Famous Thai Food from 4 Regions
The unique flavors of each area in Thailand are so famous and delightful that they’re a hot topic for foodies talking about Thai food.
Each region of Thailand has its own great dishes. Because the ingredients, climates, and cooking styles change so much across the country. Your tasting journey in Thailand will be full of wonderful new menus. There are four main regions in Thailand: Northern, Northeastern (Isaan), Central, and Southern. Each has a unique geography, culture, way of life including culinary.
Get ready for a flavor adventure! We’ve handpicked one famous dish from each of Thailand’s four regions to totally open your Thai food experience!
Khao Soi
– Northern –
You’ve gotta try Khao Soi !
When you visit Northern Thailand, this famous, original dish is a must-eat. Everyone there knows it well! Almost every family in the North regularly enjoys this delicious meal. ‘Khao’ means rice and ‘Soi’ means to slice. It’s a historical method of making noodles that slice sheets of dough. Khao Soi In Thailand we use wheat-based egg noodles. You’ll find both soft and crisp noodles in a bowl. That’s a perfect bite!
Khao Soi, in the past, people called it ‘Ho Noodle’.The Yunnan Chinese, or Ho people, influenced this recipe to Thailand. It looks like noodles. The soup has a spicy curry paste. Side dishes include pickled mustard greens, red onions, and cabbage salad, while condiments include chili oil, lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar. The traditional meat for Khao Soi is chicken or beef. Now, many restaurants also include pork as a choice.
The curry has a rich, golden-yellow color, which comes from a special paste containing turmeric. The chef then blends this paste with the coconut milk and broth. You can enjoy Khao Soi’s complex and deeply satisfying flavor profile. This dish offers a rich, warm, and aromatic experience that perfectly balances several key tastes.
Papaya Salad
– Northeastern (Isaan) –
If you come to Thailand, you’ll quickly get to know Papaya Salad! You can find it right on the streets as tasty street food or in any restaurant. It’s famous all over the world because of its amazing flavor—a perfect balance of sour, sweet, salty, and spicy.
The dish entered Thailand through the Northeastern region (Isaan). People in this area share deep cultural and ethnic ties with Laos. Many historians believe that Papaya Salad originally came from Laos. Lao people call the salad ‘Tam Mak Hoong’, and Isaan people call it ‘Tam Bak Hung’.
The original Lao recipe includes fermented fish sauce (Pla Ra) and sometimes crab. This makes the taste strong, pungent, and savory. The Isaan version maintains this strong flavor. However, chefs in Central Thailand and for a global audience adapt the taste. They make it milder, sweeter, and less pungent. We call this popular version Som Tam Thai.
When you order papaya salad at the food street, the chef might ask you,
‘Tam Thai or Tam Lao?’
to find out which flavor profile you prefer!
The best part of this salad is the amazing sauce! Chefs create that fantastic flavor by mixing lime juice for a perfect sour tang, palm sugar for sweetness, and fish sauce to make it savory and salty. They adjust the fresh chili to give you the amount of heat. You can order ‘No Spicy’. People love the refreshing crunch from the raw papaya. It’s a must-try for any real Thai food adventure!
Fermented Fish Entrails Soup
– Southern –
Fermented Fish Entrails Soup is a famous Thai food of the southern region. It is a main dish for southern people. The unique flavor is intensely spicy and hot. There are two main varieties of this soup: with coconut milk and those without. The version without coconut milk is generally more popular.
In Thai, we call it ‘Kaeng Tai Pla’. ‘Tai’ means ‘Kidney’. ‘Pla’ means ‘Fish’
Fish kidney or fish belly that they use to cook this soup are a method of preserving food in the southern region. They use the internal organs of mackerel, snakehead fish, or catfish to ferment with salt until they become liquid and oily. This can be a material to make many types of food such as this soup.
Fermented Fish Entrails Soup has quite a strong flavor. It is not recommended to eat too much soup. You should eat with other side dishes, such as fresh vegetables. This helps reduce spiciness. Even though Fermented Fish Entrails Soup is a Southern dish, you can find it all over the country now! Just know that local chefs love to adapt the flavor, so it might taste a bit different depending on the region you’re in.
Nam Prik Long Ruea
– Central –
The Central Region is a wonderful lowland area with many rivers. So, it’s incredibly rich in rice, fish, and many kinds of food! Because of this abundance, the cuisine here is wonderfully diverse in flavor. Furthermore, people often adapt and change recipes based on outside influences. Definitely, we mostly enjoy eating it all with steamed rice.
Nam Prik Long Ruea consists of shrimp paste (Kapi), bird’s eye chili, spur chili, garlic, fish sauce, sugar, lime, pickled garlic, the yolks of salted eggs, crispy shredded catfish (Pla Duk Fu), and sweet caramelized pork.
‘Nam Prik’ means Chili Paste. ‘Long Ruea’ means ‘Get on the boat’.
Why does the chili paste get on the boat?
From the historical story, a princess wished to take a boat trip along the canals. The princess asked to find leftover dishes from the palace kitchen and prepare them for the journey. Chili paste is arranged with the mixture including steamed rice and fresh vegetables as a complete meal for the princess to eat on the boat. This inspired the name of this famous Thai food.
Famous dishes from four regions, the taste changes based on local ingredients, traditions, and culture. Every Thai food shows true attention to the culinary craft. Chefs put effort into everything, from choosing the ingredients to the final cooking step!
The world loves Thai food! It’s renowned for its amazing taste and many flavors. We hope you love it as much as we do and try some delicious Thai food as above dishes soon!