| 
       
      Just about every Thai meal is a delicate 
		balanced exercise of vibrant tastes. The soups and curries tend to be 
		sour and creamy sweet, flavored using sour tamarind, scarlet-hot 
		chilies, tangy lime leaves as well as handfuls of fragrant basil, 
		cilantro and mint. Even though the cooking of Thailand has borrowed from 
		some other countries, stir-fried and steamed recipes from China, spices 
		or herbs from India - most of these influences have already been molded 
		right into a cuisine whose flavor and fragrances are distinctively Thai.   |