Poung Phrik

Clockwise from top left: granulated sugar, crushed dried red chili flakes,
bottle of fish sauce, sliced red chilis in vinegar, crushed peanuts

One of the most common condiments found on a table at Thailand is "Poung Phrik," พวงพริก. Poung Phrik is a sweet, sour, spicy and salty accompaniment that allows the diner to tweak the flavor of their dish to their taste. Thais don’t believe that the chef, regardless of how many Michelin stars he/she has received in the past, would cook every dish to please everyone’s palette, especially the level of heat from chili.

If you’ve ever been in a noodle shop in Thailand, you might be familiar with this set of four seasonings:

Ground dried red chili flakes (Phrik Pon) phrik = chilis
Sliced red chilis in vinegar
Granulated sugar
Fish sauce

This set of condiments on the table might vary depending on the type of food they serve in that particular restaurant.

For a pork noodle restaurant, for example, the fish sauce might be in a bottle on the table and one of the quartet is replaced with crushed roasted peanuts (see picture to right).

For a boat noodle shop, the sliced red chilies in vinegar might turn into crushed red chilies with garlic in vinegar or, crushed yellow chilies in vinegar, (boasted as the hottest…and it is!)

The “one dish” shop or the “made to order” kind of food (usually serving drunken noodles, Pad See Ew, or rice topped with an omelette, or rice topped with some stir fried meat and holy basil) would replace the fish sauce with “Nam Pla Phrik”, the fish sauce with slice bird’s eye chilies and lime juice.

The “Khao Soi” shop will have the red chili flakes stir-fried in oil instead of the dried red chili flakes. This is only scratching the surface of the “Poung Phrik” culture.

Others:
Peanut sauce
Sweet Chili Sauce
“Sot Sriracha”
Soy Sauce