Do Thai People Enjoy the Extremely Spicy Thai Food?

Table of Contents

• Thai Food is so Spicy!
• Thai Fresh Chilli Dishes and Salads
• Thai Curry Dishes
• So, Do Thai People like the Extreme Spicy?

If you’ve ever tried some Thai dishes like Tom Yam Kung (ต้มยำกุ้ง – Tom Yum Prawns), or Som Tam – (ส้มตำ) (Papaya Salad). You might be taken a back by how spicy they are. If so you might be wondering if Thai People Enjoy the Extremely Spicy Thai Food?

The answer might surprise you. And hopefully bring you closer to Thai people and Thai Culture.

Thai Food is so Spicy!

Yes, and No. Actually Thai food has a very unique spice to it. It’s not peppery like European Spice, and it’s not powered (unless it’s a curry) like Indian Spice. And it’s not thickly laced like Jamaican Dishes.

With most traditionally Thai dishes, the spice come from fresh chillies. The flavour of the spice comes out through frying, or boiling the chillies in soups. You’ll find these kind of spice with dishes such as Leng Saap (เล้งแซ่บ), Phat kaphrao (ผัดกะเพรา).

Because of this way of cooking, the full flavour of the chillies is burned into the ingredients. You’ll get a strong chilli flavour, that’s light but very sharp. This is the signature of Thai Spice. Not heavy but full of flavour.

Thai Fresh Chilli Dishes and Salads

For dishes such as Som Tam – (ส้มตำ) (Papaya Salad), Yam Woon Sen (ยำวุ้นเส้น). You can ask for different Spicy levels (read more about that in our blog, on asking for different spice levels). These salads are famous, but there are many variations of these salads. And there are many more Thai fresh salads that you can try outside of these also.

The chilli that you will get from these dishes are fresh, because they are freshly picked chillies being used. They are usually mixed with lime juice, hot noodles/meats, fish sauce. These mixing ingredients serve to “bring out the flavour,” of the chillies so that the whole dish and all ingredients in it gets infused with spices.

The result is an extremely flavourful dish where all the flavours, including spice, is captured in every ingredient.

Again you get a very light, and very sharp spice with these salads.

Thai Curry Dishes

One last category we should mention is the Thai Curries.

Thai curries, actually take a lot from the Indian and Middle Regions influence. Which is not surprising, as Thailand has always mixed, traded, been influenced by those regions throughout history.

Thai curry dishes such as Massaman Curry (แกงมัสมั่น – kaeng matsaman), Yellow Curry (แกงกะหรี่ – Kaeng Kari). Their spice flavours is achieved similar, to Indian/Middle Eastern curries. It uses pre-prepared mix chilli powders, where the chillies have been dried out and powdered.

Because of this, and the thicker soup base, you’ll get the same kind of results as the curries from their regions of origin.

You’ll get a less spicy, less sharp, but a fuller, heavier dish. Especially where coconut milk, or potatoes are involved.

So, Do Thai People like the Extreme Spicy?

Yes. BUT, as we have shown, there are many varieties of spice in Thai food.

From fresh spice, to dried out chillies, to soups and salads, there are countless ways that Thai People infuse chillies into their food.

You can also choose what levels of spice you want to have.

The big tip is to try a few different Thai dishes. You’ll soon find that you can choose the type and level of spice. And there’s surely something that will suit anyone, in their search for a spice that is for them in Thailand.