Los Angeles Thai Restaurants

Thai food is internationally famous. Whether chilli-hot or comparatively blands, harmony is the guiding principle behind each dish. Thai cuisine is essentially a marriage of centuries-old Eastern and Western influences harmoniously combined into something uniquely Thai. The characteristics of Thai food depend on who cooks it, for whom it is cooked, for what occasion, and where it is cooked to suit all palates. Originally, Thai cooking reflected the characteristics of a waterborne lifestyle. Aquatic animals, plants and herbs were major ingredients. Large chunks of meat were eschewed. Subsequent influences introduced the use of sizeable chunks to Thai cooking.

With their Buddhist background, Thais shunned the use of large animals in big chunks. Big cuts of meat were shredded and laced with herbs and spices. Traditional Thai cooking methods were stewing and baking, or grilling. Chinese influences saw the introduction of frying, stir frying and deep-frying. Culinary influences from the 17th century onwards included Portuguese, Dutch, French and Japanese. Chillies were introduced to Thai cooking during the late 1600s by Portuguese missionaries who had acquired a taste for them while serving in South America.

Thais were very adapt at ‘Siamese-icing’ foreign cooking methods, and substituting ingredients. The ghee used in Indian cooking was replaced by coconut oil, and coconut milk substituted for other daily products. Overpowering pure spices were toned down and enhanced by fresh herbs such as lemon grass and galanga. Eventually, fewer and less spices were used in Thai curries, while the use of fresh herbs increased. It is generally acknowledged that Thai curries burn intensely, but briefly, whereas other curries, with strong spices, burn for longer periods. Instead of serving dishes in courses, a Thai meal is served all at once, permitting dinners to enjoy complementary combinations of different tastes.

A proper Thai meal should consist of a soup, a curry dish with condiments, a dip with accompanying fish and vegetables. A spiced salad may replace the curry dish. The soup can also be spicy, but the curry should be replaced by non spiced items. There must be a harmony of tastes and textures within individual dishes and the entire meal.

In the early days, there were no complicated utensils and equipments used to cook Thai food. Not to mention large cooking equipments such as pots, pans woks because they didn’t exist in those days. The only metallic utensil used in cooking was knife. Therefore, cooking techniques were limited at the initial stage of Thai cuisine. However, the Thai ancestors were so creative that even without complicated utensils, they could make several delicious dishes that still present until today.

The art of cooking Thai food has been developing over the years in accordance with the outside influences, especially from the west. With the advent of modern kitchenware, new ideas and techniques have been further enhanced. Today, a good Thai food cook can be more and more creative than in the early years.

However, no matter how things have been improved, some major typical methods of cooking Thai food still remain the same as they were in the past. The first is grilling. This method derived from the fact that Thailand is abundant in the supply of natural wood that can be applied to set the fire and cook food. Thai people normally grill meats and fresh seafood and eat them with dips (locally called as ‘Nam Phrik’) which has sweet-and-sour flavors so that they become tastier.

Another popular Thai cooking method is ‘Yam’ basically a kind of salad. But Thai-style salad is different from the western because the Thai dressing contains no fat in its ingredients, unlike mayonnaise and different types of Ranch that are high in calorie and fat. In cooking a dish of Thai salad, simply add a portion of salty seasoning such as fish sauce of salt, lemon juice, chili, and sometimes, garlic and shallot, and mix them together. Then, you can make several dishes of Thai salad be they shrimp salad, pork salad, papaya salad, beef salad and so on depending on a person’s creative ideas. Therefore, some can find a dish of ‘yam’ very delightful while its herb and spice ingredients are good for health as well.

Boiling is another typical way of Thai food preparation. Before the age of modern cookery, Thai people used clay pots to boil food. They also used clay pots to cook rice and make variety of soups. The famous ‘Tom Yam Goong’ also originated from boiling technique. Curries were also developed in the olden days as well but the present-day curries are much different from they were previously because ancient Thais did not use coconut milk in those spicy soups.

The art of Thai cooking evolved according to the cultural influences from other countries, mainly China and Western Europe. Thai people much welcome a Chinese quick-frying method as the Thais have created a large choice of stir-frying entries in their menu. Another influence from the mainland reflects in an extensive use of noodles in Thai recipes. While the Chinese deep-fry noodle and create savory sauces to mix, Thais apply it in many characteristically Thai styles. Thai noodles taste sweet, sour and sometimes spicy. A distinctive dish is Mee Krob, or crispy noodle.

During the reign of King Narai the Great coinciding with the reign of King Louis XIV of France, Thai food took a great leap forward. Foreigners and trades arrived in Thailand at our old capital in Ayutthaya. With them, they brought new ways of cooking as well as new ingredients. Thais did not use coconut milk in their food prior to the arrival of these foreign nationals. Westerners used to milk in their food suggested us to add coconut milk in our curries. Through experimentation the use of coconut milk in curries became the norm.

Coconut milk in those days was mainly used only in desserts and some dishes. It is an important ingredient as same as palm sugar and rice flour. With the arrival of the Portuguese, we were introduced to eggs in our ending meal. Such Portuguese dessert as golden threads and golden flowers, which are made of egg yolks and sugar syrup, are well known until these days. Some still think that these sweets are types of Thai national desserts but in reality they are Portuguese.

Chinese people migrated to Thailand, especially the Fukianese. They brought with them their eating culture and through generations develop their owner food which later became a part of Thai cuisine.

Western cuisine had the greatest influence on Thai cuisine from the reigns of King Rama V onwards. The beloved monarchs were educated in Europe and brought back with then western culture and western taste in food. From time to time you see this influence on the menu of some old style restaurants that serve Thai food but there are also stews available on their menu. Thais especially love beef tongue stew and this is definitely a left over influence from the western cuisine in the last 100 years.

Krating Daeng is a very sweet, non-carbonated energy drink. The drink is mostly sold in Asia but can be found in Australia where it is sometimes renamed “Thai Red Bull”. The recipe is based on Lipovitan, an earlier energy drink that had been introduced to Thailand from Japan. Krating Daeng sales soared across Asia in the 1970s and 1980s, especially among truck drivers, construction workers and farmers. Truck drivers used to drink it to stay awake during the long late night drive. The working class image was boosted by sponsorship of Thai boxing matches, where the logo of two red bulls charging each other was often on display. While often translated as “Red Bull”, the Thai name krating actually refers to the bull-like bovine gaur. The Thai product was transformed into a global brand by Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian entrepreneur. Mateschitz was international marketing director for Blendax, a German toothpaste company, when he visited Thailand in 1982 and discovered that Krating Daeng helped to cure his jet lag. He cooperated with T.C Pharmaceuticals, adapted the formula and composition to western tastes and launched Red Bull in 1987.