Lam Thai Restaurant
The Spirit of Thailand

WELCOME TO ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREAT CUISINES

Thai cooking is now internationally popular and enjoys a well-deserved place in global culinary culture. A marriage of centuries-old Eastern and Western influences and a huge range of flavours make this special style of Asian cooking unique.

Thai cuisine has a long and colourful history dating far back to the days of the ancient Siamese whose characteristic waterborne lifestyle inspired the use of a host of aquatic plants and animals as ingredients.  Traditional cooking methods were stewing or steaming, baking or grilling, though stir-frying later became popular thanks to the influence of the Chinese.  Thais are never rigid in their approach to food and have happily adopted the best elements of other cuisines – the oriental bite of the Szechuan… the tropical flavours of Malaysia… the aromatic spices of Arabia.  Over the years, many of these foreign cooking methods and ingredients have been given a ‘Siamese’ twist: the ghee of the Indian kitchen replaced by coconut oil, or fresh lemon grass and galangal substituted for more fiery spices.

The essence of a Thai meal is harmony – of taste and colour and texture – with every dish prepared with care to satisfy not just the palate but also the nose and the eye.  Instead of a series of separate courses, a variety of different dishes are served together, each complementing the others to create a perfect combination of flavours.  In Thailand  Korng-wahng or ‘Titbits’ are served as snacks but here in the restaurant we serve a selection of them as a starter.  There is no soup course but Tohm Yaam (soup) may form part of the main meal, along with Gaeng (curry), Yaam (fresh vegetables), Phad (a fried dish) and Naam Prig (a spicy dipping sauce).  The centrepiece of the table is always a large container of rice (usually polished white rice as the Thais regard untreated rice as inferior).  The rice is steamed to a light and fluffy texture without seasoning, which creates a better accompaniment for the individual flavours of the surrounding dishes.

Ideally, eating Thai food is a communal affair: the greater the number of diners, the greater the number of dishes to be served.  Usually, two diners will order three dishes as well as their own individual plates of rice, three diners four dishes, and so forth.  Guests do not scoop portions on to their plates as those in the West might do, but share from a common dish, taking only enough for a bite or two at a time.  A spoon is used to convey food to the mouth and a fork to help food on to the spoon.  Knives are not necessary because meat is served in bite-sized slices, large cuts of meat being unacceptable in a largely Buddhist culture.  Chopsticks are reserved for a few noodle dishes but are not required in our restaurant.  Sticky rice may be eaten with your fingers but it is considered impolite to stuff your mouth too full or scrape your plate too vigorously!

Thailand, although neither a large nor a very prosperous country, is fortunate in the rich harvests yielded by both its land and sea.  The staple, rice, is grown in abundance, as are numerous varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices. Some of the most characteristic ingredients in the Thai kitchen are sweet basil, galangal and coriander, the root and the leaves of which both form an integral part of many dishes. Naam pla (or fish sauce), with its distinctive salty taste, is frequently used as a flavour enhancer for other ingredients.  Chillies, which were introduced from South America by Portuguese missionaries in the 1600s, are used ‘as you like it’; the essence of Thai food and its blend of spicy, salty, sweet and sour is harmony rather than heat.

The people of Thailand today have succeeded in combining the best of the modern world with the ancient rituals of old Siam.  Their cuisine too is a unique mixture of flavours and traditions allowing us to appreciate both individual tastes and subtle combinations of foods.

Reading the menu in a Thai restaurant can be confusing as English translations of Thai words can be spelt in a variety of ways.  Even Tohm Yaam Goong, Thailand’s best known soup, has as many spellings as there are recipes to make it. Most of these spellings are attempts to reproduce sounds that do not exist in the English language.

We prefer not to use English translations for Thai food. To do justice to these exotic dishes we like to use the original Thai words and we have produced a guide of helpful consonant and vowel sounds at the back of this menu, which will make it a little easier for you to do the same and order your meal in its own language.

Thai is a tonal language: the meaning of a particular syllable is determined by the pitch at which it is pronounced.  For example, Kaow means ‘news’ when pronounced with a low tone, ‘white’ with a rising tone and ‘rice’ with a falling tone. There is no one way of translating the Thai language, but we have done our best to provide phonetic versions throughout our menu so that you can order your food in Thai with confidence.

We hope you enjoy your Lam Thai experience...