Being Farang

[raybona]

Coming in to a Thai restaurant, and getting the menu in Thai only! How do you know what you order, how do you save your face, and most of all how do you enjoy your meal (by not knowing wath you're eating)

So wath to do: Close your eyes and point your finger somewhere random on thhe menu, look at the waither with your most sincere face expression and say "this is what i want to order"

Or what ?

[garro]

If you want to save face say in Thai ' pom leum ween dta' .

"I forgot my glasses", and maybe they will read it for you.

Edited June 19, 2008 by garro

[SamSipEt]

I don't think that you lose face by admitting that you cant read Thai.

You could learn the Thai for a few of your favorite dishes to use as a fall back.

You can discretely point at someone else's dish and say that you'll have that - could be interesting or inedible

Ask then for a dish that you like using English and hope that you get what you ask for!

What ever give it a try and try to enjoy

[raybona]

Thanks guys, BUT, even if the waiter is so polite to read the menu for me, i still would'nt understand ......

It's not a big problem and for shure we will enjoy by not knowing what we're eating, but exiting it will be !

The Thai prase "I forgott my glasses" is the first on i will learn because i need it X times per day, dous'nt matter where i am

[Bill97]

Don't worry about how to say "I forgot my glasses" in Thai. First you must learn how to say "Where is the toilet?"

[lannarebirth]

See if this helps:

http://nachang.com/travelmenu/

[john b good]

Coming in to a Thai restaurant, and getting the menu in Thai only! How do you know what you order, how do you save your face, and most of all how do you enjoy your meal (by not knowing wath you're eating)

So wath to do: Close your eyes and point your finger somewhere random on thhe menu, look at the waither with your most sincere face expression and say "this is what i want to order"

Or what ?

And why exactly is saving face so important (unless you are Asian)

The only reason in my book is that it is preferable that you do not cause a Thai to lose face (unless you want a knife between your ribs or a bullet in the head

Edited June 20, 2008 by john b good

[BlackArtemis]

What I did was eat at places that had an English menu (I believe lemon Tree has Thai in English phonetics) and learn what i liked. I would write down what I liked using phonetics. Then learn the "Me ____________ Mai Kah/Khrap?" (Do you have ____________?)

There is no shame in not being able to read, try methods that work for you and eventually you will have a mental list of things you like.

On a side note, saying "Mai ow pet" I don't want spicy is a great phrase to learn when you are new. Saying a little spicy sometimes gets you more than you can handle!

Farang can lose face, we just call it embarrassment.

[Cuban]

Menus and food stalls were the way I started to learn to read Thai - Fried Rice - ข้าว(rice) ผัด(fried) - ไก่(chicken).

Compile a list of simple words from the PDF menu as posted above, use them to communicate what you want.

Also good to have a 'not' list - no spicy salad, no Pla Rar, no Issan Sausage etc...

[chiliwasabi]

Sometimes it is a lot better to get a menu that you can't read in Thai than one badly translated into English.

[Boater]

normally in this situation, i just ask for a chicken curry

or, take a look around at what other people are eating and just say Same Same...

has work for me many a time

[JamieP]

On a side note, saying "Mai ow pet" I don't want spicy is a great phrase to learn when you are new. Saying a little spicy sometimes gets you more than you can handle!

You can also try ne-nam arai? What do you suggest? If you're feeling adventurous.

[suegha]

It's easy to learn a few words, chicken, pork, prawn, vegetables. Then add curry, red, green, massamam, then add rice or noodles and you'll never go hungry. Oh, always a good idea to add spicy, very spicy and not too spicy depending on your tastes.

[greenwood0311]

Always remember from menus in Australia order Larb Moo (pork) or Larb Ghai (chicken) is very nice dish of spicy minced pork or chicken. But most menus I have seen in Thailand always have pictures so you can see what you are ordering.

[chiliwasabi]

Always remember from menus in Australia order Larb Moo (pork) or Larb Ghai (chicken) is very nice dish of spicy minced pork or chicken. But most menus I have seen in Thailand always have pictures so you can see what you are ordering.

Both of these are fine dishes but be aware that some regional variations include raw blood which can include all kinds of inhospitable parasites

[GaiYaang]

Coming in to a Thai restaurant, and getting the menu in Thai only! How do you know what you order, how do you save your face, and most of all how do you enjoy your meal (by not knowing wath you're eating)

So wath to do: Close your eyes and point your finger somewhere random on thhe menu, look at the waither with your most sincere face expression and say "this is what i want to order"

Or what ?

Keep notes, learn dishes here and there and when you order a few times it should get eaiser.

It's kind of hard when you don't know the language. I like this fast food Mexican restaurant and they also have drive through. The first time I went to the drive through and the menu are in Spanish and written in English. Okay which one do I want, and I have to pick something basic that I know like burrito or taco. Carne Asada burrito, If you don't know Spanish Carne Asada what is that. After a few times I finally went inside and found out they got the menu with details and that help me out a lot. Then I learned the basic meat group and that help too. I like Thai food and Mexican food because they are both spicy. I hardly eat any Thai food here in the US because they don't taste authentic. The good thing is that they do speak English, I can alway ask.

When I go to Dim Sum restaurants they have 2 sheets of paper. One with details only, and another one with photos only of what it looks like. If you don't know what it is or what it looks like - is like playing a matching game.

[Cuban]

But most menus I have seen in Thailand always have pictures so you can see what you are ordering.

Escape the tourist places, many Thai places outside the cities will cook whatever they have in stock. So useful to know a few common food phases as suggested above.

From the street stalls, notice that the banner headline on the stall often tells the sole item they sell, in Pattaya and the like often names the area of Issan etc. that the food vendor is from to encourage people from that region to enjoy "home" cooked food in their style.

[anthonyu]

If you're really aventurous you could try to memorize this phrase

"mi arai nae nam mai?" or in Thai "มีอะไรแนะนำไหม"

Just means "anything to recommend?" Just be prepared to have something you're not familiar with for dinner.

[mssabai]

I would first try and learn to recognise different Thai restaurants and then work out what you like in each one. For instance when I first arrived here I would go into what was obviously a stir fry restaurant and order a noodle soup and wonder why it was so rubbish! I can't read Thai, but always manage to eat good food wherever I am as I can now recognise what each restaurant will specialise in.

Every Thai restaurant will specialise in something and by ordering that you will ensure you are eating the best food possible! Here are a few common ones-

- Seafood - either live fish or pictures of fish will be evident somewhere in the restaurant - Learn the name for a few common fish and a way of preparing it you enjoy and ask for that. They will be able to prepare almost anything else that you want - but if it is a sea food restaurant then do try some as it will probably be good!

- Isaan - you will be able to see a som tam pot somewhere as well as sticky rice holders. Order som tam, laap etc

- all purpose stir fry restaurant (usually will have a big fridge full of fresh ingredients) - here you can order anything that can be fried and you can just point to it in the fridge and say "pad". They would always had some spices and flavouring. they will do curries and loads of other stuff too.

- 'Destinantion' restaurant - this will be in a very nice location, usually with live music. The food will either specialise in sea food, Isaan, or be similar to the stir fry restaurant (as in they will cook anything you want)

- Noodle soup stall - just point to your meat and noodles!

- Rice shops - obvious from the boiled chickens hanging up and the pork legs simmering - will either offer Khao Ka muu (pork leg and rice), Khao Muu daeng (rice and red pork with a very sweet sauce)or Khao man gai (boiled chicken and rice) with a few extras such as eggs, liver or sausage

- Jowk (rice soup restaurant)- usually only in the mornings, you will see lots of people drinking tea, and a giant pot of rice soup. Usually there will be a giant dim sum steamer as well. The jowk will have pork and various other bits put inside - just point again! And feel free to lift the lid of the steamer and choose some dim sum too.

- Curry restaurant - usually a lunchtime affair where you can go and choose whatever curry or stir fry you want from the pre-prepared pots.

Hope this helps! Eating at night markets is a great way of getting to know Thai food without having to struggle through a menu too.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Re "Lose face" -->

Note that this is of course not a particularly grave scenario, but in general it must be understood that the 'loss of face' can be on the part of the other party, in this case the waitress when it's shown that she doesn't speak English and/or is unable to communicate with a customer. (Other mechanisms at work here are that the waitress is in a lower position compared to the customer, and any problem or issue would therefore be her fault. )

Re "normally in this situation, i just ask for a chicken curry"

So what dish would that be then in Thai.. There are dozens of curries that might have chicken in them. If this is a restaurant without an English menu and (likely) not aiming for the tourist trade, then they will also not know which dish is typically meant in tourist restaurants with "chicken curry". (For reference, that would be 'kaeng garee kai', a.k.a. yellow chicken curry, a.k.a. indian chicken curry, or combinations thereof)

[dave_boo]

See, if y'all lived nice boring lives like I, you'd simply say "Pot Ghai, pet mak-mak" or "Khao meng Bpet" and be happy.

[cobra]

No one learns Thai just so they can read a menu, it's an undertaking to say the least.

Most of the help will speak a modicum of English, simply tell them what you like, dislike, spicing, not spicy, meat, no meat, then ask what they would suggest.

It's not rocket science, all part of adventure travel, eat it, smile and tip,

Was up in Sukuthai a while back, Thai menu, little shop on a back water klong, ended up with snake head mullet and deep fried sun flowers, cold Singha, very good.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

No one learns Thai just so they can read a menu, it's an undertaking to say the least.

Well, yes, but the larger question is "is one comfortable being effectively illiterate". There's a lot of texts that are in Thai where a person would benefit hugely from a basic level of literacy; not talking about books and newspapers, but basic signage and indeed menus. A step up from there would be short notes & emails. Menus are an enticing challenge actually because it's a very finite set of words that you'd have to know to be able to make sense of it. (Dish names, ingredients and methods-of-cooking basically.). Then given that Thai is written pretty much just like English, Greek or Russian (i.e. with a fixed alphabet representing phonetics) and that written language and spoken language match each other a lot more consistently than, say, English, it's not beyond anyone really to make the effort.

[mssabai]

Reading thai menus has helped me improve my thai for sure. I already have an idea of what might be in them so it makes it easier for me to pick out words I know - yum, laab, muu, gai etc etc. Road signs as well are a good way of passing the time when learning thai. It's especially good as I am at the stage where I have learnt all the constanants but am struggling through the vowels.

[mssabai]

ps - winnie - what a screen name and avatar!

[elliss]

kow pat moo ,,,, fried rice and pork

i can say no problem ..

but i am bored , eating this , every day..

more thai people , shuld learn english ,,,,

poll ??

[WujouMao]

eat papaya salad then if you can handle 10 chili's. as for snake head soup, awsome!! i had this when i was in vietnam but never thought of looking for it in thailand

the amount of times iv asked for pet pet saying i would like it spicy and i find it isnt spicy really upsets me. u cant really complain that everyone else is eating authenic thai food and you have bland thai food with no spice. what can you do?

[Ave88]

Always remember from menus in Australia order Larb Moo (pork) or Larb Ghai (chicken) is very nice dish of spicy minced pork or chicken. But most menus I have seen in Thailand always have pictures so you can see what you are ordering.

So looking at pictures is your forte, I see the problem with your incorrect post's now. How many times has your meal been the same as your picture's?

[Ave88]

Always remember from menus in Australia order Larb Moo (pork) or Larb Ghai (chicken) is very nice dish of spicy minced pork or chicken. But most menus I have seen in Thailand always have pictures so you can see what you are ordering.

So looking at pictures is your forte, I see the problem with your incorrect posts now. How many times has your meal been the same as the picture?

Should learn to communicate better, get your facts correct, then everyone will be happy.

[just_Elaine]

Moo is pork. Gai is chicken. Pla is fish. Gung is shrimp. Nuea is beef. Pla Muek is squid.

Gaeng is a curry preparation.

Tom Yum is a soup preparation.

Yam is a salad preparation.

Phat, I think, is stir-fried.

So say the preparation method and then the meat, then maybe they'll say something back to you. Try to catch it and just say okay.

Other than that, we went with other people and we went to places that did have English menus. Then we learned the names of stuff that we liked. Good luck.