There are plenty of articles on how to eat Thai food. Most of them are pretty creative. It's almost as creative as a comment left on one social network in regard to Alan Wong's post last week. A poster summed the entirety of Thai cooking into four ingredients, never realizing some recipes have more than 110 ingredients.

"I received an email last week that told me Mars would be as big as the moon in August," laughed Wong. "Sometimes you have to look up information beyond a single source."

A more reliable source, Wong says, would be to read the article written by Palin Chongchinant. It was published by last month in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Chongchinant is a native of Thailand, and he offered up his ""wet, dry, yum, spicy" rule. One "wet" dish like soup or curry. One "dry" dish like a stir-fry or anything served on a plate. One "yum" dish, which is his phrasing for salad. And one "spicy" dish.

"My favorite part of the piece is when he mentions that rice should be thought of as a canvas on which to paint each bite," said Wong. "I enjoyed reading it because I know where that comes from. Thailand didn't start using utensils until the 19th century."

As a result, he says, many traditional dishes created prior to the 19th century were made with the intent to be pressed into small balls with the fingers and then dipped into bite-sized pieces. European spoons and forks came later. Their adoption is often credited to King Chulalongkorn the Great (Rama V), who was educated by an Englishwoman.

The knife never became popular, because the food is served already cut. Chinese spoons were later adopted for soups; chopsticks are seldom used.

"It might seem like a small thing, but it influenced much of the cooking," Wong said. "It reveals why jasmine rice became so important to Thai cuisine. Not only for the taste, but because it is the canvas our ancestors painted on."

Jasmine rice, which is native to Thailand, carries a nutty aroma and has a sweet taste. It tends to cling when cooked, but is less sticky than other rices used in Asia. It is a distinct white fluffy rice. One cup (200 grams) of cooked jasmine rice has about 205 calories.

Most Thai recipes consider 3/4 cup of rice (cooked) to equal one serving, but some restaurants serve based on Chinese portions with different rice. Livestrong has featured it as a top food, probably because it has less starch.

Nowadays, Thai people use forks to push food onto the spoon. However, Wong says he agrees with Chongchinant. Unless you're trying to impress someone with some knowledge about their culture, it's best to eat whatever way makes you happy.