HOW TO: Interpret a Thai Menu - Rachel Cooks Thai (2024)

Here's a handy guide to some common Thai culinary words to help you interpret a Thai menu quickly and easily.

My first few times eating at Thai restaurants left me a little gun shy. After ordering a refreshingly sweet Thai iced tea, I quickly became overwhelmed by the vast array of unrecognizable Thai dishes on the menu. When the waiter came, I hastily ordered pad Thai again, mostly because it's delicious, but also because I just wasn't sure what the other options really were.

Does this sound familiar to you too? If so, you're definitely not alone. A Thai menu can include impressively long lists of stir fries, noodles, and curries with descriptions that can leave you wondering what they actually taste like.

It wasn't until I met my Thai husband that I ventured away from pad Thai to explore the wonderfully vast world of Thai food. And after immersing myself in this world, I realized that you don't have to be fluent in Thai to enjoy all that Thai restaurants have to offer. Instead, knowledge of a few key Thai words can go a long way towards helping you to interpret a Thai menu.

How to Interpret a Thai Menu

The infographic below introduces 18 of these important Thai culinary words, broken down into three categories: cooking techniques, key ingredients, and protein sources. Many Thai dishes are named descriptively, with a cooking technique combined with a protein source and/or main ingredient. So with these few words, you should be able to recognize a great many items on a Thai menu, get an idea of what the dish may taste like, and decide if you want to give it a try.

Cooking Techniques:

PAD (P̄hạd): "Pad" means to stir fry and is a very common Thai cooking technique. The most famous example is, of course, pad Thai which literally translates to Thai stir fry. Other common stir fried dishes are pad see ew (stir fried noodles with soy sauce), khao pad (stir fried rice AKA fried rice), and pad pak (stir fried vegetables).

TOM (T̂m): "Tom" means to boil and generally refers to soups. The delicious Thai coconut milk soup known as tom kha gai is simply a combination of "tom" with two ingredients which are central to the flavor of this soup: "kha" meaning galangal, and "gai", meaning chicken. “Gang” is a related word that denotes a curry, which is soup-like in many respects. Gang karee (yellow curry), gang dang (red curry), and gang keow wan (green curry) are some of the most common curries you're likely to encounter at western Thai restaurants.

PING (P̄hing): "Ping" refers to grilling and usually connotes grilled foods on a stick or skewer, such as moo ping (grilled pork skewers) or gluay ping (grilled bananas). Yang is a related word which refers to rotisserie-style grilling. The Thai barbeque chicken known as gai yang, typically served with sticky rice and som tam, is a prime example of the latter.

TAM (Tảm): "Tam" means to pound and refers to anything that is pounded together with a mortar and pestle. Som tam, made by pounding green papaya shreds with green beans, tomato, chilis, lime juice, and fish sauce, is the most famous example of this cooking technique.

YUM (Yảm):The Thai word for mixing ingredients together is “yum”. It is mainly used to refer to salads, whose ingredients are tossed together with a spicy, sour, and salty dressing before serving. Thai salads such as yum neua (beef salad) and yum woonsen (bean thread noodle salad) feature these classic yum flavors. Tom yum goong (hot and sour shrimp soup) also employs "yum" to bring to mind the spicy, sour, and salty flavors present in a typical Thai dressing.

TOD (Thxd): Deep frying or “tod” is another common cooking technique in Thai cuisine, employed in dishes such as gai tod (fried chicken), tod mun pla (fried fish cakes) and tau hu tod (fried tofu) served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce topped with peanuts.

Key Ingredients:

KHAO (K̄ĥāw): Rice, which is known as “khao” in Thai, forms the foundation of Thai cuisine. In a testament to how important this grain is, the Thai phrase for eating is “keen khao”, which literally translates to “eat rice”, as the majority of Thai dishes are eaten with rice. Steamed jasmine rice is the staple grain of central Thai dishes while sticky rice is eaten with many Northern Thai dishes.

GUAY TEOW (Ǩwyteī̌yw): "Guay teow" is the Thai word for noodles. It is often used when referring to Thai noodle soups, such as guay teow moo (pork noodle soup). Although the majority of Thai dishes are eaten with a fork and spoon, noodle soups are eaten with chopsticks and a spoon for the broth.

PAK (P̄hạk): Vegetables are known as “pak” in Thai and their leaves are known as “bai”. Some common vegetables used in Thai cooking including Chinese broccoli known as “kana”, water spinach known as “pak boong”, and mushrooms known as “hed”. In addition, an impressive variety of fresh herbs are used in Thai cuisine. The three with the most characteristic Thai flavors are lemongrass which is known as “tachrai”, galangal which is known as “kha”, and kaffir lime leaves known as “bai magrud”. Holy basil known as "bai gaprow" is the basis of the famous pad gaprow or Thai stir fry with holy basil.

Protein Sources:

NUEA (Neụ̄̂x): Thai dishes are often offered with your choice of meat, so knowing the names of these protein sources can be helpful in customizing your dish. Your poultry choices are "gai" (chicken) and "ped" (duck). Pork is paradoxically known as "moo" while beef is known as "nuea". Now you just have to decide whether you want larb gai, larb moo, or larb ped!

AHAN TALAY (Xāh̄ār thale): Seafood is also an important part of Thai cuisine and is known as “ahan talay”. “Pla” refers to fish, which can be found roasted whole in the dish known as pla pao. Shrimp are known as “goong”, most famously featured in tom yum goong. Crab are known as “boo”, such as in hubby's favorite khao pad boo (crab fried rice), and clams are known as "hoi", such as in another favorite, hoi pad nam prik pao(clams stir fried with roasted chili paste).

KAI (K̄hị̀):And last but not least, "kai" is the Thai word for eggs. Eggs are ubiquitous in Thai cuisine, whether fried on their own as kai jeow, or as a crucial ingredient in dishes such as Thaifried rice, crab curry stir fry, and bitter melon with eggs.

For Bonus Points:

SAUCES: There are quite a few different sauces that help to season Thai dishes. In Thai, “nam” is water and refers to any liquid, sauce, or juice. Nam pla (fish sauce), nam man hoi (oyster sauce), and see ew (soy sauce) are the most common seasoning sauces you'll encounter in Thai cooking.

SPICES: The fiery spice of many Thai dishes comes from peppers, known as “prik” in Thai. “Phet”is the Thai word for spicy. When ordering at a Thai restaurant, you can request different levels of heat by modifying the word “phet” with the words “mak”, meaning very, “nit noi”, meaning little, or “mai”, meaning no or not. You can ask for your food to be very spicy by saying “phet mak”, a little bit spicy by saying “phet nit noi”, or not spicy at all by saying “mai phet”.

So there you have it. Eighteen key Thai culinary words that will make it much easier to interpret the menu the next time you visit your local Thai restaurant. Once you can understand more of the menu, it’s much easier to feel confident enough to venture out and try something new. And who knows? It might end up being your new favorite Thai dish!