The kitchen in Thailand is a very simple affair, which is generally built away from the main house. It is a plain room, with a cement or dirt floor, with unglazed windows which might boast the luxury of screens to keep out the mosquitoes, although many do not even have a door, let alone window screens. In the central region, Thai homes are elevated on teak poles due to annual flooding during the late rainy season from September till end October
The central feature of the kitchen is the stove, which is generally built-in, and constructed of cement or brick. It has a large aperture below to insert and remove the charcoal pot, a funnel shaped vessel of
kiln-baked earthenware or a cement-lined metal pail that holds the burning charcoal. When the charcoal pot is in place, it fits directly below a circular opening in the top of the stove. This hole has flanges which hold a ‘wok’ (the traditional round-bottomed Asian frying pan) firmly in place above the charcoal fire. Extra charcoal is kept in a box or a sack beside the stove. In poorer households, they will simply use the charcoal pot, made with flanges on the top, as the stove.
Because there are no oven arrangements, there is no baking in the home, and in the entire range of Thai cuisine there are almost no baked dishes to be found.
The next most important thing in the kitchen will be a freestanding storage cupboard resembling an old-fashioned Western meat safe, made from either wood or aluminum. The back, sides and doors are all covered with wire-mesh screens to keep the flies out and allow air circulation. The legs stand in saucers of water to discourage ants and other insects. This cupboard usually houses nothing more
than some stored garlic bulbs, the ubiquitously fish sauce (nam pla), some dried fish, dried chilies and perhaps some precooked cold rice.
Due to the hot climate and the fact that a Thai kitchen in the countryside seldom has a refrigerator, shopping is done daily at the local market, and leftovers are uncommon.
Thai cooking is very easy and it is not really necessary to have any special equipment in order to cook Thai food. Any pots and pans that you have at home will do but we would like to introduce you to some of the utensils that are commonly used in Thailand
Thai cooking involves making curry pastes and all the ingredients need to be combined together so that they form a paste. A large, heavy granite pestle and mortar is used for this. Thai families will always have one in their kitchen and they can also be used for grinding dried spices. If you do not have one, you can use an electric blender to make the pastes and a coffee grinder to grind the dried spices. Wooden pestle and mortars are used for making salads, most notably, papaya salad.