How to Eat Thai Food CORRECTLY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 พ.ค. 2024
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When I see people eating Thai food, 99% of the time, they're not doing it correctly. So let's talk about it! What utensils to use, and more importantly what NOT to use! Chopsticks? Hands? Fork? Plus some common dining etiquette so you can start eating Thai food like a local!
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Chinese Broccoli Stir Fry: hot-thai-kitchen.com/gai-lan-...
Steamed Fish in Ginger Soy Sauce: hot-thai-kitchen.com/fish-wit...
Red Curry with Shrimp and Pineapple: hot-thai-kitchen.com/pineappl... (I subbed eggplant)
Similar recipe for the soup, but i used tofu instead of glass noodles: hot-thai-kitchen.com/pork-and...
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MY COOKBOOKS: hot-thai-kitchen.com/htk-cook...
00:00 Introduction
00:44 What utensils to use and how
02:35 Why fork and spoon?
04:33 How to Tackle a Typical Thai Meal + Etiquette
09:07 What about Chopsticks?
10:37 Do Thai People Eat with Hands
11:05 What about dinner knives?
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About Pai:
Pailin “Pai” Chongchitnant is the author of the Hot Thai Kitchen cookbook, co-host of a Canadian TV series One World Kitchen on Gusto TV, and creator and host of the TH-cam channel Pailin's Kitchen.
Pai was born and raised in southern Thailand where she spent much of her "playtime" in the kitchen. She traveled to Canada to study Nutritional Sciences at the University of British Columbia, and was later trained as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in San Francisco.
After working in both Western and Thai professional kitchens, she decided that her passion really lies in educating and empowering others to cook at home via TH-cam videos, her cookbook, and cooking classes. She currently lives in Vancouver, and goes to Thailand every year to visit her family. Visit her at hot-thai-kitchen.com - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
I'm Thai-American, and I've waited for this public-service announcement my entire life. 🙏🙏🙏
Me, too! Finally! I’ve been validated 😂
What a great 101 on how to eat Thai food!
Now people need to be taught how to properly pronounce Sriracha, Pad Thai and Tuk Tuk among other words
I am not Thai but I always facepalm when I see some "culturally educated" people asking for chopsticks in Thai restaurants.
As much as I try, my oldest son (17 years) is set in his way and insists on stabbing a huge chunk of food, bringing it to his mouth, and then biting a piece off of it. I cry inside as I watch food break apart and fall around him.
I really wish more people did vids like this on _how_ to eat their traditional food. As this video shows, it can make a big difference to how easily and enjoyably you can eat it.
Yes, there still so many Westerners think that all Asians are same ethnically & culturally, whereas the Asians are one of the most diversed groups in the world.
Needs to be on a poster.
As a German-Australian I’m so glad you made this video because I’m having a damn hard time explaining to my parents why fork & spoon is the best combo for a lot of Asian foods but most partiularly Thai. It’s so convenient and Thai food is so great when you compose your bite in an optimal way. Does drive me nuts that so many people think all south East Asian food is eaten with chopsticks. And now I’m super hungry for kana moo krob.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
in all fairness until like 15 years ago or so most "Thai" places in the US did give you chop sticks, and and the closest to authentic Thai food they served was comically spicy tom yum soup that was more of a "can you handle it" gimmick then anything else. Now that we have more and more places serving real Thai food I think people are catching onto this. But this video was a great intro to it!
It depends on the Asian cuisine, how things are cut, the format of the meal, and even the dishes they are served in.
Why does the shape of your dish matter? Well, that is an important and often overlooked dividing line. You are correct that, when eating long grained rice on a flat plate, fork and spoon is the best combination. However, that is not how rice is served in many East Asian countries. China, Japan, and Korea all serve it in either a small steep walled bowl or in a form that can be easily picked up with chopsticks. The small bowl is a utensil in itself and its steep walls replace the fork in usage. By picking the bowl up, you can eat rice with only chopsticks like they do in China and Japan. With the bowl on the table, you can eat it with a spoon as they do in Korea. ["Why would you eat rice with chopsticks?" vs "Why would you eat rice on a flat plate?"]
@@hypothalapotamus5293 the type of rice eating in Korea and Japan is a lot different from Thailand as well, Hoshi Hikari rice is a lot stickier than Thai Jasmin rice so it stick together better and actually quite easy to eat using chopstick.
great, now you mentioned kana moo krob, now i'm hungry too, jeez XD
Bravo! Nothing pains me more than watching someone eating a rice dish with a fork or chopsticks. I recall asking for a spoon at a Thai restaurant in Seattle and the server who was half Thai like myself, smiled and gave me a thumbs up.
I guess the eastside is better. I always have had both.
You use bowl you can use chopstick. Seriously, how do you think Chinese, Korean Vietnamese and Japanese use chopstick with rice? Right tool for the work and you get the job done.
@@zhen86 They use chopstick because they use stickier rice in a bowl. There's a reason why Middle eastern, Indian, and most south east asian don't use chopstick because not all rice is sticky and eaten in a bowl. I use chopstick when I eat in a Japanese restaurant which serve japanese rice, but no way I'll use chopstick with Basmati or Jasmine rice in Indian, Indonesian, Malay, Middle eastern restaurant.
@@syafiqaszamin6411 try eating any rice on plate with chopsticks you get the same results. Indians and Malay prefer using hands and not even spoon. Do you know that many places import jasmine rice or Thai rice including Singapore where Chinese’s is the main race? Beside, any non- Sino influenced culture don’t use chopsticks as it was never introduced to them. There is a word called 粒粒分明which means the rice is not stick together and you can see every grain of rice.Chinese eating rice with chopsticks has nothing to do with the rice is sticky or not.
I rarely see videos that actually break down how you eat food and not just how to make it. This is really enlightening!!
Agree!!
Ya but how do I know she knows what she is talking about? She got the part about how westerners hold their forks all wrong. Like 1 in 100 people hold their fork upside down in the west.
100% applies to Filipino food as well. It's funny how people would use fork to eat jasmine rice when there is a spoon that makes it so much easier.. Love the "Rice is not a Side Dish" #facts
Im from Europe, with a pinay wife. (4-th wife, 2-nd pinay) Even if, something is still not clear for me. If we (european) eat with a spoon we use our lipps to take the food into our mouth, while the asians, (thai and pinoy both) they use their teeth.
But why?
And finding out there are no knives in most food places in Philippines because everyone uses spoon instead of a knife lol.. amazing.
@@thaifold I'm pinoy, I notice that also. and I use my lips to slide food from the utensil. if you ask me it depends on the size of the mouth, most of those who use their dentures have wider mouths.
Came here to say the same thing. How is using a spoon to scoop up food even a question? If made to choose between a spoon and a fork, the spoon wins. It can be used for soup, scooping up food and sauces, cutting up food, then used for dessert. Duh. "Compose the perfect bite" is the subo. This is the video that had to be made. Just like the Godfather Trilogy except with food.
Yep. If I’m not eating with my hands I’m eating it with a spoon, lol.
As a Filipina in the diaspora, I beyond appreciate this PSA. Spoon & Fork forever. ❤️
As Indonesian, We use spoon and Fork in it. But, I know a lot of people, including westerners think that Indonesians have food with bare hands.
We occasionally use bare hands and I know many use bare hands because they don't have access of having spoon and fork. Well, I encourage you to use bare hands when the food are something dry and even curry, such as We have Rendang, Gulai, and so on topping to the rice. But, I don't recommend using bare hands when it's brothy and soupy. For example: Soto, Sayur Bayam (Spinach soup), and so on.
That's my explanation......
This really applies to many South Eat Asian meals. Thanks for the PSA. Sometimes I see tourists eating and I feel bad for them, watching them struggle… but they look so sure of themselves that “this is the way”.
Same with noodles in Italian restaurant. Generally people don't know how to do the spoon-and-fork technique for pasta thus not ordering amazing pasta dishes. I learned to do that from Italian friends, was also quite awkward with noodles before that, though ate noodles my entire life, but not in public 🤪 but was surprised how actually clean and easy it is when you know how to.
Yeah, the Chinese arrived in the US in greater quantities and they are really the only Asians that use chopsticks so Americans got the impression all Asians use them which is not true.
@@growpuravida I just use a fork on the plate. No need to use a spoon. Also may pastas are best using a fork only, eg. rigatoni. Any proper pasta is briefly simmered in the sauce and covered already. The Olive Garden generation has been deceived.
@@toriless never been to Olive Garden. Had lots of Italian friends living in New York, some of them owned Italian restaurants.
After I lived in Thailand, I learned Thai etiquette and realized how much more efficient the fork and spoon method you mentioned is. So I have been eating that way since (over 40 years now). I’m sometimes called out for eating this way, but I don’t care, because it is much more graceful to me
I think its an American thing to eat only with a fork. I've never seen anyone in Europe eat with just a fork.
@@Matty-sz5mz what do you mean, why? genuinely curious I don't know much about thai etiquette to be honest
@@Matty-sz5mz what's idiotic is eating rice with fork. It's just dumb.
@@kuakulsommai4798 when you eat a piece of meat or fish in a Western restaurant and rice is just a side dish, you will HAVE to eat rice with a fork... no one will slice a steak for you, you have to do the job, thus the fork and knife. Whatever is considered the main item of the meal, would call for the tools. Each tradition has its own, adjusted to the ways people serve and consume food. No need to be offensive.
The European fork method works best for cutting items, like a steak.
I'm Cambodian and also grew up in a household with no knives at the table. I've had so many people give me odd looks for trying to cut everything with a fork and spoon lol this video makes me feel validated 😊
My partner is Samoan and I am cambodian. He found it so odd I used a spoon and fork. And I was like it makes eating meals sooooo much easier and it's quite effective and it makes sense. Now he always eats with a spoon fork or chopsticks.
In the west we mostly use knives for cutting Meats and stuff. I myself as a latino never used to use a knife and just used fork to cut every single meat I could find on a plate 😅. Then I found that using a knife not only makes it easier but gives you option to cut the meat into the portion you want.
I grew up in a Thai household, and to this day (as someone now married to a Frenchman and living in France), eating with a knife and fork feels so awkward and unnatural to me.
I lived three years in Cambodia and learned to eat with a spoon and a little at a time.
I am Burmese and we too use spoons. In my opinion it is the only way to eat. !!!
I was in Thailand over 30 years ago and I learned this stuff. At that time, Thai cuisine wasn't as available in the U.S. and there wasn't the awareness of the proper method. I remember when U.S. restaurants would have a spoon, but they eventually disappeared. The other thing that people didn't realize is the relevance of Thai jasmine rice, which isn't sticky or clumpy like what you find in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean cuisines. The grains tend to fall apart, especially with those soupy sauces you mentioned. So, that spoon is critical. Great video!
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
Maybe where you lived!! I am on the west coast and it was here over 40 years ago.
so true people confuse thai sticky dessert rice with jasmine rice thinking it clumps together.
You're mostly correct. Jasmine rice is in fact the kind you will also find in Chinese restaurants. Go to a Chinese grocer and you will see that the most prevalent type of rice, the ones in the huge 50lb sacks, are white jasmine rice and it's usually grown in Thailand.
if you use bowl you can use chopstick. if you use plate you don't use chopstick.
As a Thai person, it feels so strange to watch this being explained- like someone is teaching me how to breath or walk. So well explained though, loved the video❤
I learned this back in college when I worked at a Thai restaurant and it really was a game changer. Not all of our customers understood it, but we always tried to teach them. Great video!
@🏹Bosmer🏹 I think that you're misunderstanding. It's not like I was telling people how they should eat, but when people would wonder why they had a fork and a spoon on the table I would explain it. And most of them seemed to appreciate the information!
So you presumed yourself a trainer on how to eat and imposed your "advice" on customers? Because why, because you are an intrusive elitist snob?
@@cypherknot Ah yes, the "elitist" who is a waiter making minimum wage.
Thanks for the comment. I needed a chuckle.
Isnt eating most foods with a spoon far more optimal than using a fork in general? Like, everything from mashed potatoes, to peas, to stir-fry, to soups, casseroles, etc. The only advantagious place for a fork would be with salads and meat chunks. I get that the tools around you are a matter of culture, but man, "i wonder why they put this spoon here"
@@justinwebb2773 In European etiquette every tool has its own job: one size/shape fork for fish, a special knife for steak, a special spoon for soup, a snail fork, a lobster claw crasher, etc. And they are arranged on the table according to the order of meals, considering it's a pre-planned formal dinner. so you basically grab the tool furthest from the plate first. Sometimes there are 3 forks on one side of the plate and 3 knives on the other, and a spoon at the top. when you start the first course you just grab the first set of tools, then you put them on the plate when the course is finished, never crossed, always parallel - that's how the server knows s/he can take the plate. It's quite annoying actually when a server grabs your plate before you're done with the course, so that's probably why they created this "code". This only applies to formal meals, everyday meals are much less pompous and tool-consuming but you're always expected to know the table etiquette if you're invited to a formal event.
Growing up in a Thai household, of course I eat rice meals with a spoon and fork, but I don’t think I could ever break my American husband of his fork usage when eating rice. I’ve learned to accept that he’ll forever be chasing rice around his plate and leaving at least a spoonful of rice behind when he’s done eating 😂
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
Risotto yes a fork is best but this is not risotto
It's because in the US, we associate using a spoon to eat dry food with babyhood. And we think of rice as a dry food. It makes a lot of sense to think of Thai food as soupy and appropriate for spoons, but it is hard for Americans to break that sense of feeling like babies when spooning up rice.
Something else to mention; with dishes like Tam Ka , Tam Yam , ETC. you are not expected to eat those big slices of Galangal, Lemon Grass or the Kieffer lime leaves (or even the whole "Prik Kee Nue" peppers, if you don't want.) just kind of set them to the side like you would a Bay Leaf in stew.
As a Thai, I think it's funny that 90% of Thai people learn this fact not from our parents but from experience, like any foreigner would. At 27 years old, I still debate with myself if things on my dish are edible or not.
One would think that they would figure it out as soon as they tried to actually chew a piece of Lemon Grass and discovered that it was kind of like eating a chopstick.
I would dare anyone to not use a spoon with a green curry sauce.
Lived in Bangkok for 3 years years ago and now I still eat w/spoon/fork. It JUST MAKES SENSE, very efficient, and, to east dishes WITH the rice, the spoon IS the main utensil (I'm Japanese).
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
I’m Thai Chinese whose dad is Chinese side and mom is Northern Thai (Lanna) side.
It’s like I was growing up within 3 eating cultures clashes.
At home (primarily Chinese side), we used chopsticks and have soup straight from a little bowl.
At school, I used a short spoon (one-handed eating) during primary school years. Grew up to be a middle schooler, I started incorporating fork and spoon.
When visited my Northern Thai family where most of the time food is served with sticky rice, I used bare hands.
Never understand why the Chinese side didn’t adopt spoon method to eat Thai jasmine rice because it makes a lot more sense than Chopstick method!
I saw my Filipino and Thai friends eat with spoon and fork over 40 years ago. I thought it was a great way to use eating utensils, and I have eaten my food this way the rest of my life for almost every food! A few occasions have required common Western utensil etiquette and/or hands only etiquette.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
"Compose your bite" is such an important mentality. This is a good reason why you don't crowd your plate with too many different flavours. As a Filipino, I'm so pleasantly surprised how similar our styles of eating.
What a delight it must be to have all those delicious-looking dishes in order to demonstrate how to eat.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
Thank you for this video! I'm from a Chinese household and never really understood why chopsticks never felt right for Thai food but now I do! When eating rice dishes, it's usually in a bowl (not a plate) so you bring the bowl and chopsticks to your mouth and shovel rather than lift -- but with a spoon, it makes more sense for plated dishes.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
@@dr.christopherjohnson9803 this isn’t Tinder, my friend 😂
@@onlyinparadise4613😂😂😂😂
Chinese use sticky rice so it is easy to eat with chopsticks. Same for Dim Sum Items, really easy.
Every Filipino does this, as well. You could replace the title's "Thai" with "Filipino" and it would still be accurate.
Thank you so much for this! I'm British and I now realise I've made a fool of myself at plenty of Thai restaurants across the UK and USA over the years. But no more 😁
The problem is when you go in group. I bet you will be the only one doing it properly.
I don’t care, I don’t make a fuss when someone is making a pigs ear of eating with a knife and fork ! I will eat how I want to.
I can see that a thai meal is going to be eaten lukewarm, which is not my ideal !
I am from Sweden and we always eat with knife and fork, but I never enjoyed having to cut my food when it's on my plate. Never made sense to me why we prepare our food on cutting boards with good and sharp knives only to cut it again on the plate. I prefer using a spoon instead and actually using my kitchen knives for their intended purpose :D
Agreed, I think anything that needs to be sawed away at should be prepared as such before serving.
Not trying to mansplain or disparage any cultures, but here's one reason there's no need to use a knife in many east-Asian and south-east Asian foods; the underlying philosophy may stem from Confucian precepts, where something as basic - or even gruesome - as cutting up food is to be left to the kitchen. It is also the aspiration and a refinement that a gentleman-scholar works towards, that one may arrive at a position in life where these tasks can be relegated to "behind the scenes" work. In my family, I remember my late great-grandma being very strict about this point, that any knives on the table signify a "prisoner's last meal", and it was "off with one's head" afterwards (!). Of course this was an extreme view, but knives being possible weapons are best not brought to the table as it is meant to be a peaceful place (I suppose that concurs with Western ideas that knives for the dining table have blunted points to show that they are not weapons, or the urban legend that some French aristocrat did that to deter diners from picking their teeth with them!).
I love these non-cooking bits of cultural knowledge. This was very interesting, thank you! 🥰
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
Thank you so much. I love Thai culture and researched before my first trip to Thailand and asked in the Thai restaurants I frequented from an early age in the UK. My first trip to Thailand was marred by a couple saying "choppy choppy" because they thought they should use chopsticks, I found that insulting. Others shoved food into their mouths with a fork like they were eating a tv dinner.
As a side note, visiting NYC I went to quite an expensive Thai restaurant and asked for Nam Pla Prik only to be told the customers didn't like the smell of fish sauce so they couldn't bring it to the table. "Send those people to McDonalds" I said. Jeez, you don't go to an French restaurant and say "no garlic".
There is a beautiful grace, elegance and sophistication about Thai people and their food.
This is genius-simple but profound. I have eaten Thai food all my adult life and no one has told me this-I WILL be doing this from now on, especially now that I make my own curries
It took me years to understand why the owner of our favorite thai restaurant made an odd face when we were asking for chopsticks 🤣. That was almost 20 years ago. Then I worked with Filipinos, and got the idea of using the fork and spoon. Thank you for this video (and all your videos actually).
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
They get used to it.
Next time I go out for dinner with my family at a Thai restaurant I’ll flex all my wisdom about the proper way to eat 😎 thank you Pai!
Thank you, Khun Pai! I’m a farang who grew up in Thailand - ( maybe we went to the same International School in Bkk?) One of my biggest pet peeves is not being given a spoon to eat with at Thai restaurants in the US! Hopefully everyone will see your wonderful post and things will change from here on out! Love love love Hot Thai Kitchen!
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
This is the best video ever. THANK YOU FOR THIS PUBLIC SERVICE. I've been really stressed when seeing foreigners eating Thai food the wrong way 😂 I wish everyone understand our food culture more and eat them the right way so that you get the best taste out of Thai food
Khun Pailin, you just disclose our secrets. I used to pick up quickly a Thai from non-Thais from their dinning style. My parents taught me to complete foods without leaving a single rice grain on my plate. Admire you as our Thai ambassador on Thai foods and culture. You're great.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
I heard that this spoon and fork habit in Thailand started when the king of Thailand watched British people eating cream-filled desserts in the proper British manner. He then found that this method was the most efficient way of eating most Thai foods. It then became standard practice not only in Thailand but the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia. Interestingly, you can still find very old British etiquette guides (including vintage videos uploaded to the TH-cam) demonstrating this manner of eating for cream-filled desserts. It's a very useful skill to have. Thank you for the demonstration.
What a fabulous video. I have spent many hours explaining to my British/Western friends that eating rice with a spoon is so much more effective.
Thank you so much for this! I have loved Thai food for decades and never learned this. 💜 I would not be offended if Thai restaurants included a brief “How to eat Thai Cuisine” summary on their menus or on a separate flyer at the table. I hope some of them think of it. ☺️. PS - your giggle at the beginning is so adorable 🥰😛
And now my hubs is sooooo jealous that you saw my comment! 🤣 We both love your recipes and videos. 💜
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
Thats good to hear, @k.wakefield. There was a restaurant in SF I visited with coworkers. And some of them thought it was pretentious that there was a print out explaining on how to consume Thai food. It wasn't worth the energy to even debate. Even one time, I had a coworker who berated the Thai server by not bringing chopsticks for green curry. She accused of her withholding it from her because she was white. I was so speechless...I couldn't even utter words. I wish i could go back in time and just show her this video.
@@foodiegirl4915 I'm from San Francisco
@@foodiegirl4915 Where are you from?
Thanks so much for this primer! 💖So good to have it all explained and confirmed, and yes it does make sense why the spoon should be used - it's to get the sauces in as well! And it's clear now that the rice is the _foundation_ - so every spoonful should be with some rice (unless you're drinking the soup of course). Also that bit about only serving yourself a little of a dish at a time - that rings so true for all shared Asian meals like this one. It basically means that everybody gets to have some of everything, and is also why a meal like this is both flexible and _inflatable_ - got a surprise guest? No problem - simply boil up some extra rice, pull up another chair and you're good to go! 👍🥰
I am an American living in Thailand, and I am so appreciative of this simple lesson. I have been wondering about the fish found in Thailand. I'll be checking your videos to see if you have one on Thai fish.
I loved learning this! Also I'm happy I get to tell my husband to stop asking for chopsticks at the Thai restaurant we go to--he thinks it's because "they" think he can't eat with chopsticks--but no! (Of course, he does usually get something noodlely--and you did say that was allowed. *LOL* Still, I can't wait to share this with him. Very interesting!)
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
Thank you for doing this vid - I personally believe it's beneficial to learn how 'best to enjoy' different cuisines, especially when that advice comes from someone from that community.
I've been a chef for over 20 years, and I'm often delightfully surprised over the small nuances in each cuisine that help to create a better experience.
You are appreciated!
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
When eating new foods, I have NEVER had a bad experience simply asking the staff for advice on what to order and how to eat it. For the most part, this is considered as showing respect for the culture and a desire to make the most of your meal. This is also a great way to have condiments and such magically appear that normally live back on the table in the break room.
Ahh, you speak from my soul. As a Luk Kreung, growing up with Thai etiquette it really makes my eye twitching whenever I see someone eating rice with a fork and it gets worse whenever there's also a knife 😂That logic!! I often expierienced asian restaurants giving out fork and knife and I always have to ask for a spoon. Spoon is life, spoon is convinient, spoon fits everything all at once for full expierience 😂🥄
A friend of mine always uses chopsticks on a flat plate whenever we go out eating asian food and it's fascinating to watch him struggle especially with runny sauces (you don't have to flex or make a bonus challenge, just make eating easier, eating is not a sport 🤷🏽♀)
Off topic, sorta, but as a fellow luk khrueng...is it common to be called or refer to yourself as "luk khrueng"? Maybe it's because I grew up in America, but even being around my mom and other Thais, I never even heard the term until learning about it a few years ago. Just curious.
@@1RungAtATime To me it's normal to refer to myself as Luk kreung as I don't look that asian, people often think I'm a Latina or from Turkey and my mom often explains to strangers that I'm a Luk kreung when we're traveling around Thailand. I could also just say half Thai but it's less fun haha
@RambutanIllustration ..hallo..I’m Barbara..Italian..have a lot of Thai friends and I’m very interested in knowing that lovely culture.. ..about the eating way then..please confirm this.. ..the fact that you use spoon for eating and forks as a sort of helper.. Let me ask you if there is any case in which you take food to mouth by the fork(maybe after cutting a shrimp).. @PailinsKitchen Thank you so much
The shaking when you picked up your fork and spoon to emphasize HOW to start Can confirm LOL . I am Thai , grew up in the US and am now teaching my friends in Italy how to eat Thai properly , love this Pailin !!
I’ve been eating Thai food wrong all of my life! This was very informative, thank you for this!
Eating Thai food in the US, I will be truly disappointed if I find a Thai restaurant that doesn't give spoon by default. Especially, if the waiter is Thai and they know that I'm Thai. Spoon is the primary utensil. I can eat with just spoon or pair it with whatever available. Spoon, spoon+fork, spoon+knife, spoon+chopstick, secondary utensil is only there to help put food into spoon. (Well, I even used spoon+spoon too and it is super effective.)
@@Arthurian. she ate noodle dish with spoon in this vid: th-cam.com/video/TCYFR-hOnT4/w-d-xo.html
Oh YESS this drives me crazy, going to a Thai restaurant, ordering rice and dishes and have to ask for a SPOON!! I am not eating my rice and curry with a fork only!! Also I'm Asian!!
@@amywon4794 god me too. I’m always like “where’s my spoon????”
Exactly... I'll just pick spoon alone over knife and fork
I don't know how you feel about the Thai population here, but there's a lot of Chinese people for sure.... I go to a Chinese restaurant and there's no bowl. If there is a bowl because soup was ordered, they'll try to take the bowl away!!!!!
How are you going to give chopstick but no bowl!
Thanks! I am a French/Italian American, but I think I must have lived a previous life as an Asian, because my favorite cuisines are Thai. Japanese and Szechuan! Thanks for this eye opening video, I will implement it immediately!
Just you saying about 'previous life', that's quite Asian to me, and I'm an Asian, a Thai to be precise.
The world finally makes sense again :) When eating takeaway thai food we always end up with leftover sauce and rice on our plates and have to get a spoon from the kitchen to finish the meal. From now on I’m going to exchange the knife with a spoon before starting :)
My wife of 20 years came from Indonesia, where they also eat with spoon and fork. Of course, by now, eating with spoon and fork is second nature for me, to the point that I will even use them for Western food, if it is easier (and it often is). Thank you for your excellent explanation!
I find it very hard to eat beef stew without a spoon.
As someone who grew up on Thai food and made food several times for western friends - thank you! So many times they've treated the several dishes as a buffet, put everything on their plate and kinda mixed it together. It's like a competition, sometimes I've gone without tasting all the different dishes because they thought I just didn't want to eat it since I didn't put it on my plate from the beginning.
Yesss! And the best part of using spoon is you can put rice together with a little but of meat, veggie, omelette or whatever you want on your spoon all at once and it gives you a wonderful combo of flavor! Try rice + Kai Jeaw (thai omelette) + Tom Kha Gai combo. You can thank me later 😂
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I have to say the spoon and fork makes a ton of sense and now back in Canada I find myself adapting this using my spoon more than my fork for a lot of Canadian meals.
I'm Indonesian-Dutch and I salute you. Many is the times when I visit an Asian restaurant I had to ask for a spoon. Spoon rules!
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask
Me too! I have always had to ask. No issue during this current hyperinflation, COVID endemic days when restaurant prices can get atrocious. I now prepare healthier meals with high quality ingredients at home.
I more or less arrived at this from going to my favorite Thai restaurant over and over, and observing how Thai customers and staff enjoyed it. (Emphasis on “enjoy”, because that place is absolutely delicious and everything tastes exactly as it does in Thailand.) I think I’ll go there for lunch again tomorrow. 😋
Love me some Pai!!! She's eloquently and properly explained how Thai food should be eaten with the utensils. Keep doing your awesome videos/recipes. I just recently (like 2 days ago) shared your channel to a couple of young women shopping in an Asian grocery store. They were looking like deers seeing headlights. Keep up your awesome work. Huge fan of you and your contents!!!
Terrific! Thank you for addressing the chopstick misconception that for some reason is everywhere!
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
China, they can in droves well over a century ago. It is in grained you eat all Asian foods and the Chinese and some Japanese foods do.
Nice guide Pailin and luckily I’m a “spoon trained” English man because I eat many cereals at home so no overuse of the fork by me! 🤣🤣🙏
My friends insist that the only way to eat Thai food, at least the ones I made them try off my Pailin cookbook, is 'devour & leave no trace'. Especially 'my' chicken curry. 🤭 Seriously, I'm glad you did this video. In my teavels & prolonged stays in other countries, ive learned to appreciate & enjoy local food IN THE SAME MANNER that locals customarily eat, respect & enjoy them. In fact, not doing so can sometimes lead to cultural misunderstandings due to perceived cultural insensitivity (if not 'arrogance') as if the local way were so barbaric as not to be attempted at all. Well, it's simply much better to experience local food in the same way locals customarily 'respect' their food. Immersion? Nothing to be lost there, everything to be gained, respect and more lasting friendships not the least of them. After all, who better to say how best to savor their own food than the locals.
Oh! What a relief. I've lived in Thailand since 2019 and still worry a bit about all the types of etiquette that I know I'm still deficient in. It's nice to see that I'm not making too many mistakes when I eat here. 555 Thank you so much for this video. It's nice to see why we eat the way we do, too.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
Love this! I knew that Thai food is not typically eaten with chopsticks and rather with a fork, but didn’t know about the spoon and the pushing-onto-the spoon technique!
I took a trip to Thailand and looked up those videos on mistakes to avoid and one of them was about eating with a spoon, not chopsticks or whatever. So I went there, ate a bunch of great street food, almost never saw chopsticks but I didn't fully understand the spoon and fork way, I would just chase stuff down with the spoon which is a lot better then doing the same with the fork, so thanks for that explanation.
But I remember later getting some Thai food with my parents and they ask for chopsticks as that is how they would eat in Chinese or Japanese restaurants, it seemed so weird to them when I told them they should use a spoon and said, 'I was in Thailand and they use spoons' I couldn't fully articulate why it felt so wrong to me to use chopsticks other then than the fact I had been there but now with this information I feel like I have all the background.
This is so true, as an Aussie living in Thailand it took me a while but it makes perfect sense. Im a spoon dude now.
Really appreciate this dining etiquette video. I’m always learning something new. Watched an Indian dining etiquette, a hot pot dining etiquette, and now finally a Thai dining etiquette!
GREAT VIDEO!!! I lived in Thailand for years and love the food. I always eat rice with a spoon. Even non-Thai rice. It just makes sense. I am sharing this video with all my family and friends that laugh at me when I eat rice with a spoon.
My favorite is still sticky rice with my fingers. I love the Isaan dishes. ขาวเหนียวอร่อยมากที่สุด
Thank you for this much needed video.
ขอบคุณมากนะครับ
Thank you for this. I've been to Thai restaurants and most people do eat like it's a buffet and try to use a fork rather than the fork and spoon like you show. Very informative!
I loved that she tickled herself with her pun😂😂😂 Thank you for the tips!
I started using a spoon for smaller-sized foods ~10 years ago when I realized trying to eat the home fries at a nearby diner with a fork was futile because of how small the potatoes were diced. Most of the pieces would fall off the fork as I was trying to take a bite.
Slowly, I found myself using a spoon in other restaurants when the food was cut into small pieces or it was a heavily sauced dish.
A couple years ago, a waitress in a Thai restaurant complimented me on eating my meal properly; with a spoon and fork.
I love my spoons!
Love this! Reading between the lines, is it also more polite to take the “least desirable” foods first to give everyone else at the table a chance at the shrimp and fish? Love how thoughtful that is! ❤
like eating fish dishes where there is a whole fish, go for the tail section where less meat. It's s small gesture , but not everyone gonna call you out for it.
I feel like it's less of the undesirable, and more of "from one end to the other". From stir-fry to curry to whole fish, you don't start by going straight to the middle. Like you can see Pailin is digging into her stir-fry and curry closer to the edge. That's the Thai table manners that are so ingrained that most Thai forgot to mention them but still adhered to.
If it's fish, start from the neck or the tail and work your way to the center. Once the whole side is gone, use your spoon to cut the spine at the neck and lift the skeleton up from the meat facing down onto the garbage dish (the empty dish Thai people put on the table to set aside food scraps), and you will get the whole intact fillet left on the dish. *Do not flip the fish, it's messy and older Thai considered that uncouth*
If it is a sea-bass, go for a cheek. It's the best part of sea bass, tender and chewable. Since This food culture is based on sharing. We, thai people are all doing math in mind, we count all accompanies and divide automatically, when we scoop a portion from any dishes. Especially, stir-fry that featuring with meat like Chinese broccoli with crispy pork or Broccoli with shrimp. We count shrimp and crispy pork before scooping and make sure all will get their portions. But for soup with unseen meat sunken down under, we won't stir it for counting but we take 1 portion of meat and veggie at a time.
I was a part of a business team that traveled to China frequently in 08 and 09. One of members was a Thai businesswoman. After a few days of eating in Shanghai, we discovered a Thai restaurant...our friend was delighted that the owners gifted her a spoon (not a Chinese soup), I now know why she was so giddy... :0)
Awwww that’s such a sweet story
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
I’m Thai and I even eat spaghetti with spoon and fork is just to help getting the spaghetti and spaghetti sauce on the spoon.
The western way is to eat spaghetti with fork and the spoon is to help getting spaghetti on the fork.
And when foreigners saw me eating spaghetti like that they tried to teach me to make me eating spaghetti the western way and I refused because the spaghetti sauce will fall down onto my clothes if i eat spaghetti using fork. I had to explain them that, in Thai etiquette, it’s not a good Thai manner if your food is falling down from your utensils onto your clothes or table, it just look too dirty so i have to eat spaghetti with spoon because there is no hole on the spoon so no spaghetti sauce is falling while eating or anything like that at all. I hope they understand my reasons though. 😅
Having learned the proper use of spoon and fork on visits to Thailand, I tend to use the same technique for lots of Western dishes as well, like casseroles and stews, even when others in the family are doing the knife and fork approach. It’s just so much more satisfying! I do really enjoy chopsticks for noodles, however.
This looks like a much more fun way to eat as well. I had no idea about any of this, and I feel like a klutz. I will definitely be trying this out.
Propz for acknowledging this and want to try this out. Believe me you will love some of the ways. My favourite is the Thai soup spoon i love it is van eat every thing with it
I felt the same way! At least you are not along!! 😂
6:25 I'm of Chinese descent but this philosophy of sharing rings true for our culture too because for the longest time our peoples, and I'd imagine Thais as well, DIDN'T have that much to eat and elders were given preference. A lot of cultural practices evolved from practical concerns.
I learned most of this when I was living in Thailand. You'll be happy to know that I'm not shy about explaining it to my friends when we go out for Thai together, and I don't think I've yet been to a restaurant that doesn't provide a spoon. I also explain it to my friends when I cook Thai for them. I was taught to use chopsticks as the default for noodle dishes, and to me that usually seems easier that trying to use a fork and spoon, but otherwise I couldn't agree more.
EXCELLENT! I usually do a web etiquette search before dining out Thai. Now I know. Pailin, thank you very, VERY MUCH!
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask
Perfect timing! We are going for Thai food tomorrow night. We've gone many times before, but I had no idea! I will DEFINITELY be eating this way tomorrow night! Thank you!
Yeahhhh, finally! In Germany, I try to explain to friends how to eat Thai food. To better understand a culture's food experience, you also have to eat the way the culture eats. I talked about the Thai way of eating (sum-rub) and Thai fermented foods in Zurich :) Unfortunately it's in German, but I hope the translation function works. This video of yours is so good! I wish this was available in German. Thank you so much for this. Recently I had a nervous breakdown because friends took me to a Thai restaurant... where Pad Thai, was not Pad Thai but rather mushy rice noodles that have never met tamarind fried in sad oil with pepper. Or even better..... that a typical Thai appetizer is Nue Tord (literally fried butter) but it was not butter but fried cheese balls with sweet and sour sauce.... that made me so sad. Thank you so much, Pailin, for being a force for Thai food culture. And for creating more understanding of our culture.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
The Germans ferment beer not vegetables
That was remarkably helpful and informative, thank you so much! I'm going to make a beeline for a Thai restaurant the first chance I get this week. Also, THANK YOU especially for consistently providing closed captioning considerations for the Deaf and hearing impaired! 🤟 I absolutely love your channel and content and your sense of humor.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask
I sent this immediately to my girlfriend (she's from Austria). I had the absolute same scenario as you happening at my place. lol It's a great video to explain the essence and the sense of eating Thai food! Thank you for sharing this!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU for addressing this... I thought I was the only one... My parents have had Thai restaurants and I would constantly see people eat Thai food incorrectly, either using a spoon only, fork only, or the worst: chopsticks only... Thai food is served on plates, it makes no sense to eat Thai food with chopsticks. When I was living in Japan, I would constantly see Japanese people eat Thai food with chopsticks but I guess they're just more comfortable with that but it's funny to see them struggle picking up grains of jasmine rice like they would with Japanese rice.
When I went to Japan, it surprised me how Japanese people will try to eat EVERYTHING with chopsticks. Salad, pasta, desserts - it's all fair game there lol.
I remember one time in Thailand an old Chinese Thai man that I met wanted to try eating pizza for the first time, He used chop sticks. In England one time I saw someone eating pizza with a knife and fork. Both times I almost laughed out loud. In America pizza is finger food. Eating it any other way seems ridiculous.
@@Nocturne22 They eat hamburgers, french fries, Japanese curry, onigiri (rice balls), etc., with chopsticks too? That's news to me. I see them eat those foods with their hands or, in the case with Japanese curry, with a spoon.
The fork and spoon works really well in South East Asian cuisine. As kids, we used to eat using just a spoon, Chinese type metal soup spoon to be exact. Our food is either soup or saucy and our plates are a little deeper, not flat, to hold the soup/sauce. If there's fish, we'd use our other hand to peel off the flesh and pick out the bones. Sometimes we do it to our chicken pieces too... all with one hand. As adults, we've naturally adopted the fork and spoon method. Great video, should have demonstrated how to get every morsel of rice from the plate to make a point! 😅
This is the great vdo I've been waiting to watch for so long. It helps foreigners especially Westerners how to use fork and spoon with Thai food and learn how to tackle Thai food correctly and etiquettely. Thanks Khun Pailin for all your fine efforts put behind.
Great video! You mentioned some of these tips in a previous video, but I appreciate the clear explanation of Thai dining etiquette. It can be frustrating to eat rice with a fork or chopsticks when it's soaked in sauce. On the other hand, it's annoying when I go to restaurants of cultures where chopsticks are usually used and they assume I can't use them because I'm not Asian and give me a knife and fork instead.
Thank you for mentioning the eating etiquette. I’m so tired to see many American think that they should eat all Thai food with chop sticks.
I have TOTALLY tried to eat Thai curry with chopsticks. And wondered how they did it. And used a fork and still struggled. Thank you for saving me from hunger (and embarrassment!)
Why wouldn't you use a spoon? Eating curry with a spoon is so obvious to me that it's difficult to think of a reason why someone would use any other utensil.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask?
คนเอเชียไม่ได้ใช้ตะเกียบกินอาหารเหมือนคนจีนทุกประเทศนะ คุณคิดว่าเอเชียมีแต่ประเทศจีนเหรอคะ
@@__BETTY__ ใจเย็นๆเขาแค่ไม่รู้ นอกจากจีนยังมีไต้หวัน เวียดนาม เกาหลี ญี่ปุ่นที่ใช้ตะเกียบเป็นหลัก ขนาดที่ไทยบางเมนูที่เป็นก๋วยเตี๋ยวยังใช้ตะเกียบเลย และประเทศพวกนี้คนรู้จักกันเยอะแล้วตะเกียบมันเป็นอะไรที่ทางยุโรป-อเมริกาไม่มี พอมีตะเกียบโผล่เข้าไปแล้วจีนก็ใช้ เกาหลีก็ใช้ ญี่ปุ่นก็ใช้ ก็เลยคิดไปว่าเอเชียใช้ตะเกียบกินอาหารเพราะประเทศเหล่านี้มีร้านอาหารทั่วโลก เข้าร้านอาหารจีนก็เจอ เข้าร้านอาหารญี่ปุ่นก็เจอ เข้าร้านอาหารเกาหลีก็เจอ ขนาดร้านอาหารไทยที่เป็นร้านก๋วยเตี๋ยวก็ยังเจอเขาเข้าใจผิดก็ไม่แปลก
It was pointed out to me by a Thai friend that Thai food will always be served with the appropriate sides and utensils to eat it properly. If it comes on a stick (Satay), it is finger food. If it comes unsauced with a dipping sauce on the side (Spring Rolls), it is finger food. If it comes with a wedge of lettuce leaves (Larb), you grab it with a lettuce leaf. If it has a sauce and is served with rice and a plate (Curry), eat it with rice using a spoon and fork. If it comes in a bowl with a small bowl and a spoon (Soup), transfer a small amount to the small bowl and eat it with the provided spoon.
If unsure, placing a small amount on a plate with some rice and using a fork and spoon is ALWAYS acceptable.
I think the spoon fork method could apply to any cuisine. I hate chasing peas and corn around my plate. Thanks for this.
A wee bit difficult with steak and chips though.
@@Onbehaard What's difficult?
@@Onbehaard But then again for asians who eat those fish and chips, they consider it as snack and not really a meal.
@@vivida7160 to cut steak with a spoon is pretty difficult, don't you think?
@@growpuravida Why would YOU cut the steak?
OMG! This video is the best! It is surprisingly hard to find good videos on this. Another video on Larb, salads, sticky rice w/ appetizers would be also great. Seeing it done is always very helpful.
Hello, I hope you're safe over there? I hope this year brings happiness, prosperity, and love all over the world, I would love us to be good friends in honesty and in trust if you don't mind. I'm Doctor Christopher Johnson from San Francisco, California, where are you from if I may ask
LOVING all the posts on here from folks attesting to how food is eaten like this in Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Never with individual knives at the table. Didn't realise it before but this really is very much a Southeast Asian thing! 💖So... Rice + shared dishes + plate to yourself ⇒ fork + spoon is what most people learn in Southeast Asia (although some of the more adept may use their fingers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, with this applying more to Malay/Indonesian and Indian meals). Rice + shared dishes + _rice bowl to yourself_ ⇒ spoon + chopsticks (more for Chinese restaurants). Noodles and soup in a bowl to yourself ⇒ spoon + chopsticks. And noodles on a plate all to yourself ⇒ either chopsticks (on their own, usually), or fork + spoon (depends on the country, the vendor and the type of noodles). I remember having the _toughest_ time trying to eat rice off a plate with chopsticks in Hong Kong (it's a thing there...). 😂
We Filipinos also use our hands in some contexts, usually in group feasts... although when exactly is hard to explain. Some dishes just feel better when eaten with hands, like grilled fish or meats (on rice). :D
My wife is Thai and I can confirm that the spoon is the workhorse and the fork or chopsticks are used to load the spoon. Chinese spoons are preferred always for soups and even soupy curries and especially for noodles. For all noodle dishes they (and I) prefer chopsticks and chinese spoon - chopsticks in your chopstick hand and spoon in your other hand. Chopsticks are by far the most efficient way to load noodles onto a spoon bc you can get just the right amount and set them down on your spoon in one neat coil - no noodles flopping around. Then you go back and grab some chunks of meat or veggies and pile that on. And finally dip it all in the broth and you have the perfect bite. The only way that’s maybe more efficient is the slurp method but I’ve never seen my wife’s family do that (her mom’s side is of cantonese extraction too). I find that even with rice and non-soupy dishes most of her family still does the spoon and chopstick thing if chopsticks are available.
This is 100% relatable to Malaysian food as well (Doesn't matter if you're Malay, Chinese, Indian or Borneo Indigenous). Typically we'd eat rice with a fork and spoon as well. Or the more traditional way it to use our right hand.
Chopsticks are only used when we're eating noodles, because noodles were introduced by Chinese immigrants. Although you can use forks and spoons as well for noodles, in my personal experience many people tend to use chopsticks for the majority of noodle dishes tbh.
You're an amazing person Pai!
I'm Korean and my go to utensils have always been chopsticks and a spoon, but I think it's always very interesting learning how other cultures eat
THANK YOU, PAI for codifying this for people to understand. There's a group of friends who I do not enjoy eating out with because they don't "get" the Family Style Meal. Either they all want to order their own serving of Pork Fried Rice or, like the other week, they're trying to place equal portions of food on their plates. It is a very unenjoyable experience. I'm just trying to figure out how to get them to watch this video! And whenever I go to a Thai restaurant that only has a fork on the table, the spoon is the very first thing I ask for - and NEVER CHOPSTICKS!!!!
Hi Pailin! OMG! Thank you girl for making this video! My father is from Southern Thailand, and it makes me weep to think someone would eat his curry with chopsticks. Food is love and I always want my loved ones to experience Thai food in a way that takes them to Nirvana. Another Thai lady made a similar video about this topic and some thought she was pretentious or even suggested she made it up. That was years ago. But it sounds like more people now know about this etiquette.
There are so many countries in Asia (48 nations), so many various languages, religions or philosophies, and of course food.
Before the introduction of fork and spoon, thai curries were ladled over rice and you'd eat it with your hands. And you would pick up grilled meats with small flatten balls of sticky rice. Imagine trying to eat sticky rice with chopsticks...it would be frustrating.
Try not to eat chopsticks with curry or anything with liquids. Soups/liquids are meant to be eaten together with rice. You will impress a Thai person when you ask for a spoon.
It was such a weird experience to see a lot of youth in Thailand (and Laos too) eating papaya salad with chopsticks. I guess it is noodle like and you probably don't want to get the fermented sauce on your hands...but still...it is so weird. Maybe some of them have chinese ancestry or maybe it's a generational thing?? Kinda like how i see kids in American eating flaming cheetos with chopsticks..I mean what's going on here?? You're suppose to get the red stuff on your fingers..kids these days. I am old.
I'm not sure why your video popped up in my feed. But I am so glad it did. It was both informative and fun to watch. I never would've thought to use a spoon that way but it makes perfect sense
I am an Indonesian and grew up eating exactly like this video described, with a spoon and fork. My ethnicity is Chinese so we like to use chopsticks for noodles if available. I only learnt to use a fork & knife when introduced to food like T-bone steak and spaghetti (after 10 y.o.). Seeing people eating rice (and congee!) with forks and knives not long after my arrival in Canada years ago baffled me. I kept having this feeling that something is defying my logic. Now I got so used to seeing them. Although I still privately laugh a little when witnessing someone trying to bring curry-soaked rice or congee with a fork and knife to their mouth (That was a fail, coz they only got a small mouthful each time). Also, seeing all that liquid under the steamed fish or stirfry went to waste. We usually like to scoop some liquid/sauce into our rice during the meal. I think it just made sense since those liquids contain vitamins and minerals (and collagen, in the case of fish and chicken) that leeched out from the ingredients during the cooking process.
You must have read my mind, as I've been wondering about this for the last couple of weeks as I've been visiting Thai restaurants in my new area. I tend to already use a spoon and fork, but now I'm going to level up :)
Loved this, who knew we needed eating lessons!
Also wanted to say your new book arrived 20 mins ago and I haven't put it down yet! It's a heavy hardback that seems more comprehensive than your first, if that's even possible! Thank you!
Thanks Michael!
This video has everything; it is informative and educational. We often eat in Thai restaurants and we cook a good deal of Thai food at home. I knew Thai food was not eaten with chopsticks, but I did not know about how you eat Thai food with a knife and fork. I thank you for this most informative video, and I loved seeing your sense of humor, especially that segment about spooning. You have a wonderful channel.
Filipino-American here - this is exactly how we eat too, lol. I had to explain to my non-Filipino wife that we cut the meat on our plate with the spoon and fork, unless we're having steak of course. Good info for those who didn't grow up in a Southeast Asian house 👍
Thank you so much for an essential advise on how to eat Thai food. you are so right and this is a friendly reminder for Thai people too. My bad is I put too much in my plate so I don’t bother to take it again. You are right on this bc sharing is great ka 💕
We had the privilege of staying with our friends family in Thailand last year. The family meal is such a joy
What could be better than to waking up to Pailin teaching me about spooning? Loved it!!!
I'm South Asian and we don't use chopsticks at all either or a fork, except maybe for a western style salad. We use a spoon by itself or our hands. I think as such we tend to put more rice than sauce in each of our bites, as we also tend to have more curry in our dishes, which means more carbs and hence more diabetes in our societies.
Ok....MInd...blown! I tend to only use a fork. Only one utensil. The only exceptions are cutting meat or eating soup. But this really seems like an effective way to use your utensils with most things. I have DEFINATELY been the person chasing that last bit of rice with my fork and I always end up mashing the rice. And you're right. It is painful. 😅🤣 I am totally going to try this! I am mildly obsessive about getting the 'perfect bite'. And this looks like it will assist me in that quest.
Where was this video 20 years ago?
When I lived in Thailand, I was surprised that chopsticks were not used - but spoon and fork.
I also learned it is ok to have a roll of toilet paper on the dinner table 😜
You nailed the execution of this how to eat video! 👏👏
Whenever i see someone online teaching how to eat a certain food, the comment section would always be like - "i'll eat it however i want!" And it sometimes make me sad for the creator.
But because you brought up practicaility, logic and etiquette behind each use of proper utensils, it made so much more sense. ❤
I personally eat with spoon & fork, unless i'm feeling lazy (so i sometimes use a bowl and just take a spoon, the bowl's curve helps push the food in = just 2 dishes to wash! 😂)
Thank you so much for this great video! I have googled dining etiquette for many cultures. This video is so clear and covers most situations. Thanks again! Now I need to get some Thai food!