Fair comments, thanks, but lets think about the food we were brought up on and when we left our home countries, im english, and i will never forget the individual flavours of each meat or veg on my plate, take roast rib of beef for eg, with horseradish or mustard or alone, a great taste, same with roast tates,artichokes,parsnip, sweet green peas,sprouts,yorkshire pudding,and a gravy made from the beef and veg juices, everything on that plate has its own tatse and flavour,

Some spices are very good for you, chilli lowers blood pressure, but to overpower and disguise old food is a crime..

This has been a great read, there are just too many quotes I'd like to make from others comments. I think this is one of those threads you laugh at because you know how true everything is.

You do have to laugh at the cooking preparation and hygiene standards of Thai kitchens. I've had many an argument with my wife about leaving food out overnight, about the ants and cockroaches, about washing in cold and dirty water... just about everything that isn't up to western standards. How more people aren't sick is beyond me.

Everytime I'm in a Thai kitchen I think of the movie "Medicine Man" with Sean Connery. Remember the cure for cancer he was researching? But he couldn't replicate it because he kept cleaning the ants out of the mixture. Maybe that's why it can be so a'roi!