‘Pla’ is another cooking method that has a process similar to spicy salad or Yum. The entry in the royal dictionary defines it as”a kind of side dish similar to spicy salad. but using raw meat.” Another definition is “A name for a dish that uses fresh meat, with orange or lime juice to cook the meat, mixed with vegetables and seasonings.”

The above definition shows that the ancient Thai people used raw meat to make salad, which we can see in the menu that is popular in the palace, such as fresh raw meat pla, which appears in ‘Kap Hae Chom Sweet & Savory Dishes’ composed by King Rama II .They are mentioned as follows:

From the above definition we can surmise that ancient Thai people often used raw meat to make salad and the following is an excerpt from a poem composed by King Rama II and found in “Kap Hae Chom Sweet and Savory Dishes”: –

“Slow, slow, raw meat pla, a sultry scent appeared
reminded of the time, where the beloved one was near”

For this dish, the raw meat is cut into bite-size chunks and topped with a salad dressing which is sour, salty and spicy and contains sliced shallots, lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves. Later on, a Chinese influence become apparent in the dish as shrimps were used instead of meat, something which is still popular to this day.