Thai cuisine — 16, Chili arrives

Thai cuisine sits at spice 92 in this atlas. Pad Thai and Tom yum show the range better than a single heat number. Pad Thai plus one regional plate — not only the export icon. The home pantry around Nam pla and the labour behind Tom yum rarely fit a takeaway box. Restaurant Thai cuisine is one register. Home pots and market stalls are others. Authenticity is a marketing word; technique is not.

ไทย is the local name used in this atlas beside Thai cuisine. Thai cuisine balances chili heat against lime, palm sugar and nam pla. Central curries (gaeng) sit beside Isan som tum and grilled gai yang, northern sai ua and a southern Muslim-Thai turmeric-and-chili belt. Home cooking is nam prik with vegetables and rice, not a seven-curry banquet. The tourist chili dare is a restaurant sport; families still cook to taste.

A national cuisine that is actually four, held together by rice and nam pla. Isan eats sticky rice, pla ra and papaya salad that can be punishing. The north prefers milder herbs and pork sausage. The south burns with turmeric and bird's eye chili. Bangkok is the blender: Chinese-Thai noodles, royal-ish banquets and the street density that tourists photograph.