มุมภาษาไทย
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mum pha:să: thai
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Thai Language Corner
Thai Deliciously I By Klavs Johansen
n Thai, many dishes are named according to their main ingredients and the way they are prepared. This makes it possible to cover a wide range of dishes just by using different combinations of a limited amount of words. It also gives you a pretty good idea of what you are eating! In this month’s Thai Language Corner, we will list a few mouthwatering (น้ำ�ลายไหล/ ná:m la:i lăi/) examples. As usual, do speak out the words aloud imitating a Thai close to you – or hit directly for the nearest food stall to try your luck. Pronunciation is alpha and omega, so listen out for the tones and the vowels sounds and lengths (remember long vowels are indicated with a colon :). Let’s start by putting together a typical dish – possibly the most typical dish: ข้าว/ khâ:o/ ~ rice ผัด/ phàt/ ~ to stir-fry ขาวผัด/ khâ:o phàt/ ~ fried rice The dish then comes in different variations: ข้าวผัดหมู/ khâ:o phàt mŭ:/ ~ fried rice with pork ข้าวผัดกุ้ง/ khâ:o phàt kûng/ ~ fried rice with shrimp ข้าวผัดไก่/ khâ:o phàt kài/
~ fried rice with chicken ข้าวผัดเนื้อ/ khâ:o phàt núea/ ~ fried rice with beef
Another – very famous – dish can be constructed as follows: ต้ม/ tôm/ ~ to boil ยำ�/ yam/ ~ a spicy salad ต้มยำ�/ tôm yam/ ~ a spicy lemongrass (ตะไคร้/ tàkhrái/ ) soup and popular variations are: ต้มยำ�กุ้ง/ tôm yam kûng/ ~ spicy shrimp soup ต้มยำ�ไก่ / tôm yam kài/ ~ spicy chicken soup ต้มยำ�ปลา/ tôm yam pla:/ ~ spicy fish soup ต้มยำ�ทะเล/ tôm yam thále:/ ~ spicy seafood soup with ทะเล/ thále:/ actually meaning the sea
In addition to ผัด/ phàt/ and ต้ม / tôm /, common means of food preparation are: นึ่ง/ nûeng/ ~ to steam, ทอด/ thôr:t/ ~ to deep-fry ย่าง/ yâ:ng/ ~ to grill Some common ingredients in Thai cooking are: พริกไทย/ phrík thai/ ~ pepper
กระเทียม/ kràthiam/ ~ garlic and
มะนาว/ mána:o/ ~ lemon.
Tasty examples of dishes prepared one of these ways, using one or more of these ingredients are: ปลาช่อนนึ่งมะนาว/ pla: chôr:n nûeng mána:o/ ~ snakehead fish steamed in lemon หมูทอดกระเทียมพริกไทย/ mŭ: thôr:t kràthiam phrík thai/ ~ deep-fried pork with garlic and pepper ไก่ย่าง/ kài yâ:ng/ ~ grilled chicken and many more may be found combining just vocabulary mentioned here.
ขอให้อร่อยนะ/ khŏr: hâi àròri ná’/
~ bon appétite! and please allow me to end this month’s column with an invitation to send us questions or proposals for Thai language topics to be covered in future columns. All questions and proposals are welcome, no topic too small and, hopefully, only a few too large, just send an email to thai@maprao.dk
Photo By Takeaway (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons April 2014 • ScandAsia.Thailand 51