Thai food is widely known for being hot and spicy since almost all Thai food is cooked with basic ingredients such as garlic, chillies, limejuice, lemon grass and fresh coriander leaf and fermented fish sauce (nam pia) or shrimp paste (kapi) to make it salty.
Since rice is the staple food in Thailand, it is usually eaten at every meal with soups, curries, fried vegetables and nam phrik. Nam phrik is a hot sauce, prepared in a variety of ways and differs from region t oregion: nam phrik pla pon is a ground dried fish and chilli sauce, nam phrik pla raa is a fermented fish and chilli sauce, nam phrik kapi is a shrimp paste and chilli sauce, nam phrik oong is a minced pork, tomato and chilli sauce. In general, the basic ingredients of nam phrik include shrimp paste, garlic, chilli, fermented fish sauce and iemon juice.