Thai Foods Worst Representatives

[The Gentleman Scamp]

I was flamed like a Texan drumstick for slagging off Thai food on another forum as if it were blasphemy to do so.

Don't get me wrong, I love Thailand and most aspects of it, I think it is still one of the best countries to live in and despite my gripes, I only have to witness something as simple as a staff member at Carrefour emerging from nowhere on rollerblades, then gliding off with my broccoli to get a price, to fall in love with the country all over again.

I just fail to understand why the food of a country that has the worst quality beef of any non third world country is hailed so highly and almost always mentioned in the top 5 things about Thailand.

"Oh the food, isn't the food great" Well that depends really where you have been looking for the food, if it's a decent restaurant then that may very well be the case, if you're eating more closer to home (esp in Bkk) then for some of us it is a different story altogether..

It astounds me when even people of mid range to high intelligence have suggested I go home if the food here is not to my liking when I have merely vented my graphic disgust and fascination when seeing Thai people sit around cross legged eating the most vile and inedible muck that somebody with normal tastebuds could imagine.

I'm sorry all you Thai food supporters but I have never been partial to picking tiny hair like bones from small fish that have been burned to a crisp, I can't stand the herb they put on nearly all their food, you know the one, that stuff that tastes like Channel No.5 - and I do not have a penchant to removing inedible matter from my food, be it lemongrass from soups or bone, knuckle and fat from minced pork or even dried chilli pods from more elegant Thai cuisiune.

Then there's the crap in 7-Eleven, the sweet bread, the horrible sugary sweets, the sickly, stodgy synthetic rolls with a synthetic sausage in them, the synthetic pizzas, the list goes on...

Take a stroll outside 7-Eleven you are likely be greeted by the smell of a rack of sundried squid, even if said squid are in the next soi you can't avoid the pong, and yet they chew on this as if it's toffee, I don't know why they don't cut it up and put it in a bowl of milk with jam on it, though I wouldn't put that past them either.

Watching Thai people eat, especially traditional Thai food, really is fascinating, truly fascinating. I sit and watch in awe as they pick at little bits of sticky rice and chicken foot and pop it in their mouth without a care in the world, only to leave it, as they always do, unfinished and on the table under a flybasket.

And what the <deleted> is somtam????? ..Smashed up chillis with fish sauce (a ghastly idea in itself) and shredded unripe papaya with smashed up small black RAW crab!

Jesus!

The prawns are full of antibiotics though otherwise nice, though it would be nice if the Thai's could, just for once in their lives, finish the job of peeling the ###### things, then there's red snapper... A wonderful fish, but you order a fresh one to be grilled and when it arrives you can't see it because it's under a mountain of lemongrass, chilli, God knows what other rubbish and topped off with a slice of lime that the waiter will insist is lemon until he's blue in the face.

There is Thai food that I like*, and I am very experimental with world cuisine generally, but the above is what you people should try before placing 'food' in the top three things about Thailand.

* Providing I am merely peckish... When I am very hungry and in need of a proper mans meal I find that all Thai food is useless ALL Thai food is useless and get a moto Larry's Dive.

[Darknight]

Don't even mention the Fermented Bamboo stuff

I make my wife sit outside when she eats that

[sriracha john]

To each his own is certainly the case here. I enjoy almost ALL Thai foods with the one real exception being the grilled/fried bugs. With all the wonderful choices from the animal kingdom, I see no need to delve into the insect kingdom.

I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of 7/11 foods. As they aren't really Thai, they are, indeed, crappy reconstructions of foreign foods that end up being the most appalling.

[devildog683]

i dont think their food is that bad........... i eat almost everything

[sabaijai]

Ever heard the term "culture-bound"? Could be why you don't care for most Thai cuisine and why other folks who do like it react to you so badly. Your descriptions of well-liked Thai dishes suggest you're a poster boy for ethnocentrism.

[chuchok]

You could actually turn the whole question around.If you see Thai people in the western world, I have found that they will always eat Thai food first and farang food second.Some aquire a taste for western food I grant you,but if you asked them to make a choice..what would it be??

I have also seen some well educated Thai people almost flatly refuse to eat farang food. To see a thai person turn up their nose at roast lamb is to me quite amuzing.

Before we get into an argument on whats' better...there are some fantastic western dishes as well as Thai.

My thoughts are each to his own, but at least give it a try.

Everybody is different...who are we to judge!

Edited May 11, 2005 by chuchok

[The Gentleman Scamp]

ethnocentrism.

Have to look that one up, I'll be back in a minute,

[devildog683]

i actually prefer thai food over western, cant explain it really.........

[The Gentleman Scamp]

Belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group.

Well, there are many things I believe the Thai's do beter than us which we could learn from and vice versa - but this is not a case of saying that I think the Thai's should eat the same food that we do, although as stated above, they do try but only copy the worst food, fast food, probably because they once saw Britney Spears doing so and she has blond hair and white skin etc... etc...

Anyway, where was I? ..Yes, I would have no right nor wish to say the Thai's should eat like we do but I have a right to go on a public forum and turn my nose up at Thai food just as the Thai's have a right to turn their nose up at roast lamb.

To us it's madness and the forum consists of mainly us.

[pedro01]

Belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group.

Well, there are many things I believe the Thai's do beter than us which we could learn from and vice versa - but this is not a case of saying that I think the Thai's should eat the same food that we do, although as stated above, they do try but only copy the worst food, fast food, probably because they once saw Britney Spears doing so and she has blond hair and white skin etc... etc...

Anyway, where was I?  ..Yes, I would have no right nor wish to say the Thai's should eat like we do but I have a right to go on a public forum and turn my nose up at Thai food just as the Thai's have a right to turn their nose up at roast lamb.

To us it's madness and the forum consists of mainly us.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Soapbox...

No-one's knocking your rights to come on this forum Scamp - just suggesting that you are possibly not as open to new experiences & cultures (and for sure, food) as others. Your comments about Britney back it up.

I am in the Thai food is better camp. Fresh vegetables at a fraction of UK prices, same for the fish & other seafoods. The different tastes & smells are what it's all about.

In Japan, I have had people tell me they value the texture of certain foods, we don't seem to have this in the west. So - different cultures seem to look for different things in foods.

Back home (UK) - taste & smell are pretty much it. UK diet is pretty crap & so is the way UK people eat. Thais seem to take their time over food - in the UK a meal seems to be something you have to get through ASAP.

I find eating a much more pleasurable experience in Asia & I now rarely eat western food - way too stodgy for me now.

[chuchok]

I admit that I prefer spicy food,but what on earth did the Thais do before chili was introduced here?

As for fish, unless it comes from the sea, it has all the flavour of wet paper..no wonder they need to flavour it.

[aughie]

The only thing that I tried to eat and couldn't was a salad of dried fish..It seams the fish was soaked in nam pla and then dried. Too salty and too fishy.

[tutsiwarrior]

The only thing that I tried to eat and couldn't was a salad of dried fish..It seams the fish was soaked in nam pla and then dried.  Too salty and too fishy. 

take one dead fish (already smells of rotten p*ssy), soak in nam pla (aka rotten p*ssy sauce), dry it, make salad of it and eat it...

only in Thailand...

[The Gentleman Scamp]

No-one's knocking your rights to come on this forum Scamp - just suggesting that you are possibly not as open to new experiences & cultures (and for sure, food) as others. Your comments about Britney back it up.

You'll have to elaborate on the Britney comment, but what I meant was that the western food the Thai's try to embrace or try to copy seems to be the worst western food there is... Why? Media? Image?

I despise McDonalds, KFC et al and I despise ALL of the fast food pizza companies but that doesn't provoke similar comments does it?

I am open to new experiences, I have tried all of the above, and I've done the insects (and the grasshoppers are not too bad though they all taste of the same soya spray which is applied) but I need a mans meal at the end of the day, I need my meat and potatoes when very hungry, and I am one of these people who leaves eating until I can bear the hunger no more.

Remember I am refering to one aspect of Thai food - the not very nice stuff, 7-Eleven, Issan, Laos or street.

My favourite foods are actually Mexican and Japanese and Thailand is very good at catering for the tastes of those like myself.

Edited May 11, 2005 by The Gentleman Scamp

[steverino]

The Final couple of sentances really had me cracking up.....Great stuff.

I like Thai food a lot, but for me Indian is way ahead and much more healthy if cooked in oil as opposed to Ghee. I actually like eating a lot of Thai veggie dishes like those long green egg plants or aubergines put on the Barbie and then the salad sauce with red onion and chillies...made some yesterday, aroy maak! But I always have an Aloo ghobi around so I can mix other things with it, both Thai and Indian. The Indian restautrants here in Samui are &lt;deleted&gt;, but i've been trying in Sukhumvit area too, and there's a couple on the brink of greatness. Anyone know a good one?

[britmaveric]

I like spicey food so Thai food in general fits to my liking. I can eat most anything that may rot a typical person's gut. Scampy - perhaps you just don't like thai food its as simple as that... I'll admit that I think Fillipino food is rubbish. Comes down to preferences.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

The Indian restautrants here in Samui are &lt;deleted&gt;, but i've been trying in Sukhumvit area too, and there's a couple on the brink of greatness. Anyone know a good one?

Not in Samui, I know Samui fairly well but have yet to see an Indian. (Restaurant )

I've tried two or three in Sukhumvit and my favourite is Bakkharus? ...Something like that, anyway, it has a blue sign and is beside the steps to a walkway in Nana.

Hopefully somebody can elaborate further, forgive my abysmal directions.

[steverino]

Yeah, I know Bukkara or however it's spelt. It means tomorrow in urdo. I liked it a couple of times but the last time it went a bit below par. Consistency is the problem with most of them. If you go alomng past Nana station and turn left into Soi 11 take the first wee side soi with the shack like bar on the right and at the end of that wee soi there's 2 together, and the one on the left is quite good, but the one on the right I haven't tried yet.

[The Gentleman Scamp]

Yeah, I know Bukkara or however it's spelt. It means tomorrow in urdo. I liked it a couple of times but the last time it went a bit below par. Consistency is the problem with most of them. If you go alomng past Nana station and turn left into Soi 11 take the first wee side soi with the shack like bar on the right and at the end of that wee soi there's 2 together, and the one on the left is quite good, but the one on the right I haven't tried yet.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

True, the chicken shorba soup will never be the same as the first time I had it.

[bina]

well, this is my third year of eating only thai food in israel!! breakfast lunch and dinner... just finished eating st. peter's fish smothered in pickled garlic,maknam, lemon grass, phet maak maak and saaap illee!!! w/sticky rice, chicken feet and intestines soup, and melon smothered in ghatee and sugar;

ate passover dinner with ex-in laws and had terrible stomach cramps for two days... today is independance day and will have to do the hummous pita falafel thingy w/ex in laws again for dinner, instead of raw liver dipped in naam prik, cow's hoof and spine stew with mustard greens and somtam........sigh...

BUT if any body has recipes from home, not cookbook recipes, i could use some cause to get sompong or anyone else of these guys to teach me to cook has just been useless, its like the morroccan grannies: a pinch of this, some of that to taste, stir in some of this stuff....... it just never comes out the same as their's!!!

and of course a list of the thai ingred's, in thai and english (latin name) would help. the thai workers here raise most of their own thai veggies but i need to tell people what they are (five kinds of basil for instance), and that awful thai coriander, not like the israeli coriander (cilantro) the thai stuff is much more foetid smelling; and all the mustard leaves and bok boong and pak boong and mak naam gourds etc....;pictures would help too, have tried the net but very difficult.

[Dara]

I was flamed like a Texan drumstick for slagging off Thai food on another forum as if it were blasphemy to do so......

I think that your posting is hilarious. It reminds me of the many times that I experienced foods from different cultures and wondering how people could eat them: mutton (my hair raised on its end for that one), very ripe camembert (goose bumps all over), cucumber in yogurt soup (could not swallow it), goat cheese (still can't eat it)....

However, I found that if I keep an open mind and think about the fact that lots of people eat those things and actually live afterwards, I then tried them more than once and eventually get to appreicate them sooner or later. What I find is that there are good cooks and bad cooks - good cooks most anywhere make their foods presentable and edible, bad cooks turn people off to just anything.

I pretty much eat everything put in front of me now, still working on goat dairy products, however.....

[alex100]

Pickled Gouramy Fish

[alex100]

The Indian restautrants here in Samui are &lt;deleted&gt;, but i've been trying in Sukhumvit area too, and there's a couple on the brink of greatness. Anyone know a good one?

Not in Samui, I know Samui fairly well but have yet to see an Indian. (Restaurant )

I've tried two or three in Sukhumvit and my favourite is Bakkharus? ...Something like that, anyway, it has a blue sign and is beside the steps to a walkway in Nana.

Hopefully somebody can elaborate further, forgive my abysmal directions.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mrs Balibirs in Soi 11 used to be great but it went down hill after she become a TV Star - The Vindaloo is still great if that all your after.

[sabaijai]

I am open to new experiences, I have tried all of the above,

It's not a matter of trying but of acquiring a taste for foods you're not accustomed to. Many Thai dishes that I was puzzled by at first (28 years ago), or even found un-tasty, I now eat with great relish. Too many to name, including somtam. Sometimes I look back at my distaste for these dishes I now love and can't really remember what it was I didn't like.

You have to keep an open mind way beyond the first try. Of course some people have a more limited comfort zone when it comes to food, and never manage to break out of it.

I have the opposite problem now, I can barely stomach most farang food. Including roast lamb ...

[sabaijai]

The Final couple of sentances really had me cracking up.....Great stuff.

I like Thai food a lot, but for me Indian is way ahead and much more healthy if cooked in oil as opposed to Ghee. I actually like eating a lot of Thai veggie dishes like those long green egg plants or aubergines put on the Barbie and then the salad sauce with red onion and chillies...made some yesterday, aroy maak! But I always have an Aloo ghobi around so I can mix other things with it, both Thai and Indian. The Indian restautrants here in Samui are &lt;deleted&gt;, but i've been trying in Sukhumvit area too, and there's a couple on the brink of greatness. Anyone know a good one?

My Indian friends all say it ain't Indian cuisine if it doesn't contain ghee.

Personally my favourite BKK Indian eateries, in descending order, are:

Dosa King (Soi 19, Sukhumvit) - best south Indian (and south Indian is the best Indian; north Indian is more moghul or Persian cuisine; also S Indian is predominantly vegetarian, so if you're veg it's the way to go; I'm not veg, but am still a big fan)

Komala Vilas (off Sukh, only eaten there once, forget which soi, not even sure it's still there) also primarily S Indian, and a branch of the famous Indian resto in Singapore

India Hut (Surawong Rd) - delicious Gujarati cuisine

Royal India (Chakkaphet Rd, in Little India) - an old fave, mostly N Indian

Of course there are several upscale north Indian restaurants scattered around the city, like the place on the top floor of the Rembrandt Hotel, but it's like eating kuaytiaw for GBP10 per bowl in London, I can't do it.

There are also a handful of Indian Muslim places in Bangrak, in little sois off Silom, Surawong and Charoen Krung places. Even a couple of Sri Lankan places in that neighbourhood.

Websites catering to Indian travellers often recommend Dosa King and India Hut as the two best Indian restos in the city.

[Thaiquila]

I have tried most of those places and was most impressed by India Hut (what a silly name!) because they had dishes I had never seen before and they do them quite well, though a bit pricey.

I wasn't as impressed with Dosa King, I see it is good, but I had much better food of this style in California.

I think my favorite is still the Sunday only lunch buffet at Holiday Inn Silom for 400 baht.

[Totster]

Don't even mention the Fermented Bamboo stuff   

I make my wife sit outside when she eats that

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Eurghhh... I &lt;deleted&gt; hate bamboo, fermented or not....

totster

[Totster]

Mrs Balibirs in Soi 11 used to be great but it went down hill after she become a TV Star - The Vindaloo is still great if that all your after.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've been there (couple of years ago)... thought the food was great, I remember walking out of there with my mouth on fire....

It's on Soi 11/1 on the right hand side (coming from Suk) just passed Business Inn

totster

Edited May 11, 2005 by Totster

[The Gentleman Scamp]

Many Thai dishes that I was puzzled by at first (28 years ago), or even found un-tasty, I now eat with great relish.

24 years to go then for me, give me a chance.

Where did you find great relish? Haven't seen any in Villa.

[tutsiwarrior]

Don't even mention the Fermented Bamboo stuff   

I make my wife sit outside when she eats that

Eurghhh... I &lt;deleted&gt; hate bamboo, fermented or not....

totster

my wife once made gang soom in our apartment in Abu Dhabi...I was alarmed to find the neighbors arrayed outside our door with baseball bats...

how can anyone eat something that smells like human excrement?