Andys Real Guide to Thailand

Eateries of all shapes and sizes abound, and food hygiene standards are generally quite good. I would positively encourage you to try the smaller eateries, they don't look much but the food is frequently excellent.

Standard eating "equipment" is a fork and spoon. Whilst nobody is likely to say anything if you put the fork in your mouth, you might like to know that this is not considered good table manners in Thailand. The fork is there to push food onto the spoon which is how you get the food into your mouth. Thai's do not routinely use chopsticks, these are generally only found in eateries selling noodle soup, and surprise, surprise, Chinese food.

If you find yourself upcountry in a restaurant with the menu written only in Thai, you could do like me and order a stir fry rice with chicken - "Khao phat guy", or Pork - "Khao phat mua". This generally comes out non-spicy ( "mai pep" ). 

Drinks

The drink of choice with meals for most Thai's is plain water ( "Nahm Plow" in thai ). Beer is generally in plentiful supply, and the usual range of sugar laden carbonate drinks are usually on hand. Most restaurants will keep you glasses topped up for you, smaller places will give you glass of ice ( "Nahm Keang" ) and let you pour the drink yourself. 

If you order beer in a small restaurant they will usually give you it in a glass full of ice - this being the Thai custom. If like me you don't like the taste of diluted beer you could ask for your beer "mai ao nahm keang" ( I don't want ice ). Alternatively just unload the ice into the nearest flowerpot...

Timing of dishes

I have seen so many incidents of westerners complaining about the presentation of dishes on the table that this one is worth a mention...

The custom in Thailand is that food is eaten as soon as it arrives on the table, nobody waits for all the food to appear. This makes good sense in a climate where any food left exposed is likely to attract large numbers of flies, ants, and in some cases larger criters...

It thus follows that most restaurants will not normally make any effort to time the presentation of the dishes. This is good - it means the food does not get time to develop any nasty bacteria. It's perfectly normal to order additional dishes after you've started eating, so if you want to eat in courses I'd suggest just ordering the different dishes separately. 

In 15 years of visiting and living in the country I have only suffered food poisoning twice. In both cases this was a result of eating at large, tourist-type restaurants where the staff attempted to present the dishes in one go, Western style. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.