Curry and Rice culture in Thailand


When “curry and rice” is talked about, the mind usually jumps to Indian cuisine, however, many cuisines worldwide have their own take on curry and rice, including Japanese culture. I feel as though I must bring all this to your attention as I myself am a strong advocate for curries (especially the soupy and spicy ones!) But did you know that Thais can eat rice with curries for breakfast, lunch and dinner? That’s how much we love this dish! Khao Gaeng or Khao Rad Gaeng shops (i.e. food stalls) on every street corner will usually have their own spinoff of this dish. “Khao” means rice and “Gaeng” means curry. BUT these street stalls

sell more than just the aforementioned dishes and produce all sorts of yummy regional menus made especially for the locals.

Now, before you jump ship and hail a Grab bike down to your nearest street stall, be warned....

Because not every rice and curry shop will have the best food and only a select few will be able to make it taste the best, however, this dish is still available nationwide at all sorts of affordable price points. The cool thing about this dish is that not only is it criminally cheap, these joints on average will have between 30-40 varieties of the curry and rice dish…that’s INSANE! 

A single serving of curry and rice (with 3 toppings) will set you back around 50-70 baht. But with that amount of curry choices, choosing between the flock can seem overwhelming. This is why we’ve got you with some suggestions:

If you choose soupy curries (green, red, southern yellow curries etc.) you can pair this with “non-soupy” or add-ons (and the list is HUGE.)

If you choose dried curries i.e. panaeng, red curry stir fry or pad-phet, you can pair these with soupy dishes to balance it out. From Tom Kha Gai, or “chicken in coconut milk”, peppery vegetable soup, stuffed cucumber soup or steamed fish with chillies and lime.


I love pairing spicy curries with some type of egg variety placed atop (as the egg has a natural sweetness which can help balance the spice from the curry dish.) From Thai omellete’s, boiled eggs, stewed eggs or kai pa-lo. As you can tell, I’m a huge advocate for home-cooked meals, whether that’s served out at the stalls or at home with the family (my mum used to be our best cook at home and I guess that’s where my love for homecooked meals came from.)

To cut it short, you can cook all these rice and curry “shop-style” meals right in your Thermomix! So get cooking!