ศาลาชุมนุม

[Stiny]

My husband and myself always like to have our food cooked, rather than eating from what has already been cooked and could have been sitting around in the warm sun for hours. Whilst out with friends they suggested we order ข้าวหมกไก่ or ข้าวมันไก่ or ข้าวขาหมู. We can tell which is chicken or pork, but we are not too sure what the whole thing would be, a translation would be grateful before we go experimenting. Thank you

[simonbournemouth]

ข้าวหมกไก่ - Chicken with yellow rice (I think the yellow comes from tumeric powder)

ข้าวมันไก่ - Hainanese chicken rice (literally meaning 'oiled rice chicken')

ข้าวขาหมู - Pork leg with rice

Enjoy your food!!


Edit; you may find this sight of some interest;

http://www.thaistreetfood.com/

[David and Bui]

Simon has it just correctly so. My mouth is watering a half a world away. Ah, the power of the Internet!

[Peter4]

always like to have our food cooked, rather than eating from what has already been cooked and could have been sitting around in the warm sun for hours.

Then your friends gave you bad advice.

Simon offers translations above.
I'll offer the warnings here.

I have eaten -- and have enjoyed -- all three of the dishes mentioned above.
But ... but ... all of them are cooked in advance, and will certainly have been sitting around for hours.
None of those dishes are prepared at the time you order them.

You have two options:

First, if you really want to eat those dishes you mentioned, swallow 2-3 charcoal capsules before eating.
The charcoal might counteract any unpleasant bacteria in the food.
Charcoal capsules are available at every pharmacy.
Ask for carbon, here pronounced, "Cah-bon".
10 pack for 20-50 baht, depending on brand.

Or you can avoid the pre-cooked dishes above and instead go to a restaurant that cooks to order.
Those will be different restaurants than those which serve the food mentioned above.
In Thai, the name for these is ตามสั่ง, "dtam-sahng", literally, "follow orders" or "according to order".

You will find such restaurants throughout Thailand.
Hotel restaurants cook to order, so eating in hotels is a safe bet, but not so exciting as eating on the street.
Every food court will have at least one stall that cooks to order.
Most clusters of small, neighborhood, restaurants will have at least one place that cooks to order.

If you don't read Thai, you can spot cook-to-order places by looking in the glass display case in front.
In the case will be wide variety of fresh vegetables, pork, eggs, perhaps chicken and shrimp.
The essential is the wide variety -- not just a few items.
And, since nothing is prepared in advance, no prepared foods will be displayed.
Below is a photo of a typical cook-to-order food stall, showing you what to look for.

Hardly any will have menus, so go prepared to speak your order in Thai.
Or, have a Thai friend write out what you want.
The cooks in these little stalls won't understand English.

My preferences in such places -- cooked to order:

• fried rice
• minced pork with basil plus a fried egg on top (I also ask for carrots or tomatoes put in)
• stir-fried rice noodles with shrimp and broccoli

(I'll let someone else provide the translations into Thai.)

But before I finish, I will offer another warning about the food your friends recommended.
Besides not being cooked-to-order, all three of those dishes are loaded with MSG, mono-sodium glutamate.
MSG is used so much, in so many foods, that it seems to be one of the required food groups in Thailand.
If you are sensitive to MSG, avoid those three dishes your friends recommended.



Clever readers will note the sign reads, Kao-mun-gai, but the wide variety of vegetables and meats in the glass case confirms this is really a cook-to-order stall. (Foto stolen from http://importfood.com/ )
.

[Rick Bradford]

To round it off, MSG is called ผงชูรส phohngR-chuuM-rohtH, and is hard to avoid.

[LOKi]

My preferences in such places -- cooked to order:

•fried rice -- ข้าวผัด
•minced pork with basil plus a fried egg on top (I also ask for carrots or tomatoes put in) -- (ข้าว) ผัดกะเพราหมูสับไข่ดาว
•stir-fried rice noodles with shrimp and broccoli -- ผัดไทยกุ้ง (และบรอคโคลี)

[Itchaya]

My preferences in such places -- cooked to order:

•fried rice -- ข้าวผัด
•minced pork with basil plus a fried egg on top (I also ask for carrots or tomatoes put in) -- (ข้าว) ผัดกะเพราหมูสับไข่ดาว (ใส่แครอทกับมะเขือเทศด้วย )
•stir-fried rice noodles with shrimp and broccoli -- ผัดไทยกุ้ง (และบรอคโคลี)

There's ตามสั่ง/ผัดไท stall that can add broccoli in your ผัดไท?
I haven't seen one.
The cook sure be puzzled by your order ?