Eating in Thailand...customs and manners.

   The story of Thailand's silverware, possibly true, goes back to the early days of western influence in Siam. The King was a guest for dinner at a prominent Anglican clergyman's house at the King's request. He was curious about English table service.  A fine dinner was laid with all the customary  English  silver.  After the meal the King announced  "I'll keep these two" holding up a table fork and a table spoon.  To this day that is what Thai use.  In 4 years living with a Thai family I've never seen chopsticks and almost never see Thai using them.  The fork is held in the left hand and the spoon in the right, the fork being used to move food to the spoon.  The spoon is slightly larger than our typical table spoon.  Occasionally a wide bodied, short handled  spoon will be used for soup.
    Breakfast, lunch and dinner are known here but not nearly as standard as in the west.  There is a common tendency to eat when hungry.  And, because food is ubiquitous in urban Thailand, people are seen eating everywhere and all the time.  They are as comfortable sitting on the floor eating as at a table and many Thai homes do not even have a table at which to eat.
   Mealtimes seem a bit random to me.  If there is food set out the first to arrive simply begins eating with no sense of waiting for others to arrive.  It someone has eaten before the meal they just skip it.  When a person finishes eating he/she just leaves, no excuse me, thank you, or any such formalities.  Every meal has fish oil, a variety of spices (much Thai food is extremely spicy)  and sugar available.  They add sugar to things we wouldn't....Pad Thai for example.
   Usually there several bowls of food placed at the center.  People have their own shallow bowls filled with a bed of rice.  They use the spoon with which they eat to ladle from the bowls of food.  Guests of honor's bowls are often the recipients of food placed by other diners, especially from women, e.g., a particularly fatty piece of pork. Nothing is ever passed, diners just stretch for what they want.  Yesterday  during lunch at school a teacher stood up to reach for something and dragged her scarf through some sauce.            
  Using a tooth pick without covering your mouth is considered gauche.  Conversely it is perfectly acceptable to publicly pick your nose.
   At school the teachers supplement the school lunch with fruits, cold roast corn, a variety of sweets, nuts, soybeans, spices and other entrees.  Yesterday they had krumkaka...it had a slight greenish cast and a different taste but was good.