Thai food is popular in many Western countries especially Europe, the United States, and Canada.

Serving
Instead of a single main course with side dishes found in Western cuisine, a Thai full meal typically consists of either a single dish or rice with many complementary dishes served concurrently.

Rice is a staple component of Thai cuisine, as it is of most Asian cuisines. The highly prized, sweet-smelling jasmine rice is indigenous to Thailand. Steamed rice is accompanied by highly aromatic curries, stir-fries and other dishes, incorporating sometimes large quantities of chillies, lime juice and lemon grass. Curries, stir-fries and others may be poured onto the rice creating a single dish called khao rad gang, a popular meal when time is limited. Sticky rice substitutes ordinary rice in Northern and Northeastern cuisine. Noodles are popular as well but usually come as a single dish, like the stir-fried Pad Thai or noodle soups.

There is kind of meal called nam prik which refers to a chile sauce or paste. It is prepared by crushing together various ingredients such as ginger, garlic, chilli, etc. by mortar and pestle according to the recipe. It may then served with vegetables such as cucumbers, cabbage and string beans. The vegetable may be dipped into the sauce and eaten with rice. Nam prik may also be used as a spread for toast or eaten alone with rice.

Thai food is generally eaten with a fork and a spoon. Chopsticks are used rarely, primarily for the consumption of noodle soops. The fork, held in the left hand, is used to shovel food into the spoon. However, it is often common practice for Thais and hill tribe peoples in the North and Northeast to eat sticky rice with their right hands by making it into balls that are dipped into side dishes and eaten. Muslims also frequently eat meals with only their right hands.

Ingredients
One of the important ingredients is nam pla, a very aromatic and strong tasting fish sauce. Many Thai dishes in the Central and Southern regions use a wide variety of leaves rarely found in the west, such as kaffir lime leaves. Usually fresh - kaffir lime leaves' characteristic flavour appears in nearly every Thai soup (e.g., the hot and sour Tom yum), stir-fry or curry from those areas. It is frequently combined with garlic, galangal, ginger and/or fingerroot, together with liberal amounts of chillies, blended together to make curry paste. Fresh Thai basil is needed for the authentic fragrance of certain dishes such as Green curry. Other typical ingredients include the small green Thai eggplants, tamarind, palm and coconut sugars, and coconut milk. As mentioned earlier certain dishes from the northern region of Thailand are known to use lime or lime juice.

Famous dishes
Many Thai dishes are familiar in the west. In many dishes below, different kinds of meat can be chosen as the ingredient, such as beef, chicken, pork, or seafood.

Individual dishes
Pad Thai (close up)Pad Thai - rice noodles pan fried with fish sauce, sugar, lime juice or tamarind pulp, chopped peanuts and egg combined with chicken, seafood, and tofu.
Rad na - noodles in gravy, with beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, or seafood. (Originally from China)
Khao Pad Nham - Fried rice with nham
Pad see ew - noodles pan fried with soysauce, with pork or chicken.
Pad kee mao - noodles pan fried with Thai basil
Khao kluk kapi - rice stir-fried with shrimp paste, served with sweeten pork and vegetables.
Khanom Cheen Nam Ya - round rice noodle in topped with soup containing fishmeat and fishball and vegetable.
Khao soi - crispy noodles in sweet chicken curry soup (Northern cuisine).

Central Thai Shared Dishes
Tom yam kung
Tod man pla krai with dipping sauceTom yam - hot & sour soup with meat. For shrimp soup it is called Tom yam goong or Tom yam kung, for seafood (typically shrimp, squid, fish) Tom yam talae, for chicken Tom yam gai.
Tom kha gai - hot sweet soup with chicken and coconut.
Satay - grilled meat, usually pork or chicken, served with peanut sauce (originally from Indonesia).
Red curry (Gaeng Phet = 'hot curry') - made with dried red chillies
Green curry (Gaeng khiew-waan) - sweet green curry, made with fresh green chillies and flavoured with cumin, with chicken or fishballs.
Massaman curry - yellow curry, usually with beef.
Pad prik - stir-fried with chilli, usually beef called Neua pad prik
Pad kaprao - stir-fried with basil, beef, pork or chicken.
Panang - dry curry with beef (Panang beef, chicken, or pork)
Tod man - fried fishcake made from knifefish (Tod man pla krai)or shrimp (Tod man gung)

Northeastern Shared Dishes
Som tam ,grated papaya salad, pounded with a mortar and pestle. There are two main variations: Som tam poo with crab, and Som tam Thai with peanuts.
Larb - sour salads containing meat and gravy.
Nam tok - sour salads containing meat and gravy, with rice roasted and ground into powder.
Yum - various sour salad, such as with glass noodles, peanuts, and seafood (Yum Wun Sen).
Tom saab - Northeastern-styled hot & sour soup
Gai yang - marinated and grilled chicken
Sticky rice

Miscellaneous
Throughout the country there are many interpretations and variations on these common dishes. Other dishes from the northern part of Thailand include unique sauces, such as nam prik num , and exotic foods, such as raw beef, fermented fish paste, and deep fried larvae (also enjoyed in the Northeast). The culinary creativity even extends to naming: one tasty larva translates as "freight train" and the smallest, hottest chillies are known as phrik khii nuu, literally "mouse shit chillies".