A Brief History of Thai Food

Thai cuisine is unique among all foods in Southeast Asia and is by far the best known. It is different from Chinese and Indian dishes influenced neighbors and is easily identifiable because it includes a fantastic mixture of all five taste groups: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and spicy. Over the years Thailand has used foreign influences and combined them to make a world-class cuisine that is unique Thai.


Thailand, at the time it was known as Siam, once the crossroads of east-west trade and transport routes, which means that their culture, religion and cuisine has been influenced by both Persian elements and Arab. In the recent past, other foreign income were mixed with traditional Thai dishes and resulted in a flavor that is unique to this country.

People "Tai" were the first settlers came from Thailand and southwestern valleys of the mountainous region of China (now known as Yunnan) somewhere between the sixth and thirteenth centuries. They migrated to what we now call northern Thailand, Laos, northern Vietnam and northern Myanmar. In addition to migration, foreign trade also bought a lot of influence - most significantly the Portuguese, who brought a lot of sweet flavors and even red peppers, and Buddhist monks curry from India. Traces of Indian influence can still be seen today in dishes such as Massaman curry and yellow curry.

These days Thai cuisine continues to evolve, grow and transform, taking new influences and merging with the old and Thai food is now enjoyed in restaurants worldwide. As appreciation for this unique cuisine continues to grow, the food is a global exploration during cooking techniques, ingredients and styles. Finally, with the Internet and the global dissemination of information and the modern mass tourism, the influence of foreign food in Thai cuisine has never been greater.