1. Thai food is spicy so drink Thai Singha beer with your meal. Afterwards a lassi (yoghurt drink) will cool down your piping innards. A lassi is the antithesis of a bird eye chilli.
2. Eat rice for breakfast. Dont fall into the trap of staying with what you know. Their sloppy rice dishes with pork are delicious. After one bowl, you'll be hooked like a trout.
3. Exotic fruit here is unbeatable. There are so many you simply cannot get in the UK. Ones worth mentioning are, Jackfruit, Rambutan, lychee, guava, watermelon, star fruit, Thai mango. (yellow and tear shaped)
4 Eat the national dish of Thailand - its actually Tom Yam Kung (spicy soup with prawns) but yellow,(not so hot) red (hotter) and green (hotter still) curries are consistently good. If venturing north expect changes in the food as their are 4 regions to Thai cooking. Incidently, the hottest curry is a Jungle curry but eating is not about bravado (until your mates turn up)
5. Street Food - lots of vendors everywhere. I'd recommend a Phad Thai which is a stir fry using noodles and meat of your choice. Typical of Thailand they use Nam Pla (fermented fish juice) instead of salt and balance any heat with lime and sugar to produce an amazing balance of sugar, salt, sour and heat.
6. Charcoals - the Thais do lovely charcoal frills. Fish is good. Try snapper, squid, prawns - I have even seen mackerel. Finish your fish with a sprinkle of what they provide - usually dried chillies or chilli in vinegar. You don't like heat? Don't go to Thailand then!
5. soups - one of my favourites is Tom Kaa. Its made with galangal, a root like ginger which is balanced with coconut milk. Its amazing an a good step before you go for Tom yam.
6. Salads - Yam takrai - is a spicy salad using raw chillies, lime, sugar, fish juice (yes all those again) and very finely shredded lemongrass. It works so well, it has got to be the most refreshing salad going. Another one available on the streets is Som Tum which uses green mangoes which are finely shredded alomst like rice noodles to form the basis of your salad.
