Food & Drink - Thailand's Islands and Beaches - page 799

Staples & Specialities
Rice & Noodles
Rice is so central to Thai food culture that the most common term for 'eat' is gin kôw (lit-
erally, 'eat rice') and one of the most common greetings is Gin kôw rĕu yang? (Have you
eaten rice yet?). To eat is to eat rice, and for most of the country, a meal is not acceptable
without this staple. The highest grade is ko ̂ w ho ̆ rm ma ́ ·li ́ (jasmine rice), a fragrant long
grain that is so coveted by neighbouring countries that there is allegedly a steady under-
ground business in smuggling out fresh supplies.
Rice is customarily served alongside main dishes like curries, stir-fries or soups, which
are lumped together as gàp kôw 'with rice'. When you order plain rice in a restaurant you
use the term kôw Ъlo ̀ w, 'plain rice' or kôw sŏoay, ' beautiful rice'.
You'll find four basic kinds of noodle in Thailand. Hardly surprising, given the Thai
fixation on rice, is the overwhelming popularity of sên gŏo·ay đĕe·o, noodles made from
rice flour mixed with water to form a paste, which is then steamed to form wide, flat
sheets. The sheets are folded and sliced into various widths.
Also made from rice, 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 popu-
lar 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.
Finally there's wún·sên, an almost clear noodle made from mung-bean starch and water.
Often sold in dried bunches, wún·sên (literally 'jelly thread') is prepared by soaking it 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.
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