What if you decide to eat Thai for a change? This would be an opportunity to discover, or rediscover, the virtues of a thousand-year-old cuisine... What are the benefits of Thai cuisine? Our dietician Alexandra Murcier took advantage of her trip to Thailand to discover the culinary habits of this country and reveal the 5 health secrets of this gourmet and healthy cuisine. To your chopsticks, ready?! Go away! Go away!

The 5 benefits of Thai food

1) Thai cuisine is rich in fruits and vegetables

Thai cuisine honours fruits and vegetables. Mixed dishes, salads and soups combine exotic vegetables and fruits, helping us to replenish our diet with vitamins, antioxidants and fibre.

2) It honours spices

Thai cuisine uses a lot of spices and condiments that are excellent for health. Here are some examples of the most essential spices and condiments in Thai cuisine:

First of all, galanga, a spice renowned for its pronounced taste (even more pronounced than ginger;

There are also a lot of aromatic herbs in Thai dishes:

coriander, which has the advantage of being rich in antioxidants and vitamin K and, like ginger, it facilitates digestion.

Thai basil (more pronounced than ours in terms of taste);

lemongrass, with digestive properties, an excellent detoxifier, and soothing.

Onion, etc.

Peppers are the main ingredient of curry paste, which is very common in Thai cuisine. They are very rich in antioxidants (capsaicin with anti-cancer properties and alphatocopherol, which is a form of vitamin E with anti-aging properties). Pepper is also a source of vitamin C.

3) It is perfectly well balanced

A typical Thai meal has the advantage of being balanced. Most dishes are made up of a source of starchy foods (rice or noodles), vegetables and a source of protein. Many exotic fruits allow to finish the meal with a sweet and vitaminized flavor: dragon fruit, mango, pineapple, carambola....

4) It is light and satiating

Soups and broths are very common in Asia and have the advantage of being satiating with few calories. They contribute to good hydration, providing vitamins and minerals. If you are watching your weight, don't hesitate, a Thai soup will make a great dinner!

5) It allows us to discover exotic fruits that are a source of many benefits

Thai cuisine uses a lot of exotic fruits that are known to contain a lot of treasures. Examples :

Mango is rich in fibre, antioxidants and carotenoids that protect the skin from the sun's rays:

The fruit of the dragon (the pitaya of its real name), in addition to being pretty and original, is an excellent source of vitamin A, essential for vision. It also contains vitamin C, antioxidants and its edible seeds contain monounsaturated fatty acids and omega 3.

Finally, carambola is energetic thanks to its high content of vitamin C, it also provides vitamin B5 and magnesium.

So, what are you waiting for to eat Thai?

Discover the true Thai flavours prepared by talented chefs who respect tradition. The best Thai restaurant Manola Brussels invites you to discover and share real Thai food.  

Since the boom in tourism in Thailand in the 1980s, Thai cuisine has become one of the leading schools in the world of culinary arts. It is one of the 5 most popular types of food in the world, the others being Indian, Chinese, French and Italian. When you visit Thailand, although it is possible to taste Western dishes, why bother? You are in the home of one of the best cooking schools in the world. Relax and enjoy it.

History and Origins

Spicy Thai cuisine comes from the people who emigrated from the southern provinces of China to modern Thailand centuries ago. Historically, Thai cuisine has had many Sichuan influences, although over the centuries, many other influences have affected Thai cuisine. In the more distant past, a Buddhist monk brought an Indian touch, and the Muslim states of the south influenced the cuisine in southern Thailand. Much later, Thai cuisine was influenced by European cuisine after contact with Portuguese missionaries and Dutch traders. During this period, there were even Japanese influences. Today, Thai cuisine is its own, with a unique blend of 5 flavours: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and spicy.

Regional differences
Thailand is a large country with a diversified geography and which, over the years, has led to the emergence of regional differences in its cooking style. There are currently 4 distinct cooking styles in Thailand.
Thai cuisine

North
Cooking in northern Thailand is generally milder than in the rest of the country, sticky rice is preferred, it is traditionally kneaded into small balls with the fingers. Neighbouring Burma has a strong influence on popular dishes such as Kaeng Hang Le, a pork curry with ginger, turmeric and tamarind.

Northeast
Food in the northeast is influenced by Laos; Generally speaking, the food is very spicy and sticky sticky rice is the staple food for northeast dishes. Although meat dishes are abundant, meat was traditionally scarce in villages and the main source of protein was shrimp and freshwater fish. These were often fermented to increase their shelf life.

Central office
The central region offers a cuisine halfway between north and south, although jasmine flavoured rice is preferred to the sticky type. What makes the cuisine of the central region so special is that it houses a royal cuisine. This type of cuisine, which originated in the royal palace, involves much more elaborate meals, combined with complex techniques. It's more of an art form than just a regular cuisine.

From the south
The cuisine of southern Thailand is the most popular outside Thailand, as it is the country's main tourist region. In the southern cuisine, coconut milk is much more used in many dishes. Coconut replaces ghee for frying and dishes contain a lot of seafood. Southern aperitifs use a lot of cashew nuts from local plantations and coconut meat as standard condiment.

Discover the true Thai flavours prepared by talented chefs who respect tradition. The best Thai restaurant Manola Brussels invites you to discover and share real Thai food.  

Tom Yam is one of the most popular dishes in Thailand, a flavorful firework display, here is the recipe for this lemongrass and shrimp soup, Tom Yam Kung.

As with many Thai dishes, the name of the recipe can be written in different ways and is best known by its English versions:

Tom Yam Kung or Tom-Yum-Goong which is also the title of a Thai boxing film (L'honneur du Dragon (Tom-Yum-Goong), but in French it is rather: Tom Yam Koung.

And in Thai: ต้มยำ กุ้ง.

Executive Summary
Description of the Lemongrass and Shrimp Soup
Tom Yam Kung recipe
Tom Yam Kung's recipe in video

Description of the Lemongrass and Shrimp Soup
The word "Tom" refers to boiling, to broths, "Yam" refers to a kind of spicy and sour Thai salad.

Tom Yam is characterized by its distinct sour and spicy taste, with aromatic plants, such as lemongrass, combava leaves (often mistakenly called bergamot), galanga root, generously used in the broth.

Kung means shrimp but you can also make Tom Yam with chicken (kai) or tofu (tao hou).

In the restaurant it will become:
Tom yam kai: Lemongrass and chicken soup
Tom Yam tao hou: Lemongrass and tofu soup

Discover the true Thai flavours prepared by talented chefs who respect tradition. The best Thai restaurant Manola Brussels invites you to discover and share real Thai food.  

THAI CUISINE: HISTORY AND INFLUENCES

Thai people are direct descendants of the Chinese of present-day Yunnan, and there are many similarities between Thai and Chinese cuisine.

There are also similarities with Indian cuisine, particularly in the use of curry (spice mixes), often spiced, which were used daily during the Khmer occupation, even after the transition from the Hindu religion to the Buddhist religion as an official religion.

Since the country's opening to foreign trade, the use of certain products, particularly Portuguese, has been normalized, as has the introduction of Muslim-influenced dishes, since it should not be forgotten that the whole of southern Thailand has historical roots with the Muslim peoples of Malaysia and Indonesia.

Apart from the ingredients, the use of a fork and a spoon (against chopsticks in most of its neighbours) once again shows the particularity of Thai cuisine. This cultural exception would come from the time of the rapprochement between the Kingdom of Siam and the France of Louis XIV.

Currently, Thai cuisine is therefore a true blend of flavours and textures, which makes it unique and has made it an international reference. And the best part is that you can enjoy it everywhere, from the countless street food stands everywhere and in every market in Thailand, to the most modern and luxurious restaurants in the country.

Street Food is an integral part of our Thai DNA.

In Bangkok, you can eat almost 24 hours a day! Street Food stands are as easy to find in the streets as they are in night markets. And the price? Between 40 and 80 baht (between 1 and 2 EUR)! Really not much for tasty dishes like the must-have PAD THAI (those fried noodles that everyone knows), SATAY KAI (those little grilled chicken skewers and their peanut sauce), SOM TAM (spicy green papaya salad) or noodle soups of all kinds,... and for sweet little desires: a wide selection of ready-to-eat fresh cut fruit or other typical desserts such as banana pancakes to name just one.

Lovers of authentic Thai cuisine should not miss this experience during their trip!

Discover the true Thai flavours prepared by talented chefs who respect tradition. The best Thai restaurant Manola Brussels invites you to discover and share real Thai food.