As in other countries, Thais have three meals a day-breakfast, lunch and dinner. Normally, we eat rice with every meal. However, we do not eat rice alone. When we eat rice, we always have some dishes of food to go with it.

For breakfast, we may eat porridge with pork or chicken, or rice. For lunch and dinner, we may eat rice with other dishes of meat and vegetables. Sometimes, we have one dish because it is easier to buy and cook. We usually have meals with their family. We share dishes with a spoon in each dish. We may also have noodles. When we eat our meals, we always use a spoon and a fork when eating rice and other dishes, and normally use chopsticks when eating noodles.

In a normal Thai meal, there are sauces and dips that are usually eaten together with rice and dishes of food. Sauces and dips that are normally used are as follows:
1. Fish Sauce: Fish sauce or ‘Nam Pla’ (in Thai) is used by most Thai families. It can be added to any dish to make it more tasty.

2. Nam Pla Prik: ‘Nam Pla Prik’ is fish sauce with sliced ‘Prik Kee Nu’ and a little lemon juice.

3. Nam Prik: ‘Nam Prik’ is a kind of thick dip with a strong taste, especially hot and sour. It may be made from fish, pork and some herbs such as garlic and lemon. There are special kinds of ‘Nam Prik’ Look at the picture below. What is usually eaten with ‘Nam Prik’ are various kinds of vegetables—fresh and boiled vegetables such as egg plants and morning glory.

Apart from these sauces and dips that are used with rice and food dishes, there are special dips that can be used with noodles. They are as follows:

 

Fruits

In Thailand, there are a variety of fruits available according to the seasons and regions. We have fruits to eat throughout the whole year. Mangosteen and durian are the most well-known and they are considered as the king and the queen of fruits in Thailand. Moreover, there are other kinds of fruits such as mango, rambutan, pomelo, longan, lychee, orange, grape, guava and jackfruit.
 

Drinks

Apart from pure water and mineral water, there are a lot of drinks, which are made from fruits, and vegetables such as dried longan juice, orange juice, guava juice, carrot juice, and lemon grass juice for everyday drinking.