Thailand with food allergies

With a prevalence of peanuts and cashews in Thai cooking, we'd imagine that visiting Thailand with these food allergies could be hard to navigate.

1. Shop for yourself

Stock up at your closest supermarket: Should you prefer to supply your own food, Thai supermarkets in every tourist town or city are very well stocked and you shouldn’t need to bring anything from home. All manner of fresh tropical Thai fruits and vegetables can be found, with lots of Western packaged brand name product, as well. Duchy and Waitrose products, for example, are common in larger tourist supermarkets – easily found in Bangkok, Phuket and Koh Samui, etc.

Good news and bad news. If you're allergic to peanuts, you'll want to give dishes like Pad Thai a wide berth. If you're allergic to gluten – all the best Thai staples involve rice and rice noodles (and mojitos and other gluten/dairy-free cocktails are easy to find). On Koh Samui, Tesco is sign-posted all over the island and is located on the Bophut/Chaweng road – it'll make sense when you get here, there aren't many big roads.

2. Cook for yourself

If you’d have peace of mind knowing exactly what goes into your food, you’ll prefer cooking in a spacious, well-equipped kitchen. On Koh Samui, there's a huge range of self-catering accommodation on Koh Samui, at all price levels. See where to stay on Koh Samui for a variety of villa and apartment recommendations.

How to eat out in Thailand with allergies?

This list of Thai-language food allergies might help. (Disclaimer: Koh Samui Sunset is not responsible for this content and cannot guarantee the accuracy of the translation).

If, rather than a severe allergy, you just prefer to avoid certain foods – consider a pocket Thai phrasebook and dictionary to use as a back-up.