Thai cuisine (, , ) is the national cuisine of Thailand. Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. Australian chef David Thompson, an expert on Thai food, observes that unlike many other cuisines, Thai cooking is "about the juggling of disparate elements to create a harmonious finish. Like a complex musical chord it's got to have a smooth surface but it doesn't matter what's happening underneath. Simplicity isn't the dictum here, at all." Traditional Thai cuisine loosely falls into four categories: tom (boiled dishes), yam (spicy salads), tam (pounded foods), and kaeng (curries). Deep-frying, stir-frying and steaming are methods introduced from Chinese cuisine. In 2017, seven Thai dishes appeared on a list of the "World's 50 Best Foods", an online poll of 35,000 people worldwide by CNN Travel. Thailand had more dishes on the list than any other country: tom yam kung (4th), pad thai (5th), som tam (6th), massaman curry (10th), green curry (19th), Thai fried rice (24th) and nam tok mu (36th). History Historical influences Thai cuisine and the culinary traditions and cuisines of Thailand's neighbors, especially India, Malaysia and Indonesia, have mutually influenced one another over the course of many centuries. According to the Thai monk Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikku's writing, ‘India's Benevolence to Thailand’, Thai cuisine was influenced by Indian cuisine. He wrote that Thai people learned how to use spices in their food in various ways from Indians. Thais also obtained the methods of making herbal medicines from the Indians. Some plants like sarabhi of the family Guttiferae, panika or harsinghar, phikun or Mimusops elengi and bunnak or the rose chestnut etc. were brought from India. According to a book 'Mae Krua Hua Pa' (first published in 1908) by Lady Plian Bhaskarawongse (ท่านผู้หญิงเปลี่ยน ภาสกรวงษ์), she found that Thai cuisine had had a strong gastronomical cultural line from Sukhothai (1238–1448) through Ayuttthaya (1351–1767) and Thonburi period (1767–1782) vis-à-vis Siamese governmental officers' daily routines (such as royal cooking) and their related cousins. Thai food during the Thonburi period tended to be more similar to that from the Ayutthaya period, except the addition of Chinese food resulted from her prosperous international trade. Western influences, starting in 1511 when the first diplomatic mission from the Portuguese arrived at the court of Ayutthaya, have created dishes such as foi thong, the Thai adaptation of the Portuguese fios de ovos, and sangkhaya, where