Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
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Quick answers
What is Thai cuisine?
Thai cuisine (ไทย) fused Tai, Chinese, Mon and Indian techniques with New World chili. Nam pla and nam prik are older than the tourist pad Thai of the 20th century.
Is it always spicy?
Thai cuisine sits at spice 92 in this atlas. Pad Thai and Tom yum show the range better than a single heat number.
What should a first meal include?
Pad Thai plus one regional plate — not only the export icon.
What is Nam pla?
Thai fish sauce.
How do people eat at home?
Bangkok street food — boat noodles, boat noodles, boat noodles, som tum carts, late-night rice porridge — is not a sideshow. Pad Thai is a 20th-century national-noodle project, not an ancient royal plate.
What travels poorly?
The home pantry around Nam pla and the labour behind Tom yum rarely fit a takeaway box.
Thai cuisine changes by valley, coast and capital. Yaowarat, Bangkok is one node, not the whole map.
The meters treat heat, ferment, street density and sharing as the axes that actually organise meals.
Systems
Central / Bangkok
Coconut curries, Chinese-Thai noodles, royal-ish banquets and extreme street density.
Isan
Sticky rice, pla ra, som tum, grilled chicken.
North
Milder herbs, sai ua, khao soi.
South
Turmeric, bird chili, Muslim-Thai curries.
Royal remnant
Palace-derived dishes still sold as "authentic Thai".
Diaspora high streets
The sweet green-curry belt in English-speaking cities.
Flavour meters
Cities & regions
Yaowarat, Bangkok
Chinese-Thai night eating.
Chatuchak / Or Tor Kor
Market density and produce prestige.
Chiang Mai gates
Khao soi and northern sausage.
Khon Kaen / Isan towns
Som tum and gai yang without tourist sugar.
Phuket old town
Southern Muslim-Thai tables.
Materials
Nam pla and kapi
The salt and shrimp-paste funk.
Bird's eye chili
The default heat.
Jasmine and sticky rice
Two starches, two regions.
Lime leaf and galangal
The aromatics that bottled "Thai sauce" fakes.
Regional pride in this cuisine is argued through Pad Thai and Tom yum more than through a single official recipe.
Keep exploring
More in East Asia
Korean cuisine
Fermented heat and shared grills: kimchi, gochujang and banchan from the Korean Peninsula.
Overall 76 🍣Japanese cuisine
Dashi, rice and seasonal restraint: washoku from sushi counters to home miso soup.
Overall 72 🥟Chinese cuisine
Eight great traditions, one wok logic: soy, rice, wheat and the regional map behind "Chinese food".
Overall 80 🍲Vietnamese cuisine
Herbs, nuoc mam and a French-colonial overlay: pho, banh mi and the regional split from Hanoi to the Mekong.
Overall 68