The visitors who are on the first visit to Thailand nowadays may find the place fascinating with many food stalls at the fresh market, at the shopping center, or nearly on every road you walk by. This is not to mention about the restaurants and the food shops that are also quite a number for the customers to choose for. As it is realized that the Government of Thailand has planned to promote Thailand to be the Kitchen of the World since 2007, increasing of the Thai restaurants, the food products, and the training for Thai Chef have put forward as the preparation strategies. The recipes of the Thai Cuisine have been developed to suit the taste internationally as well as have been widely introduced to the world food market. Nonetheless the outstanding and unique tastes of Thai Cuisine cannot be loosed to these developed recipes as they are what the Thai food become significant and popular not only to its people but also to the foreigners. Apart from that, Thai food is also representing the refinement and usefulness for the health of the customers. This is because the ingredients in Thai Cuisine are basically various types of herbs. The hot and spicy which make Thai Cuisine dominated is by the ingredients such as garlic, chilies, and black peppers. The seasonings commonly used in Thai food are also the herbs such as ginger, lemon glass, tamarind juice, galingale, onion, charlotte, lemon juice, turmeric, coriander, coconut milk, and etc.
Thai Cuisine, though it is the national cuisine of Thailand, varies from region to region. The common concept of Thai Cuisine of all regions is the emphasis on the balance of three to four fundamental taste senses in each dish or the overall meal; i.e. the taste of sour, sweet, salty and bitter. Besides, the blending elements in cooking always put emphasis on the strong aromatic ingredients.
David Thompson, as an acknowledged expert of Thai cuisine, explains in an interview: "Thai food ain't about simplicity. It's about the juggling of disparate elements to create a harmonious finish. Like a complex musical chord it's got to have a smooth surface but it doesn't matter what's happening underneath. Simplicity isn't the dictum here, at all. Some westerners think it's a jumble of flavors, but to a Thai that's important, it's the complexity they delight in."(http://en.wikipedia.org)
Thai cuisine became well-known worldwide from the 1960s onwards, when Thailand became a destination for international tourism and American troops arrived in large numbers during the Vietnam War period. One survey held in 2003 by the Kellogg School of Management and Sasin Institute of Chulalongkorn University showed that Thai cuisine ranked 4th after Italian, French and Chinese cuisine when people were asked to name an ethnic cuisine; and ranked at 6th place behind the three aforementioned cuisines, and Indian and Japanese cuisine when asked "what is your favorite cuisine?".
