While Thailand does serve up plenty of Western foods for those who prefer to play it safe, avoiding the local Thai delicacies is a big opportunity lost. While the local cuisine does feature the occasional odd ingredient, there are several other flavourful dishes that you can try to truly relish the flavours of Thai cuisine.

Khao Mun Gai

This is a very popular rice dish served with chicken and is a great option if you’re looking to ease your way into Thai cuisine. The rice is cooked in a chicken stock and is thus infused with flavourful chicken fat. The chicken is poached alongside simple ingredients like scallions, ginger and other local seasonings.

Tom Yum Gung

This is the Thai version of Chinese hot and sour soup and is popularly enjoyed worldwide. It is a flavourful shrimp soup infused with galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice, lemongrass, mushrooms, crushed red chilli peppers and coconut milk. The dish is so popular that you’ll find it at any street food stall or even restaurants in Koh Samui.

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Pad Thai Gung

Pad Thai is another well-known dish worldwide, and Pad Thai Gung is a popular variant that features fresh shrimp. The ingredients used are typical for any Pad Thai dish – pre-cooked vermicelli rice noodles, egg, bean sprouts, tofu, tamarind, and chopped peanuts. These are all tossed together and stir-fried in a hot wok. This is another easily accessible dish found even in several luxury resorts in Thailand like Anantara Bophut Koh Samui Resort.

Khao Ka Moo

This hearty meal is a dish of pork legs braised in a long-kept mother broth which is made up of various soy sauces, palm sugar, cinnamon sticks, and garlic. The pork is also served with chopped leafy greens that help cut the richness of the fat and a boiled egg marinated in a braising liquid with chilli sauce, garlic, fresh chilli and pork bone soup.

Khao Soi

This delicious meal is a treat for the tastebuds with a serving of chewy flat egg rice noodles, tender chicken drumsticks and a Thai red curry sauce which are then topped with more fried noodles and spring onions. This is presented with a side of pickled greens and sliced shallots.