Rice & Thai culture | Thai Etiquette #2
Rice is at the front and center of all things Thai. We eat it at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In addition, we offer it to the monks during Buddhist rituals, and rice has also historically been one of our biggest exports. However, there's so much more to it than being a staple food - Rice inherently plays a fundamental role in Thai culture. As such, cooking, offering, serving, and eating rice are bound by tradition, etiquette, and religious protocols that most foreigners are unfamiliar with. This blog will tell you about some essential practices which you can put to good use the next time you visit Thailand.
Amy presenting a tray of rice that is ready to be planted.
You may have already started to understand how rice is next to religion in Thailand. Our ancestors mostly ate rice, fish, and greens. In the old times, rice was hard to come by and growing it was labor-intensive. Then came the challenges of storing the rice during the rainy season, which also meant keeping it dry and rationing it to last while keeping it away from pests and preventing rot.
My grandparents on my mother's side farmed and traded rice. Unfortunately, my grandfather died young, and my grandmother singlehandedly raised my mother and five siblings while operating her rice business. To this day, my family treasures rice, and we rarely let it go to waste—every grain matters out of respect for the labor involved in producing it and the life of the plant itself.
This blog is not primarily focusing on rice varieties or how to cook them. However, there are a few short and noteworthy points when cooking rice. The first step is to rinse the uncooked rice thoroughly in cold water regardless of rice variety. Rinsing removes impurities and excess starch. It's as simple as rinsing the rice in cold water until the water is clear and no longer cloudy. Rice is a carbohydrate source and complements flavorful food, so we do not typically add oil or salt in the cooking process. We sometimes color and scent the rice using, among other things, butterfly pea flowers, pandan, or saffron. Finally, while cooking rice is relatively straightforward, many people overcomplicate glutinous rice. If you want a failsafe way to make it, check out my easy sticky rice video tutorial.
My husband is Swedish, and he has long since taken it upon himself, and with great pride, to perfect his rice cooking technique. He realized early on that he would win a lot of goodwill if his rice got the seal of approval from my mother and father. In addition, having made the rice allows him to call the family to dinner "Gin khao, gin khao!" meaning the food is ready, which directly translates to "eat rice, eat rice."
One of the oldest and most fundamental Buddhist rituals is the meritious food offering. Monks are technically not allowed to cook, so they depend on food offered during daily alms rounds and ceremonies. In Thailand, people mostly make merit at the temple during Buddhist holidays, but sometimes we get up early and offer to the monks when they walk past our house to collect food during alms rounds. Particularly on special days like birthdays or whenever we feel that we need a blessing. Below you can see a photo of my husband and me receiving a morning blessing from a passing monk on my birthday.
Amy and Anders receiving blessings from a Buddhist monk.
When offering food to monks, it is essential to remember that it's the first scoops that should be separated and placed in food containers called tiffin or Pin-toh. Whatever rice is leftover in the cooking pot, you can put away for later. It would be best if you never ate from the rice to be offered to the monks. The monks take out what they want to eat from the containers, and we then take the leftover blessed food back home to eat. In essence, even though we cook food and rice before going to the temple, we do not eat it until after it's been blessed by the monks. Food for Buddhist ceremonies should ideally be freshly made and of good quality, but only offer what you can afford.
In addition to making merit at the temple, Thai families often have a spirit house that serves as a shrine for protective spirits. The spirit house is located close to the home and resembles a miniature temple set on a single pole. It is common to offer candles, food, and drinks in the belief that this keeps the spirits happy. The spirits are served a single spoon of rice while the living gets a minimum of two.
Thai spirit house infront of Amy’s house.
When visiting restaurants in Thailand, the rice is most often served in a bowl that your table is expected to share. If the waiter offers you to take it first and you are having a meal with your Thai family it is important to not help yourself first. Instead, you ask the oldest family member to pass you their plate so that you can serve that person first. It's worth mentioning that this practice is only relevant if you are having dinner with your Thai family. You would typically not serve a friend or acquaintance before yourself.
When offered rice in the company of Thai people, you should be mindful of always taking at least two spoonfuls of rice from the bowl when you first plate up. Never put just one spoon of rice on the empty plate as a single scoop of rice is traditionally only offered to the spirits. The origin of this custom is not entirely clear and can't be completely attributed to spirit offerings. Some theories refer to old times when rice was a symbol of wealth. Confidently taking several spoons of rice signaled to the host that they had rice in abundance and could afford to share their precious rice with their guest. If you are not hungry, thinking you only have room for one spoonful of rice, then make the spoons smaller but still take two. The same goes when serving others at the table. Regardless of the origin, the next time you visit Thailand, you may notice that waitresses and street food vendors rarely distribute just one scoop of rice.
I hope you've gained valuable knowledge about the importance of rice in the life of Thai people. But, of course, there's much more to be said about rice farming, the different rice varieties common in Thai cuisine. I will delve deeper into some of this in future blogs and videos. I'd be curious to know what you want to know about rice and if there was something you found particularly interesting in this blog? Please let me know in the comments below.
