Central Thai

Central Thai cooking, centered on Bangkok and the rice plains around it, is the version most people think of as "Thai food," and it chases a clear balance of salty, sour, sweet, and hot in every dish. This is the home of tom yum goong, a hot-and-sour shrimp soup sharp with lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime, and chili, and of green and red curries cooked with coconut milk. Street stalls turn out pad krapao — meat stir-fried hard with holy basil, garlic, and bird's-eye chili, served over rice with a fried egg — and pad thai, rice noodles tossed with tamarind, fish sauce, dried shrimp, egg, and peanuts. Boat noodles, once sold from canal boats, are a dark, intense beef or pork noodle soup darkened and thickened with blood and spiced with star anise and cinnamon. Many refined dishes trace back to the royal kitchens of the old capital, which is why the region's food ranges from rough market fare to delicately carved palace cooking.