Spicing up your life Thai-style…
There is a basic difference between the philosophy behind western food and Thai food. Back home, a cook will make a dish the way it “should” be made. One may add to a dish by shaking a bit of salt and maybe a dash of pepper but if you want to insult the cook you can’t do better than dousing it with catsup or some hot sauce. In Thailand, you would be expected to add something.
Most dishes here are made generically, with the idea that each person has a different body chemistry and needs to add sweet, sour, hot, and salt to their own taste. When I first came to Thailand I wrote about my observations in a Bangkok Post article titled “The Noodle Polluters”. Here’s what I observed. “I once saw a man add five scoops of sugar to his noodles, five scoops of vinegar, five scoops of chilies, and five shakes of fish sauce. When he tasted it I was sure he would have to spit it all out. He thought a second, added another scoop of sugar and a few more shakes of fish sauce and tasted again. I could tell from his facial expression that it was perfect.”
That is why you’ll see that tray of condiments on every restaurant table you’ll visit here. And of course, along with that comes a whole category of specialized vocabulary.
If your food is จืด /jèut/ – bland, tasteless, then it’s time to reach for that condiment tray.
Condiments…
The word “condiment” เครื่องปรุงรส /krêuang-bprung-rót/ is an example of how Thai words are often quite easy to understand even if you have never heard them before. If you have never heard the English word “condiment” you would only be able to guess what it means through context.
But the Thai word เครื่องปรุงรส /krêuang-bprung-rót/ is made up of:
เครื่อง /krêuang/ – has many meanings but here is acting as a helper basically meaning “the thing which”
ปรุง /bprung/ – to cook, mix, blend, spice up, add flavor
รส /rót/ – flavor
So เครื่องปรุงรส /krêuang-bprung-rót/ or the shorter version เครื่องปรุง /krêuang-bprung/ simply means “that which adds flavor”.
Let’s take a look at that ubiquitous condiment tray. On it you’ll find:
น้ำปลา /nám-bplaa/ – fish sauce.
ปลา /bplaa/ – fish. น้ำปลา /nám-bplaa/ is used by Thais to add a salty taste just as เกลือ /gleua/ – salt is used in the west. เกลือ /gleua/ in the form of salt shakers is not often seen at a Thai table as the humid atmosphere here tends to clump up the salt and makes it unshakable.
น้ำตาล /nám-dtaan/ – sugar.
ตาล /dtaan/ – sugar palm, which gives us a little linguistic-history lesson on where the first sugar in Thailand came from.
พริก /prík/ – chili (pepper).
What you will usually see on the condiment tray is powdered chili พริกป่น /prík bpòn/. ป่น /bpòn/ – to ground. In English we use the word “pepper” to refer to 2 very different things. Thai distinguishes between พริก /prík/ – chili pepper, and พริกไทย /prík-tai/ – black pepper, (literally “Thai pepper”). This distinguishing between the two tells us that black pepper is indigenous whereas the chilies that the Thais are so fond of originally came from somewhere else, most likely South America hundreds of years ago. I wonder what the Thai cooks did before chilies were brought here.
น้ำส้ม /nám-sôm/ – vinegar, usually seen with floating sliced chilies.
ส้ม /sôm/ – sour or orange (the fruit and the color). น้ำส้ม /nám-sôm/ can also mean orange juice. So be careful when asking the waitress for น้ำส้ม /nám-sôm/. You might be surprised at what she brings you.
And we can never forget MSG. (Aside: When I was traveling in Costa Rice, IMO, the country with the worst tasting food in the world, their condiment tray consisted of shakers of salt, pepper, and MSG – a godsend.)
ผงชูรส /pǒng-choo-rót/ – MSG
ผง /pǒng/ – powder, ชู /choo/ – to boost (flavor). Originally, the Thai word for MSG was อายิโนะโมะโต๊ะ /Ajinomoto/ the Japanese brand of MSG still sold here. You can sometimes still hear this word used as a generic term for MSG.
If you want your food without MSG try saying อย่าใส่ผงชูรส /yàa sài pǒng-choo-rót/ – don’t add MSG. You may or may not get MSG added to your food.
Dipping Sauce…
There are some foods in Thailand (fish, shrimp, chicken, pork, spring rolls, etc.) that are required to have their own specific dipping sauce. It is brought in a small dish or bowl along with the food. It is more or less an art form to know which sauces go with which dish. What I do is I watch what everyone else does and then do the same, trying not to commit that terrible faux pas of dipping in the wrong dipping sauce.
น้ำจิ้ม /nám-jîm/ – dipping sauce.
จิ้ม /jîm/ – to dip in, to poke (ex. someone in the eye). The word จิ้ม /jîm/ is also part of the Thai word ไม้จิ้มฟัน /mái-jîm-fan/ – toothpick (literally: the wood used to poke at your teeth).
Cultural note…
Many westerners are off-put by the Thai custom of covering their mouth with one hand and using the other to vigorously “poke” at their teeth with a toothpick. No, they are not trying to gross you out. It is considered quite rude in Thai culture to show your teeth why excavating with a toothpick. So, it is completely acceptable, and in fact extra polite, to cover the mouth up and go at it. The Chinese though have no qualms about toothpick use.
Pronunciation Note…
Warning. Notice that จิ้ม /jîm/ is said with a falling tone. Please do not say this word with a rising tone. Then it is slang for a part of the female anatomy, a mention of which should probably be left out of polite dinner conversation. Believe me, I know.
Hugh’s fun word for the month…
Just went to Pai (pronounced like “bye” as in “bye bye” not apple “pie”) and ran into this word exactly 672 times:
โค้ง /kóhng/ – a curve or bend (in the road).
There are t-shirts for sale all over Pai saying อ้วก /ûak/ – vomit. The more formal word for this activity is อาเจียน /aa-jian/ although there is nothing formal about it. And the shirts will also tell you that there are exactly 672 curves (672 โค้ง) from Chiang Mai to Pai. And I felt every one of them.
All along the roadside you will see this sign (sorry about the blurriness but it was a combination of the mini-bus and my stomach churning down the road together.
It says in Thai โค้งอันตราย /kóhng an-dtà~raai /
In English it reads “Sharp Curve”.
The real translation should be “Dangerous Curve” but that may be too disquieting for the many tourists who ride up to Pai every day. So the translator just softened it out a bit. I guess he didn’t think about how a Thai reader would feel.
For those interested in practicing reading Thai through the use of roadside signs I have just completed a book ‘A Field Guide to Reading Thai Roadside Signs’. It is fun and easy and should give you great reading practice (and the pictures are lots clearer than this one). If you would like a copy, drop me a line from my website, Retire 2 Thailand, and I will send you a free eBook pdf.
Hugh Leong
Retire 2 Thailand
Retire 2 Thailand: Blog