In David Thompson's interview with the Australian ABC (available on You Tube) entitled 'The secrets of Thai street food - ABC Radio National Breakfast', he mentions:

1. Food eaten with rice (shared with people)

I think it is 'ahan kap khao', literally food with rice.

2. Single-plate food (such as street food)

Sounds like 'ahan jan dio', but I am not sure exactly what it is.

Could somebody possibly confirm that my understanding is correct and provide me with the Thai script for '2'?

If you could also enlighten me further on these 2 expressions, I would be very grateful.

Thanks for your help.

PS Great interview

You've pretty much got it right. For a normal meal there'll be a range of shared dishes (curries, stir fried dishes, soups, perhaps a whole fish) eaten with rice. For a snack, or when eating on one's own one would have something like fried rice, phad Thai, rat naa, each of which is a meal in itself, or you'd have rice topped with, perhaps phat kraphao and a fried egg, again a single plate meal.

อาหารจานเดียว

Dear AyG,

It's good to hear from you.

Thank you for the detailed explanation on those two 'strands' (as David calls them) of Thai eating. I appreciate it.

Also, thanks for the Thai script for the 'single-plate meals'.