Thai badge change how you eat?

It nudges you to leave a favorite order. If you always choose the same curry, five different places is a gentle reason to try a pounded salad in one, a noodle dish in another and a southern-style curry in a third. Over a few months the ratings turn into a map of your own taste, which is more useful than any ranking someone else could write.

Keep your Thai list with friends

Mosey is a food app for rating, sharing and keeping track of places to eat. It is free for a place to list, with no hidden fees and affordable tools, which suits the small family kitchens that cook much of the Thai food in this country.

Build a list called "Thai, region by region", add a note on why each place belongs, and invite a friend to add theirs. Follow people whose taste you trust, and tag the people you ate with so they can add their own rating.

Local reading starts with the guide to Thai food in Las Vegas, and the guide to how to start a food list helps with the next step. The food badges page covers the ladder, and the US food guides list more.

Another regional project is Southern and soul food.

Get the Mosey app, rate your next Thai meal by the dish and add the Thai tag, then work towards five different kitchens.