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 Thais are one of those happy peoples that live to eat. Food is an incredibly important part of the day, and missing a meal is almost unthinkable. When someone in the west says "I'm hungry" it's more or less an update on their general status, in the same way you would say "I'm tired", or "I'm feeling a bit under the weather". In Thai, "I'm hungry" carries an urgency and a call to action in its connotation, meaning "I'm going to eat, and soon."
Every culture has its own specific norms about eating. It is such an important part of everyday life, that a myriad rules and rituals develop around meals.
Thai food is served communally, meaning that when a bunch of Thai people get together, they don't order individual dishes like we do in the west. Each person orders one dish and all the dishes are shared between everyone. It's a sign of sophistication to listen to what other people order and then order something that compliments the other dishes. At the end of the process you should have several dishes that make up an entire harmonious meal.
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 Food is the great equalizer of Thailand. Though the country is very stratified in terms of class, Thai street food seems to bring everyone together. Some of the best Thai Food in the country can be found at these small unassuming stands, and it's not uncommon to see luxury cars lined up next to a particular vendor, and people in business suits eating next to taxi drivers on small plastic stools on the sidewalk.
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 Did you know that Thai people don't use chopsticks?
Thai culinary tradition relies on the good old spoon and fork, just like the west. Spoon and fork use is generally attributed to Thailand's King Rama V, as a result of European influence.
The Thais rely extremely heavily on the spoon and minimize the fork when they eat, unlike Americans. The fork is really just used to load things onto the spoon, rarely do Thai people put the fork in their mouths. Conspicuously absent from the set are knives, most Thai food is already bite sized in the cooking, and its unusual to have to cut anything into pieces, so they omit the knife in most cases.
The only time that Thais eat using chopsticks is when eating noodle soup, or Chinese food.
So the next time you're in a Thai Restaurant, don't worry about asking for chopsticks, the correct way to eat is with a spoon!
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