THAI LANGUAGE LESSONS
L17a - Food: General Terms
Let's start with some general food and eating terms.
| food | ah-hahn |
| eat | tahn |
| eat | gin (informal) |
| eat food | tahn ah-hahn |
| eat food | gin kaow (informal) |
| cook food | tam gup kaow |
| restaurant | rahn-ah-hahn |
| drink | deum (verb) |
| vegetarian food | ah-hahn jay |
| seafood | ah-hahn talay |
| hungry | hew kaow |
| thirsty | hew naam |
| taste | chim |
Eat Food: We have mentioned 'gin kaow' in a previous lesson. 'gin' is pronounced with a hard 'g' not like the drink. This is an informal way to say 'eat food' and is a very widely used phrase. 'kaow' is the Thai word for rice but because rice is such an intrinsic part of the Thai diet, in this case it is being used as a general 'food'.
Restaurant: 'rahn' is the Thai word for 'shop'. Therefore the word 'rahn-ah-hahn' for restaurant is simply 'shop food'.
Drink: 'deum' is the verb 'to drink'. The closest equivalent to the English noun 'drink' is 'naam'. That is the Thai word for water but you can use it in a more general drinks sense: kor naam arai ? - what drink do you want?
Flavours
| spicy | pet |
| sour | bree-oh |
| salty | kem |
| sweet | wahn |
| bitter | kom |
These are the five flavours of Thai cooking. As soon as Thais start eating they will also start discussing the quality of the food. You will hear them discussing whether the food is too salty or not spicy enough, etc.
Cooking Methods
| shallow fried | pat |
| deep fried | tort |
| boiled | tom |
| steamed | nurng |
| grilled | yahng |
| baked | op |
| raw | dip |
