Thailand Food & Dining

There are many Asian and European restaurants. Thai food is hot and spicy, but most tourist restaurants tone down the food for Western palates. Most Thai food is prepared with fresh ingredients and lemon grass and coriander are often added to enhance flavors. Rice is commonly eaten with most meals and generally the various dishes ordered are shared by all the diners. Excellent food can be found at the stalls of the many street vendors around the country. Popular fruits are papaya, jackfruit, mangosteens, rambutans, pomelos (similar to grapefruits) and, above all, durians, which farangs (foreigners) either love or hate. Owing to the strong smell of durians, the majority of hotels do not allow them onto the premises.
Things to know: Bars have counter or table service. There are no licensing laws.
National specialties: • Tom yam (a coconut-milk soup prepared with makroot leaves, ginger, lemon grass, prawns or chicken). • Gang pet (hot ’red’ curry with coconut milk, herbs, garlic, chillies, shrimp paste, coriander and seasoning) served with rice. • Pad Thai (stir-fried rice-noodles) served with shrimp or chicken garnished with peanuts. • Desserts include salim (sweet noodles in coconut milk). • Well worth trying is sticky rice and mangoes (rice cooked in coconut milk served with slices of mango). This is a favorite breakfast dish in the mango harvest season (March to May).
National drinks:
• Local whisky, Mekhong and rum SamSong are very popular. • Singha and Singha Gold are locally made beers which dominate the domestic market. • Coconut milk straight from the shell during the harvest season is particularly refreshing in the heat and humidity.
Legal drinking age: The post-coup government has proposed raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 20.
Tipping: Most hotels and restaurants will add 10% service charge and 7% government tax to the bill.
Nightlife Bangkok offers a wide range of entertainment venues, from nightclubs, pubs, bars, cinemas and restaurants (many of which are open air), to massage parlours, pool halls and cocktail lounges. The nightlife is concentrated in two districts of Bangkok - Patpong (between Silom and Surawong roads) and Soi Cowboy (Sukhumvit Road) and every night both areas are thronged with people. Bangkok’s sex industry is as blatant and booming as ever. Many venues are open all day and late into the night, although bars and clubs are supposed to close at 0200. Sometimes there is an admission fee but this usually includes one or two drinks. The dress code is very relaxed, although a few of the nightclubs do enforce smarter dress. There are no casinos in Thailand as gambling is illegal. Performances of traditional religious and court dances can be seen at the Thailand CulturalCenter and Patravadi Theater in Bangkok. Elsewhere on the mainland, nightlife takes the form of traditional dances. The islands are renowned for their nightlife, and attendance is almost exclusively by foreigners. The full moon parties are notorious and continue well into the following morning. Performances of the infamous katoeys (lady boys) are worth a visit, with the most famous at the Calypso Cabaret in the Asia Hotel in Bangkok.