If you enjoyed Austin Bush's post on how to eat Thai food that I linked to a few days ago, you'll probably also like his new post on how to read and pronounce a Thai menu: "Thai is a picky language, and a misdirected tone, a shortened vowel or improperly articulated consonant can mean the difference between a hot meal and yet another bag of "Thai Basil" chips at 7-11. And not only are Thai words hard to pronounce, but,there is no commonly accepted method of transliteration from Thai to English, so a dish you saw spelled one way on a menu last week, could very well be spelled differently in the next place. To help you understand and make yourself understood, I've put together a basic guide to Thai pronunciation and transliteration."