Thai food beyond pad thai, region by region

Pad thai, the stir-fried noodle dish that appears on every Thai menu in Britain, is in some ways the least Thai thing about Thai food. Noodles came to Thailand with Chinese immigrants. Pad thai itself was popularised as a national dish in the late 1930s and 1940s, during a period of strident nationalism under the military government of Plaek Phibunsongkhram, which promoted it as a patriotic, Thai-made alternative to Chinese noodle dishes. It is a good dish, but it is a small part of a cuisine that varies enormously across the country.

The centre: rice, coconut and balance

The cooking of the central plains, around Bangkok and the old capitals, is the Thai food most familiar abroad. It is built on fragrant jasmine rice and often on coconut milk, and on a balance of sour, sweet, salty and hot that is the essence of Thai cooking. This is the home of the green and red curries, of tom yum, the hot and sour soup scented with lemongrass and lime leaves, and of the more refined dishes once cooked in the palace kitchens. Bangkok's street food, on every pavement and in every market, draws on the whole country, along with the Chinese influences of the city's large Chinese community. Phetchaburi, south-west of Bangkok, is famous across Thailand for its palm sugar and its traditional sweets.

The north: herbs, sticky rice and khao soi

In the north, in the old Lanna kingdom around Chiang Mai, the food changes. Glutinous sticky rice, eaten with the fingers from small baskets, replaces jasmine rice. Coconut milk is less used, and the flavours are more herbal and earthy, with fewer sweet notes. Typical dishes include sai ua, a spicy herb-filled sausage, and nam prik, chilli dips eaten with fresh and boiled vegetables and crisp pork skin. The best-known northern dish is khao soi, a rich curry noodle soup with soft egg noodles in the bowl and a nest of crispy fried noodles on top, served with pickled cabbage, shallots and lime. Its roots are often traced to the Chinese Muslim traders who came down from Yunnan.

The north-east and the south

Isan, the large, dry north-eastern plateau, is the poorest region of Thailand and has given the country some of its most loved food, much of it shared with neighbouring Laos. Som tam, green papaya salad pounded in a mortar with chillies, lime, fish sauce, dried shrimp and peanuts, is eaten all over Thailand, often fiercely hot. Larb is a salad of minced meat with herbs, lime and toasted rice powder. Gai yang, grilled marinated chicken, comes with sticky rice and a dipping sauce. Isan migrants have taken their food to Bangkok and every other city, and it is now as much a part of everyday Thai eating as anything from the centre.

The south, stretching down the peninsula to Malaysia, has the hottest food in the country and the strongest influence from Malay and Muslim cooking. Turmeric gives many southern dishes their yellow colour. Gaeng tai pla, a pungent curry made with fermented fish innards, is the region's great acquired taste. Seafood is everywhere, and fresh rice noodles are served with curry sauces and a basket of raw vegetables and herbs. Massaman curry, rich, mild and nutty, shows the long influence of Persian and Muslim traders on Thai cooking.

Street food is the best introduction to all of it. Every Thai town has a night market where stalls sell grilled skewers, noodle soups, curries over rice, fresh fruit and sweets, and where a meal comes quickly. Food safety is generally good at busy stalls, where the turnover is high and the cooking fresh, and choosing the stall with the longest queue of local customers is a reliable rule.

Eating your way round

Explore Worldwide's Discover Thailand, eleven nights, covers Bangkok and the centre, including Phetchaburi, as well as the south, with Khao Sok, Koh Lanta and Krabi.

Just You's Thailand: a Land of Smiles, thirteen nights for solo travellers, takes in Bangkok, the old capitals, Lampang and Chiang Mai in the north, and Krabi. Explore Worldwide's Best of Northern Thailand, nine nights, spends more time in the north and the centre, with Chiang Mai, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya and Kanchanaburi.

Eat where the locals eat, point at what looks good, and ask for it mild if you need to. Thai food rewards curiosity more than almost any other cuisine.