Order a balance of dishes. I know you all want to eat phat thai, but it’s actually a jaan diaow, a one-plate meal typically enjoyed by one person eating alone. When eating with others, try to order dishes that everybody can share (i.e. virtually everything except phat thai or any other noodle dish). Also, try to order a good balance of dishes. Ordering four coconut milk-based curries is a bad idea you’ll almost certainly regret later. I always try to order one fried vegetable dish, one sour soup and one uncooked dish, perhaps a yam (Thai-style salad), or a naam phrik (chili dip). Throw in a grilled or deep-fried fish and you’ve got yourself a phat meal. This is very easy to do in most restaurants, and allows you to truly sample the variety of Thai cooking.
2. Always eat your food with rice. Growing up, I recall my family ordering Chinese food and how the rice would always end up unopened, in its white container, until, several months later, it solidified and went sour and was eventually thrown away. Needless to say, I don’t do this any more. In fact, I can’t even imagine eating a spicy kaeng som or a phat fai daeng without rice. In Thailand, rice is the “base” of the meal, much like bread elsewhere. And since the flavours of Thai cooking are so strong, you’re going to want something to tone it down a bit anyway. There are many Thais who, in leaner times, have had little more to eat than a plate of rice and maybe a splash of fish sauce, but you’ll find very few, if any, who have ever scarfed down a bowl of kaeng phet sans riz.