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Where can I get good Chinese food? How come Chinese food in Thailand is not good as other countries?


Sojuncoke

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... and you have said it in one.

You want a style of cuisine that the Fast Food companies made popular ... facepalm.gif

If you want 'real' Chinese food .. go to China.

... but you probably have never done that ... rolleyes.gif

No the first two dishes ARE NOT fast food cuisine. I guess you never been to a real Chinese restaurant that serves those dishes.

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I researched this before, but was mainly looking for dim sum in Bangkok. You would think of all the Chinese ancestry there would be more widespread Chinese cuisine in Thailand.

I gave up after finding such a few amount of choices outside of Chinatown. If you open a restaurant Soju, I'll go eat there. Fortune cookies would be a nice touch :)

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I researched this before, but was mainly looking for dim sum in Bangkok. You would think of all the Chinese ancestry there would be more widespread Chinese cuisine in Thailand.

I gave up after finding such a few amount of choices outside of Chinatown. If you open a restaurant Soju, I'll go eat there. Fortune cookies would be a nice touch smile.png

I'll even import some American Sriracha sauce :)

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You can get good Chinese food everywhere in Thailand.

It's sometimes tricky to find it in some provinces because you may not recognize it for what it is. Outside of Chinese-tourist areas all the dishes have been renamed and flavoured to the Thai taste. Ask for a menu in Chinese if you have a friend who can read it.

When searching out Chinese food it helps to specify which regional varieties you want. Thailand has Teochew, Hokkien, Hainanese, Cantonese, and Hakka. Chinese food is definitely here.

The noodle dish in the OP is Ranna Mee Leung Gop. The shrimp and lobster dish is also Ranna served with rice. Although in Thailand these dishes will probably taste different from their counterparts in Hong Kong or Guangzhao because they have been adapted to the Thai taste, just like American Chinese food has been adapted to the U.S. taste. That might be why you think Chinese food in Thailand isn't as good as what you were expecting.

In Bangkok get off the rapid transit at Hualompong and wander the sois and main streets at night. There is lot's of really unique Chinese food around there ranging in price from 50 baht to 5000 baht per bowl (shark fin soup). A very short taxi ride away is the neighbouring area of Pahurat (India town) likewise there are many authentic Indian restaurants big and small serving mostly to the Thai Indian community.

Try they following searches in your favourite search engine:

"dim sum" site:nationmultimedia.com

"dim sum" +bangkok site:nationmultimedia.com

Use your imagination and replace site:nationmultimedia.com with other possible sites, It's not allowed to post links to The Bangkok Post, or other forums like Trip Advisor on TV, but you can figure that out for yourself.

Good luck, and happy eating. I love Chinese food too.

ps. If you ever go south of the border you'll find a fantastic world of Chinese food in Malaysia!

Edited by 96tehtarp
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96TehTarp has already mentioned the Sam Yan district in Bangkok... but don't overlook Yaowarat for authentic Chinese cuisine. Neither area sells the real thing on the cheap, or on the street. Sam Yan has great Rice Soup, if you are early enough. For Dim Sum, the best is a little shop on Pracharet Bumphen about 300 metres east of Ratchadapisek. MRT exit opposite. Pracharet Bumphen is an extension of Pracha Songkhro running from Huay Kwang market... but io you are not in Bangkok....

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I too find it ridiculously hard to find good Chinese food in Thailand. The Four Seasons Restaurant in the ground floor level of Siam Paragon is excellent, if a little on the pricey side. Many other Chinese restaurants I find are mediocre, and grossly overpriced. Not sure why the Thais cannot figure out how to do good Chinese food. They can do mediocre, but rarely good, and almost never excellent. I asked for a pan fried noodle dish with crispy noodles recently at a gourmet Chinese restaurant in Bangkok, and they could not do it. They gave me soft, soggy noodles, nothing like in Chinese cuisine, but rather exactly like in Thai cuisine. I explained if you fry it 30 seconds longer, the noodles get crisp. That did I get? Soggy. Were they open to suggestions? What do you think? Any recommendations in Bangkok, Pattaya, or Samui are appreciated.

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Chinese food varies a lot in China too, they have so many local varieties, than when Chinese move abroad they also adapt their food to the local taste, market and available ingredients.

Many Chinese have been in Thailand for several generations, so their dishes got localized too. But in most cities you can find reasonable Chinese restaurants also called "Chinese Table" restaurants.

For Chinese food, just compare the spicy variations in taste of food from Szechuan province to the tasteless dishes you get in Taiwan, all Chinese food.

In Holland most restaurants are Chinese/Indonesian as there is a market for Indonesian food, but all spicy is avoided as most Dutch can't handle it so also not very original.

Chinese food outside of China is often Cantonese origin as they where the first to travel abroad.

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It would seem that what the OP and most responding posts are looking for fall into two categories:

1) Westernized (especially Americanized) versions of Chinese food, which you are simply NOT going to find in Thailand...surprised?

2) Cantonese dishes...this is also problematic, since the Cantonese are not well-represented among Thailand's Chinese, who tend to be dominated by the Tiechiou...for Cantonese, try Vietnam, where they exist in greater numbers (or...duh...Hong Kong or Guangzhou!!)

That said, there is also this problem: Thais are notorious for Thai-ifying any cuisine they get their hands on...one reason it's hard to find, say, good Vietnamese food in Bangkok (hint: try "Vietnamese and More," close to Suun Sirikit MRT stop! Excellent and authentic, run by a Viet-American and his Thai wife). Basically, if there's a Thai in the kitchen, unless her husband-of-origin-country-of-cuisine-in-question is standing over her, telling her exactly what to do, the food will become Thai. Guaranteed.

Here's an interesting addendum to issues raised in this thread, though...while I agree that the Thai version of kuy tiew is utter crap (it's much better in Cambodia, Laos and--of course!--Vietnam), there is one Chinese dish the Thais have apparently transformed for the better: Jok!!! A Chinese-American friend (who is quite fluent in Chinese culture and language [Mandarin] and has spent lots of time there doing research in Mandarin) told me, hands-down the Thai version of Jok is far, far more interesting and tasty than the bland crap one gets in China.

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Actually, the food you see in farang Chinese Restaurants is not the same as what is typically served in China. My mom ended up in the emergency room for 2 weeks there. So you see, the Chinese food being sold to tourists in all these other countries is geared towards "Western" taste. Most people would not be able to handle "real" chinese food.

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... and you have said it in one.

You want a style of cuisine that the Fast Food companies made popular ... facepalm.gif

If you want 'real' Chinese food .. go to China.

Well I've been to China and the food is rubbish compared to UK Australia USA

rolleyes.gif

No the first two dishes ARE NOT fast food cuisine. I guess you never been to a real Chinese restaurant that serves those dishes.

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Actually, the food you see in farang Chinese Restaurants is not the same as what is typically served in China. My mom ended up in the emergency room for 2 weeks there. So you see, the Chinese food being sold to tourists in all these other countries is geared towards "Western" taste. Most people would not be able to handle "real" chinese food.

Good points,

The Chinese restaurants in Thailand serving Cantonese Chinese tourists serve authentic Cantonese food and mostly do so at outrageous tourist prices. If one thinks farangs sometimes get overcharged in Thailand see first what the Chinese get charged. Really good reasonably priced authentic tasting Cantonese food is not as easy to find as one would think. In USA, Canada, Austrailia, UK where there is a large Cantonese diaspora it can be much easier to find.

The Chinese diaspora in Thailand largely originates from Guangdong province so we have plenty of their Teochew cuisine here. If anyone would like to browse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teochew_cuisine it is interesting to see how many common and popular Thai dishes are not Thai at all. They are Teochew food.

I would prefer more Cantonese and Hakka dishes, and have resorted to preparing some of them myself. It helps if one knows what the real deal should taste, look, and feel like. It also helps to overcome the typical "Thailand NO have"! frequently stated by shopkeepers when I'm trying to source ingredients like Hoisin sauce. I resorted to making my own Hoisin sauce as well.

Please do have a look at the wiki link above, almost all the dishes listed are very common in Thailand. I was surprised how many.

Agree with the other posters who mention superior Chinese food in Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore,.. even Malaysia. In south Vietnam most of the Chinese speak Cantonese.

Cheers,

Edited by 96tehtarp
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You know good sources?

Great.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubanjiang

PLEASE tell me where to get authentic SECHUAN PROVINCE fermented broad bean chili paste sauce that is vital to making properly flavored Sechuan food and no you can't make your own?

Also fresh Sechuan peppers that were grown in China, not in Thailand, that still actually have some FLAVOR in them?

Yes I think the Chinese food culture in Thailand is pretty crappy.

Most U.S. cities are much better, even than Bangkok, and I'm talking the authentic stuff, not the "Westernized" and of Thai Chinese is just as bastardized as Western Chinese.

Edited by Jingthing
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