Thai Food In The West

[suegha]

I just ate at a Thai restaurant in Liverpool UK called 'Sabai'. It was edible. The tempura batter was way too think, more like fish batter from a fish'n'chip shop. The spicy chicken dish was not spicy. I ordered some prik nam pla to enliven it and then it became okay - I doubt if I'll be returning! The portions were good as well.

Like I say, it wasn't bad, it just was not Thai.

[Chaimai]

I just ate at a Thai restaurant in Liverpool UK called 'Sabai'. It was edible. The tempura batter was way too think, more like fish batter from a fish'n'chip shop. The spicy chicken dish was not spicy. I ordered some prik nam pla to enliven it and then it became okay - I doubt if I'll be returning! The portions were good as well.

Like I say, it wasn't bad, it just was not Thai.

I agree with suegha's posts (and crowbait) that in the UK the food is 'dummed down' for the Falang palate. I guess that this is a commercial necessity and 'spicy' is often a misnomer that just differentiates it from a boil in the bag offering from a supermarket.

I am fortunate that, in my local Thai the bplaa thaawt is made with decent tempura batter and they will also prepare food to my taste. I am usually the only person with a side order of nam prik !

Main drawback is that although the food is tasty it is somewhat more expensive than Third Road - the owner works on £30+ per head.

Edited August 13, 2008 by Chaimai

[Carib]

Amsterdam, lots of Thai restaurants, girlfriend loved it. Not just Amsterdam, but lost of other places in the Netherlands too. Where i am now (Caribbean island) one Thai restaurant, but the staff is 100% Filipino and the food has been adapted to the local taste.

[dee123]

my wife and I run a "Thai food" business.......It ain't what I eat at home though,...but the punters love it!......the restaurants that call themselves "Authentic" sit in the back kitchen and cook themselves different stuff too!!...I'm up front with this and describe our menu as "Asian/Thai.....in UK the growth/boom has long passed and as many shut down as open these days....you allways get one awkward sod who knows the real stuff

Edited August 13, 2008 by dee123

[chiliwasabi]

my wife and I run a "Thai food" business.......It ain't what I eat at home though,...but the punters love it!......the restaurants that call themselves "Authentic" sit in the back kitchen and cook themselves different stuff too!!...I'm up front with this and describe our menu as "Asian/Thai.....in UK the growth/boom has long passed and as many shut down as open these days....

I understand that Thai restaurants in the west need to serve food to satisfy their clientele. Unfortunately the average person wouldn't recognise good food if their lives depended on it (Unlike us enlightened folk moaning about the lack of decent Thai food in the west )

We need to form a secret society so that with a secret handshake or gesture we can be whisked away where we can sit on an upturned milk crate and eat what the staff are eating out back

[Carib]

my wife and I run a "Thai food" business.......It ain't what I eat at home though,...but the punters love it!......the restaurants that call themselves "Authentic" sit in the back kitchen and cook themselves different stuff too!!...I'm up front with this and describe our menu as "Asian/Thai.....in UK the growth/boom has long passed and as many shut down as open these days....

I understand that Thai restaurants in the west need to serve food to satisfy their clientele. Unfortunately the average person wouldn't recognise good food if their lives depended on it (Unlike us enlightened folk moaning about the lack of decent Thai food in the west )

We need to form a secret society so that with a secret handshake or gesture we can be whisked away where we can sit on an upturned milk crate and eat what the staff are eating out back

Mmmmmmmm yummyyyyyyy we will have rice rats ( medium rare ) and roaches..

You are taking a big chance here..

[chiliwasabi]

my wife and I run a "Thai food" business.......It ain't what I eat at home though,...but the punters love it!......the restaurants that call themselves "Authentic" sit in the back kitchen and cook themselves different stuff too!!...I'm up front with this and describe our menu as "Asian/Thai.....in UK the growth/boom has long passed and as many shut down as open these days....

I understand that Thai restaurants in the west need to serve food to satisfy their clientele. Unfortunately the average person wouldn't recognise good food if their lives depended on it (Unlike us enlightened folk moaning about the lack of decent Thai food in the west )

We need to form a secret society so that with a secret handshake or gesture we can be whisked away where we can sit on an upturned milk crate and eat what the staff are eating out back

Mmmmmmmm yummyyyyyyy we will have rice rats ( medium rare ) and roaches..

You are taking a big chance here..

Mmmm...rice rats! YES PLEASE...Yumm... as for the roaches, It depends on which variety...no regular household roaches for me thanks

[Groongthep]

These days we mainly eat food cooked at home as do any of my wife's Thai friends (some however eat at restaurants where they work but separate - and far superior IMO - food is cooked for staff).

I see this all the time at Thai restaurants in the US too. The Thai staff will prepare authentic food for themselves which they eat in the back. The food served to the patrons in front is the dumbed down version. On rare occasions I can talk them into fixing me the same food they eat, but more often than not they'll fix me the same old stuff they serve all the other farang only adding a little more chili. It particularly bothers me when they substitute broccoli for kana (sometimes translated as chinese broccoli even though it looks nothing like broccoli). Kana is available at most all asian supermarkets which are common in the larger cities on the US west coast. It is also simply a smaller variety of the same green leafy vegetable that we call collards or collard greens in the US which is available at almost all regular supermarkets too and is usually even cheaper than broccoli. Unfortunately, most Thai restaurant owners that I have met are reluctant to believe that any non-asian will like it. It's frustrating but not worth making a big fuss over. As Tolley has said the food is often (but not always) good anyway. It's just disappointing to me that it's so hard to find real thai food when you know there are people who are capable of making it for you but who practically refuse to do so.

[Tolley]

What is authentic Thai anyway??

Authentic Thai would be Thai food that tastes just the same as it does in Thailand. Regardless of the regional variety.

Heck even my Thai girl thinks that a lot of the Thai food in Sydney is better than you get in Thailand.

I would be interested as to how many other members of the Thai community in Sydney would agree with your girlfriend. I would guess not many.

At the end of the day a lot of the food is delicious and that is what counts.

I agree with you but the the point of my OP was that I wish more Thai restaurants outside of Thailand would prepare the food as they do here rather than changing the recipe to cater to farang tastes. It's not that the bastardized versions are necessarily bad its just that many of us miss the real thing when we are not in Thailand.

I am still not sure about your authentic "Thai" food.

You go to different places in Thailand and they cook things differently and even within the same regions they cook things differently.

You can get pretty authentic som tum in Sydney and you can make it yourself as all the thai ingredients are available.

I would say the same for many other dishes too like pad sie eiw and kao pad and pad thai etc many places sell them in Sydney and they taste much the same as many of the places in Thailand.

Many of the curries are almost the same as penang, massaman etc

Certain dishes are not the same like pad krapow which uses mince meat in Thailand but not in Australia.

BUT most of the Thais I know eat other things that i don't even know the names of and are not on any restaurant menus that i know about.

[Spee]

Amsterdam, lots of Thai restaurants, girlfriend loved it.

I agree. Of the Thai restaurants where I've eaten in the UK and Europe, the ones in the Amsterdam RLD area were quite good and as authentic as any. In particular, over the course of many visits I became acquainted with the "khun mair" at Mekong River bar in AMS, as well as many of the staff. They would not only cook authentic off the regular menu, but would also make special orders. Definitely one of my favorite spots on the continent.

For all those who really dig Thai food, as I do, but have a hard time finding a good restaurant, I would suggest doing some experimentation in your own kitchen and barbeque. For a party recently, I prepared a couple of different styles of "gai yang" (Isaan and Bangkok) along with three different table sauces. Surprisingly, the finished products came out half-decent and were a knockout with everyone.

The hardest things are finding good quality ingredients and putting in the time to experiment with the recipes until you get them right. But that's also the fun part.

The hardest thing with any kind of wok-style cooking is getting the right temperature, very hard unless over an open flame. For example, one of my all time favorites is "pad pak boong" where I substitute broccoli and/or spinach if I can't get the real thing. But to do it right, the oil has to be smoky hot to get the veg to flash fry and not get all greasy. I found when this happens on an electric stove, I usually set off the smoke alarm.

Edited August 18, 2008 by Spee

[percy2]

For example, one of my all time favorites is "pad pak boong" where I substitute broccoli and/or spinach

Quite a concept Pak Booong , without the Pak Boong.

Cheers

[roygsd]

Is Thai food booming all over the west.

In Australia Thai food is coming up everywhere, there is so many places to eat Thai food, especially in Sydney. The rave used to be Italian food, but Thai food looks like its taking over, there isnt many people I know who dont like it, actually they all say they love it.

Most Thai resturants in sydney are packed and there is 9 of them in one street in Sydney and they are always full too.

Is this happening in other countries too?

About 5 or 6 years ago I noticed a sudden boom in Thai resturants opening in the uk, but more interestingly I also noticed a large number of pubs up and down the country were also going over to thai food.

Each persons expectations of thia food will be very different, those with ladies from Issan will be very disapointed to find that most of the food dishes in these places are primaily from Southern or central provinces, almost Malaysian in many cases with a bit of thai on the menu which looks good on paper but not so nice on the plate.

I had a few meals in a thai resturant in Stockport where the staff were thai and they were able to deliver something to my wifes taste but I think I read the guy who was running it forgot to pay the VAT and other non compliance, not food related I am pleased to say but I suspct he may have been wiped out paying back what he owed.

Tried a few in the Liverpool area which were not that great and largly run by chinese staff as is the case nationwide I believe, however I went to a very small thai restaurant in a village near the hospital on the wirral some years ago and it had imported a thai chef and his wife who did produce very nice food but no Somtam I am afraid!

I was fortunate to be the only person in there one luchtime not long after it opened and it was just begining to snow a little,

I saw the chef and his wife peering from out of the kitchen door and called themover to ask what was obviously their first experience of snow, " beautiful" they exclaimed and they were quite exited, until I insisted on dragging them outside for a minute where the cold and dampness suddenly made them realise that snow isnt all its cracked up to be!

Hope the place is still going but I supect it's location and size might prove oherwise.

Been to several Thia resturants in Kent, there are two thai owned and operated ones in Broadstairs which are good but obviously you need to ask if you want then to cater for a thai palate, there is one in Margate tat opened a few years ago nder the name Thai 8 which was very nicely set out but no thai staff and I would discribe the food a Asian, uk style, ever went back and I passed it a few weeks ago and it has changed its name and advertises its food as Asian rather than thai.

I live in the Ashford area of kent where it has a bit of a market in the town centre and over the past few months on Saturdays a thai lady and her farang husband have opened a stall selling cooked noodles and other easy dishes as well as thai ingredients for home cooking. Very nice people but I fear that they might be struggling to cover their costs some weeks, good luck to them anyway.

In my experience the farang idea and their expectations of thai food leans towards the standard and not too hot malaysian dishes from the south and I think the operators of these establishments have likely learned from their own experience what dishes are likely to go down well and more importantly generate a return visit, which at the end of the day is why they opened the place.

Like most guys with a thai wife I am sure the sudden increase in the price of thai rice in the uk which is now between £23 and£35 a sack dependent upon quality/brand ( but I suspect my wife buys what she thinks is the bag which is the prettyist!) has not gone down well, dont know what the cost is in LOS these days per sack but i fit goes up much more I will have to start mporting it by the container myself.

Roy gsd

[lazeeboy]

went back to the uk this year and ate in 4 thai restaurants 2 in london 1 in essex and 1 in windsor ,only in windors did the staff speak thai and the food cooked bt a thai ,and the food was spot on according to the mrs..

[TypicalAnonym]

I agree that many Thai restaurants have thrived on the US west coast for a long time but I can't agree that many are too "authentic".

...

I personally think they s*ck. Same goes for the literally dozens of Thai restaurants I have eaten at in the Seattle area. All these places have real Thai cooks but prepare the same old tired out westernized Thai food. I speak Thai reasonably well and usually strike up a conversation with the staff when I go into these places. It's amazing how often you hear, as Ulysses G. has already said, that they don't even like their own food.

My first thought reading this was, "hey, are you me?"

My wife and I have yet to eat in a Thai restaurant anywhere in the US that we thought was "authentic" -- including too many to count in and around Seattle (where we live).

There are generally 2 problems:

1) Too sweet. Universally, all the food simply has too much sugar, coconut milk, or other sweetening agent put into it.

2) Wrong ingredients. E.g. green curry is not the same with bell pepper substituted for ma-keua.

When we feel like we want Thai, we just go for Vietnamese instead -- much less disappointing.

One other thing -- watching all the fools eating in Thai restaurants with chopsticks, for that "authentic oriental flavor".

Edited September 8, 2008 by TypicalAnonym

[sabaijai]

Tempura batter? In Thai cooking?

[goski]

Yes, like the fried shrimps with the very sweet sauce, "gung chup paeng tod". Fried vegetables with the spicy dip, "pag tod grob". Even fried som tam uses tempura batter or "paeng tod grob".

[meandwi]

We have a farm in South Florida where we grow and sell herbs, spices, fruits and vegtables to the local Thai grocery stores and restaurants. All are organic and from seeds dried and mailed from our farm in Thailand. I have to tell ya'll, The Restaurants keep the good stuff for themselves! There is one place we like that has a "seperate" Thai menu. Completly different from the farang menu. The best food will be at your local buddhist temple on the holy days.

meandwi

[Groongthep]

Yes, like the fried shrimps with the very sweet sauce, "gung chup paeng tod". Fried vegetables with the spicy dip, "pag tod grob". Even fried som tam uses tempura batter or "paeng tod grob".

Gung chup paeng tawd (กุ้งชุบแป้งทอด) is not the same as shrimp tempura. Shrimp (or prawn) Tempura is made by dipping the shrimp (or vegetables or whatever) in a very thin and light coating of rice flour and water and then deep frying it. The coating you get on anything "chup paeng tawd" uses a much thicker bread-like batter which is then deep fried. Most every time I've ordered gung chup paeng tawd (at any Thai restaurant in or out of Thailand) it came with 75% breading and 25% gung. Although I love Thai food in general, gung chup paeng tawd is not one of my favorites. Much prefer the Japanese style tempura shrimp.

[thetravellingcat]

It is my sisters birthday tomorrow (22) and she wants the whole family to go out for an expensive, sub-standard "thai" meal. We're looking at 20.00 GBP per head which is like 1,200 Baht. You could feed and water at least 6 people in Thailand for the cost of one person here in England! Absolute joke. Restaurant eating in England has always been a treat, it is something the average family would only do once per month.

I'll report back here after with pix if possible.

[Jockstar]

I have eaten in Thai restaurants in a few countries. But the best Thai i have eaten outside of Thailand is here in Sydney. Sure there are many places that are Thai restaurants. But they are not the real deal. Especially here in the Eastern Suburbs. But the 2 best places i have been to are in the city. The places where the Thais eat and the farang who are in the know. There is however another place in Randwick that my wife and her Thai friend went to the other day. The wife said it was the real deal. There are places out there. But you just have to look. BTW the 2 places in the city are fantastic.

[koshkakat]

I haven't lived in Sydney for 8 years now so this might be a bit out of date - but it used to be easy to pick the "authentic" Thai places. They were full of Thais - and I even remember being in one where they had to hunt for the English menu - and we were the only farangs in the place.

[thetravellingcat]

reporting back from yesterday's "thai" restaurant experience!

8 people @ 15 GBP per person + drinks probably came to something like 140 GBP.

starter: chinese prawn crackers

starter #2: japanese style battered vegetables (tempura) and spring rolls.

main course: sour vegetables, spicy vegetables, thai green curry, noodles,

desert: deep fried banana with ice cream..

typical bastardisation of Thai cuisine, then again the impracticalities of downing gallons of water between mouthfuls of somtam are huge and you've really got to live in Thailand to fully appreciate the spicy, sour and sweet flavours.

ignorance is bliss

[junki3korean]

I have eaten in Thai restaurants in a few countries. But the best Thai i have eaten outside of Thailand is here in Sydney. Sure there are many places that are Thai restaurants. But they are not the real deal. Especially here in the Eastern Suburbs. But the 2 best places i have been to are in the city. The places where the Thais eat and the farang who are in the know. There is however another place in Randwick that my wife and her Thai friend went to the other day. The wife said it was the real deal. There are places out there. But you just have to look. BTW the 2 places in the city are fantastic.

in the city hey.....i`m assuming chat thai?? across from capitol theatre?? and the another one???? hmmm......SAPP THAI??? or SPICE I AM???

They are the best i think......BUt randwick aint to bad there are a couple of good ones there at the "spot"

Where abouts you located jockstar??

[chiliwasabi]

I have eaten in Thai restaurants in a few countries. But the best Thai i have eaten outside of Thailand is here in Sydney. Sure there are many places that are Thai restaurants. But they are not the real deal. Especially here in the Eastern Suburbs. But the 2 best places i have been to are in the city. The places where the Thais eat and the farang who are in the know. There is however another place in Randwick that my wife and her Thai friend went to the other day. The wife said it was the real deal. There are places out there. But you just have to look. BTW the 2 places in the city are fantastic.

in the city hey.....i`m assuming chat thai?? across from capitol theatre?? and the another one???? hmmm......SAPP THAI??? or SPICE I AM???

They are the best i think......BUt randwick aint to bad there are a couple of good ones there at the "spot"

Where abouts you located jockstar??

Chat Thai is pretty overrated but at least their ingredients are fresh.

[junki3korean]

I have eaten in Thai restaurants in a few countries. But the best Thai i have eaten outside of Thailand is here in Sydney. Sure there are many places that are Thai restaurants. But they are not the real deal. Especially here in the Eastern Suburbs. But the 2 best places i have been to are in the city. The places where the Thais eat and the farang who are in the know. There is however another place in Randwick that my wife and her Thai friend went to the other day. The wife said it was the real deal. There are places out there. But you just have to look. BTW the 2 places in the city are fantastic.

in the city hey.....i`m assuming chat thai?? across from capitol theatre?? and the another one???? hmmm......SAPP THAI??? or SPICE I AM???

They are the best i think......BUt randwick aint to bad there are a couple of good ones there at the "spot"

Where abouts you located jockstar??

Chat Thai is pretty overrated but at least their ingredients are fresh.

Chat thai over rated??? jing!?! that is hard to believe i eat there very frequently.....at everytime the place is crowed by thai`s,

farangs, and asians.....hard to believe you don`t like it.......the somtum there is one of the best i`ve ever tried and i`m comparing with thailand.

hmmm.......next time you go try the somtum, gai tort , Mu bing, Moo dad deaw and there great sweets........

i would say the best thai food in sydney.....

andy

[smacko]

i think the quality of thai food in australia, beats thailand hands down.. because the quality of our meat is so superior..

however that's when it's cooked by a thai for themselves to eat

we've been disappointed a few times when eating thai out... these days if we're eating out we'll try something different... and my wife will satisfy her need for thai food at home!

[chiliwasabi]

i think the quality of thai food in australia, beats thailand hands down.. because the quality of our meat is so superior..

however that's when it's cooked by a thai for themselves to eat

we've been disappointed a few times when eating thai out... these days if we're eating out we'll try something different... and my wife will satisfy her need for thai food at home!

You can get a pretty decent quality of meat in Thailand and I don't think ours is really any better. HOWEVER, I don't eat beef so that might be an area where our quality trumps that of Thailand.

And yes it is always better when it is cooked to suit Thai tastes.

[Jingthing]

Hey, sometimes its hard to get real Thai food at a Thai restaurant in Thailand.

It happened to me tonight, got two dishes that are meant to be very spicy, asked for them to be very spicy, in Thai, three times, they came mai phet. Talked to the waitress about it who told me farangs can't handle it and will send it back and even just walk out, especially Russians (which was funny because she admitted that she didn't think I was Russian), and that she told the cook what I asked for but also told the cook I was a farang. Presto. Voila.

Edited October 14, 2008 by Jingthing

[smacko]

You can get a pretty decent quality of meat in Thailand and I don't think ours is really any better. HOWEVER, I don't eat beef so that might be an area where our quality trumps that of Thailand.

And yes it is always better when it is cooked to suit Thai tastes.

yeah well beef would be one of the meats that australian quality is far superior to thai.

[Jockstar]

in the city hey.....i`m assuming chat thai?? across from capitol theatre?? and the another one???? hmmm......SAPP THAI???

Tok tong na khup! Well done. totally correct. These are by far the best. I cant comment on the Randwick place as i never ate there. But the wife and her Thai friend rated it. BTW i live in Randwick. You?