Thai's and foreign food.

[Sigurris]

I think the point that wotamess was making is that Farang food is not available at an affordable price for many Thai's and I would agree with that. You can get excellent Farang food all over Thailand but not at 30 baht.

[AYJAYDEE]

I think the point that wotamess was making is that Farang food is not available at an affordable price for many Thai's and I would agree with that. You can get excellent Farang food all over Thailand but not at 30 baht.

well as the ingredients are in many cases not normally grown or raised in thailand, I think that is to be expected. I dont expect to get east coast lobster where I live at the price they pay in new brunswick either.

[96tehtarp]

"My question is, why do most Thai's stick to almost only Thai food? "

 

I think it's the cost factor.

[wotamess]

I think the point that wotamess was making is that Farang food is not available at an affordable price for many Thai's and I would agree with that. You can get excellent Farang food all over Thailand but not at 30 baht.

 

Yes - if you're a farrang searching for farrang food, you can go to big C or Rimping - you'll spend three times what you would back home. Further more, you'll probably know what to do with a pile of farrang ingredients. A typical Thai is unlikely to attempt this from a cost perspective alone, let alone be familiar with farrang recipes. It's one thing for me to buy a wok for the occasional stir fry, quite another to justify buying an oven just for the equally occasional roast which, chances are they (a typical Thai) have never even tried before.

 

Don't forget a typical wage around here is 300 BHT/day.

 

I still stand by exposure too - back in the UK it was pretty hard to walk much more than a mile before tripping over a fish & chip shop, a sandwich shop, pizza/kebab shop, Chinese takeaway, Indian takeaway etc. They simply do not proliferate like that over here, you'll maybe find a relative few and expensive restaurants in the cities.

Noodle-bars on the other hand are 10-a-penny, and yes, I can nip over the road & get a bowl of blood & meatball noodles for 20 BHT; there are at least a dozen within a mile radius, but nothing truly farrang at any price until you get into Chiang Mai.

[AYJAYDEE]

 

I think the point that wotamess was making is that Farang food is not available at an affordable price for many Thai's and I would agree with that. You can get excellent Farang food all over Thailand but not at 30 baht.

 

Yes - if you're a farrang searching for farrang food, you can go to big C or Rimping - you'll spend three times what you would back home. Further more, you'll probably know what to do with a pile of farrang ingredients. A typical Thai is unlikely to attempt this from a cost perspective alone, let alone be familiar with farrang recipes. It's one thing for me to buy a wok for the occasional stir fry, quite another to justify buying an oven just for the equally occasional roast which, chances are they (a typical Thai) have never even tried before.

 

Don't forget a typical wage around here is 300 BHT/day.

 

I still stand by exposure too - back in the UK it was pretty hard to walk much more than a mile before tripping over a fish & chip shop, a sandwich shop, pizza/kebab shop, Chinese takeaway, Indian takeaway etc. They simply do not proliferate like that over here, you'll maybe find a relative few and expensive restaurants in the cities.

Noodle-bars on the other hand are 10-a-penny, and yes, I can nip over the road & get a bowl of blood & meatball noodles for 20 BHT; there are at least a dozen within a mile radius, but nothing truly farrang at any price until you get into Chiang Mai.

 

then i feel sorry for you. we live a long way from a big city and can get a good variety of farang food any day of the week. you should move. and at home, we use our convection oven regularly.

[Hedghog]

The issue is in what to order.
Unless well educated how can a Thai understand a menu.
My neighbours,thoroughly enjoy my offerings of foreign food.
From sandwiches to roast meat and veg.
The price point is key.
So much so I am investing in a small outside catering operation,starting from home.
I am not a learner,having owned a restaurant in town,Phitsanulok for 7 years.
It was successful enough, it sold within two weeks of going on the market.

The new idea is just a hobby,as was the original restaurant.
You never know how things will pan out.
The investment will be low the entertainment value high.

[wotamess]

 

 

I think the point that wotamess was making is that Farang food is not available at an affordable price for many Thai's and I would agree with that. You can get excellent Farang food all over Thailand but not at 30 baht.

 

Yes - if you're a farrang searching for farrang food, you can go to big C or Rimping - you'll spend three times what you would back home. Further more, you'll probably know what to do with a pile of farrang ingredients. A typical Thai is unlikely to attempt this from a cost perspective alone, let alone be familiar with farrang recipes. It's one thing for me to buy a wok for the occasional stir fry, quite another to justify buying an oven just for the equally occasional roast which, chances are they (a typical Thai) have never even tried before.

 

Don't forget a typical wage around here is 300 BHT/day.

 

I still stand by exposure too - back in the UK it was pretty hard to walk much more than a mile before tripping over a fish & chip shop, a sandwich shop, pizza/kebab shop, Chinese takeaway, Indian takeaway etc. They simply do not proliferate like that over here, you'll maybe find a relative few and expensive restaurants in the cities.

Noodle-bars on the other hand are 10-a-penny, and yes, I can nip over the road & get a bowl of blood & meatball noodles for 20 BHT; there are at least a dozen within a mile radius, but nothing truly farrang at any price until you get into Chiang Mai.

 

then i feel sorry for you. we live a long way from a big city and can get a good variety of farang food any day of the week. you should move. and at home, we use our convection oven regularly.

 

 

Why do you feel sorry for me? I am certainly not complaining, just trying to find an answer to the OP's question.

 

For myself, I can pretty much cook anything I want or, as in the case today simply eat Thai food - I had bamboo soup today for lunch; apart from the lpg, it cost nothing!

If I want, I can jump in the car and go to Big C or Rimping; but apart from things like cheese, mustard or such I have no need.

I can make pasta from flour & eggs, Sliced bread I can get down the road, or if it really bothers me I'll buy a combi-microwave oven which means I can roast stuff & make bread, although I see no reason why I couldn't roast a couple of chickens on the old "non-pan-frying-stick".

I'm also more than capable of brewing wine from locally available seasonal fruits if the desire takes me.

 

The OP's question was not "can I get farrang food?" it was "why don't Thais regularly eat farrang food?"

 

[wotamess]

The issue is in what to order.
Unless well educated how can a Thai understand a menu.
My neighbours,thoroughly enjoy my offerings of foreign food.
From sandwiches to roast meat and veg.
The price point is key.
So much so I am investing in a small outside catering operation,starting from home.
I am not a learner,having owned a restaurant in town,Phitsanulok for 7 years.
It was successful enough, it sold within two weeks of going on the market.

The new idea is just a hobby,as was the original restaurant.
You never know how things will pan out.
The investment will be low the entertainment value high.

 

Kudos Hedghog - I find the same: they invariably enjoy what I give them (friends, family etc) but they wouldn't know what to order from a restaurant let alone know how to cook it themselves without being taught.
 

[seajae]

my thai wife makes some of the best ciabatta bread I have ever tasted and she got the recipe from the internet just as she gets lots of western recipes online to give me some western food occasionally. Anyone trying to say that thais dont know how to cook western food is sadly mistaken, its more like they try to change the recipe to suit their own tastes. The food my wife cooks is brilliant and she does it all herself, I love to cook as well(father was a chef) but I do not interfere with what she does. As for ingredient costs, most of what she uses is obtained at the local markets so in reality it costs no more than thai food. Even when I cook I find most of my needs at the markets, fresh is always best. It doesnt take a genius to do it, just someone with  the enthusiasm to try, after all, everyone has to start somewhere and cooking is no different, teach your other halves to use the internet and then they can see exactly what it involves. My wife never tells me what she is cooking, she does it all herself with no input from me at all, everything she cooks is a surprise to me when I get to taste it.

Edited August 11, 2014 by seajae

[wotamess]

my thai wife makes some of the best ciabatta bread I have ever tasted and she got the recipe from the internet just as she gets lots of western recipes online to give me some western food occasionally. Anyone trying to say that thais dont know how to cook western food is sadly mistaken, its more like they try to change the recipe to suit their own tastes. The food my wife cooks is brilliant and she does it all herself, I love to cook as well(father was a chef) but I do not interfere with what she does. As for ingredient costs, most of what she uses is obtained at the local markets so in reality it costs no more than thai food. Even when I cook I find most of my needs at the markets, fresh is always best. It doesnt take a genius to do it, just someone with  the enthusiasm to try, after all, everyone has to start somewhere and cooking is no different, teach your other halves to use the internet and then they can see exactly what it involves. My wife never tells me what she is cooking, she does it all herself with no input from me at all, everything she cooks is a surprise to me when I get to taste it.

 

That's really great - I never suggested that a keen Thai with an interest in Western food couldn't cook Western food, but it's hardly the norm. We're not in fact discussing Thais married to farrang which is also pretty rare if you take the entire population into account -

 

Yes, I've just come back from the local market having bought some tomatoes, mushrooms, string beans and lettuce. I'm going to make a mushroom pasta with a Western style side-salad, and no it didn't cost much. I'll bet nobody else who visited that market today (who isn't married to a farrang) will do similar.

 

The OP asked why Thais don't routinely eat foreign food, which was the question I was trying to answer.
 

[pgrahmm]

my thai wife makes some of the best ciabatta bread I have ever tasted and she got the recipe from the internet just as she gets lots of western recipes online to give me some western food occasionally. Anyone trying to say that thais dont know how to cook western food is sadly mistaken, its more like they try to change the recipe to suit their own tastes. The food my wife cooks is brilliant and she does it all herself, I love to cook as well(father was a chef) but I do not interfere with what she does. As for ingredient costs, most of what she uses is obtained at the local markets so in reality it costs no more than thai food. Even when I cook I find most of my needs at the markets, fresh is always best. It doesnt take a genius to do it, just someone with  the enthusiasm to try, after all, everyone has to start somewhere and cooking is no different, teach your other halves to use the internet and then they can see exactly what it involves. My wife never tells me what she is cooking, she does it all herself with no input from me at all, everything she cooks is a surprise to me when I get to taste it.

 

Not being a person inclined/liking cook myseif - more like a kitchen survivor for many a year it astounds me how well and seeminly naturally these Thai gals can cook.....again - I am amazed at some farang food menu items in places that have very basic kitchen facilities with good results....

 

Mine's the same - she basically has me show her the first time (didn't say I couldn't - just don't like to) then she improvises & - success......

[IAMSOBAD]

Narrow mindedness is a trait that they love.
Make it spicy and the same dish. How boring.

[samran]

I'm pretty surprised that nobody so far seems to have pointed out the obvious: it is forbidden for foreign nationals to work in the food & catering industry!
 
All of the international foods we love typically began with a foreign national opening a restaurant or takeaway in their new country; the indigenous population learn from there, and begin to cook their own.
 
You can't do that here!
 
Uncle Guido can't open his bistro & make all the dishes Mama used to make..
You don't get a “curry mile” full of Indian restaurants run by Indians and Pakistanis like you do in Manchester..
You can't have a Chinese takeaway run by Chinese, or a Greek restaurant run by Greeks.
 
So far as “farrang” food is concerned, the local efforts are pathetic – they really have no idea how to cook them; hardly surprising. Although I love Thai food (even though it often doesn't love me back!) I also cook “farrang” dishes, and these genuinely go down a big hit with the rest of the family. It is however, not so easy to find affordable ingredients. Unless you spend a lot on imported butter, the locally available effort tastes like you've just spread ice-cream on your toast, although some items can be surprising – beef steak & pork fillet are quite inexpensive by comparison to the UK.
Given what I mentioned earlier, unless properly taught to cook foreign dishes, they can only try to mimic, and will get it wrong most of the time. Steak turns into leather & “pizza” is smeared with over-sweet mayonnaise. I recall my mother making similar mistakes when she tried to cook Indian or Italian dishes – with dire consequences (I blame her dreadful cooking as a reason for my relatively diminutive stature ;-P). Once taught however, they are quite capable of cooking Western dishes to a good standard – my step-daughter is testament to this fact.
 
We live out in the sticks here, roughly half an hour from Chiang Mai. Typical cooking facilities are a hob (indoor well-ventilated LPG) and wood/charcoal-fired bbq bucket. This wooden "stove" enables you to grill meat or fish, and turn any pot or pan black within a matter of minutes. We have a microwave too. You will note the absence of any kind of oven thus preluding the option of a traditional western roast meat or poultry dish, or the cooking of typical western bread (I cook flat bread in a pan). Traditional Thai cooking methods are not always conducive to cooking Western dishes. One of my first kitchen purchases was a “farrang pan” (frying pan) – now it is a regularly used item by all the family as an alternative to a wok where best suited. A toaster was a relatively recent acquisition too. Prior to my meeting my wife, her family had pretty much nothing at all to do with bread or potatoes - we were given a load of spuds the other week by an elderly neighbour who had no clue what to do with them...

Pretty clear you live out in the sticks. I spent part of the weekend helping taste test a menu. Cooked by 3 foreign chefs.

Plenty of foreigners here starting up restaurants.


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[arthurwait]

 

my thai wife makes some of the best ciabatta bread I have ever tasted and she got the recipe from the internet just as she gets lots of western recipes online to give me some western food occasionally. Anyone trying to say that thais dont know how to cook western food is sadly mistaken, its more like they try to change the recipe to suit their own tastes. The food my wife cooks is brilliant and she does it all herself, I love to cook as well(father was a chef) but I do not interfere with what she does. As for ingredient costs, most of what she uses is obtained at the local markets so in reality it costs no more than thai food. Even when I cook I find most of my needs at the markets, fresh is always best. It doesnt take a genius to do it, just someone with  the enthusiasm to try, after all, everyone has to start somewhere and cooking is no different, teach your other halves to use the internet and then they can see exactly what it involves. My wife never tells me what she is cooking, she does it all herself with no input from me at all, everything she cooks is a surprise to me when I get to taste it.

 

Not being a person inclined/liking cook myseif - more like a kitchen survivor for many a year it astounds me how well and seeminly naturally these Thai gals can cook.....again - I am amazed at some farang food menu items in places that have very basic kitchen facilities with good results....

 

Mine's the same - she basically has me show her the first time (didn't say I couldn't - just don't like to) then she improvises & - success......

 

 

 

 My wife had to ask how to boil an egg..........  several times.

 

 

 Her Thai and foreign cooking skills are the same.

[Kudel]

After seeing foreigners recommend restaurants on Englisch tv channels directed at tourists and expats in pattaya i beg to differ ,put a turd on a plate in front of their face and because of certain libel and defamation laws they would still insist how jummie that turd tastes.

[wotamess]

 

I'm pretty surprised that nobody so far seems to have pointed out the obvious: it is forbidden for foreign nationals to work in the food & catering industry!
 
All of the international foods we love typically began with a foreign national opening a restaurant or takeaway in their new country; the indigenous population learn from there, and begin to cook their own.
 
You can't do that here!
 
Uncle Guido can't open his bistro & make all the dishes Mama used to make..
You don't get a “curry mile” full of Indian restaurants run by Indians and Pakistanis like you do in Manchester..
You can't have a Chinese takeaway run by Chinese, or a Greek restaurant run by Greeks.
 
So far as “farrang” food is concerned, the local efforts are pathetic – they really have no idea how to cook them; hardly surprising. Although I love Thai food (even though it often doesn't love me back!) I also cook “farrang” dishes, and these genuinely go down a big hit with the rest of the family. It is however, not so easy to find affordable ingredients. Unless you spend a lot on imported butter, the locally available effort tastes like you've just spread ice-cream on your toast, although some items can be surprising – beef steak & pork fillet are quite inexpensive by comparison to the UK.
Given what I mentioned earlier, unless properly taught to cook foreign dishes, they can only try to mimic, and will get it wrong most of the time. Steak turns into leather & “pizza” is smeared with over-sweet mayonnaise. I recall my mother making similar mistakes when she tried to cook Indian or Italian dishes – with dire consequences (I blame her dreadful cooking as a reason for my relatively diminutive stature ;-P). Once taught however, they are quite capable of cooking Western dishes to a good standard – my step-daughter is testament to this fact.
 
We live out in the sticks here, roughly half an hour from Chiang Mai. Typical cooking facilities are a hob (indoor well-ventilated LPG) and wood/charcoal-fired bbq bucket. This wooden "stove" enables you to grill meat or fish, and turn any pot or pan black within a matter of minutes. We have a microwave too. You will note the absence of any kind of oven thus preluding the option of a traditional western roast meat or poultry dish, or the cooking of typical western bread (I cook flat bread in a pan). Traditional Thai cooking methods are not always conducive to cooking Western dishes. One of my first kitchen purchases was a “farrang pan” (frying pan) – now it is a regularly used item by all the family as an alternative to a wok where best suited. A toaster was a relatively recent acquisition too. Prior to my meeting my wife, her family had pretty much nothing at all to do with bread or potatoes - we were given a load of spuds the other week by an elderly neighbour who had no clue what to do with them...

Pretty clear you live out in the sticks. I spent part of the weekend helping taste test a menu. Cooked by 3 foreign chefs.

Plenty of foreigners here starting up restaurants.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand

 

 

Doh! - don't tell me; your scroll function doesn't work?

 

I said later (on the same page?) that I made a mistake - I thought it was on the prohibited occupations list.

 

 

Bite me!

 

[Havrum]

I think it is more due to lack of exposure, and what there is in Thailand is often quite bad. My old girlfriend's family stumbled upon a roadside market in the hills where an a minority ethnic group there was selling all of their produce on the side of the road. I stumbled upon some good looking avocados, a rare find in Thailand. It was funny because Grandma was like a botanist, we would camp on the river in the hills and she would pull plants out of the ground, knowing which ones are edible, putting them in a bag to be eaten later. But when I showed her the avocados she was like what the hell are these things?

 

When we got home Grandma had everything else in the garden needed to make it, lime, cilantro, chilis, and everyone loved it. Actually the Aunt was on a very restricted diet due to heatlh reasons and she gorged herself eating a giant bowl of it.

 

A lot of Mexican food is similar to Thai food in ingredients and taste (both heavy use of lime and chilis), you just have to make it for them yourself. Don't expect them to like everything though.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Havrum

[wotamess]

I think it is more due to lack of exposure, and what there is in Thailand is often quite bad. My old girlfriend's family stumbled upon a roadside market in the hills where an a minority ethnic group there was selling all of their produce on the side of the road. I stumbled upon some good looking avocados, a rare find in Thailand. It was funny because Grandma was like a botanist, we would camp on the river in the hills and she would pull plants out of the ground, knowing which ones are edible, putting them in a bag to be eaten later. But when I showed her the avocados she was like what the hell are these things?

 

When we got home Grandma had everything else in the garden needed to make it, lime, cilantro, chilis, and everyone loved it. Actually the Aunt was on a very restricted diet due to heatlh reasons and she gorged herself eating a giant bowl of it.

 

A lot of Mexican food is similar to Thai food in ingredients and taste (both heavy use of lime and chilis), you just have to make it for them yourself. Don't expect them to like everything though.

 

Yes!

 

Havrum answered the question & came to the same conclusion as me - lack of exposure. Most Thais (and once again let me reiterate that I am not discussing those married to farrang) simply do not know what foreign food is, therefore what it is called and ergo, how to go about cooking it.

 

Thanks Havrum (I could usesum!) - you are one of the few who answered the OP's question!
 

[AYJAYDEE]

 

I think it is more due to lack of exposure, and what there is in Thailand is often quite bad. My old girlfriend's family stumbled upon a roadside market in the hills where an a minority ethnic group there was selling all of their produce on the side of the road. I stumbled upon some good looking avocados, a rare find in Thailand. It was funny because Grandma was like a botanist, we would camp on the river in the hills and she would pull plants out of the ground, knowing which ones are edible, putting them in a bag to be eaten later. But when I showed her the avocados she was like what the hell are these things?

 

When we got home Grandma had everything else in the garden needed to make it, lime, cilantro, chilis, and everyone loved it. Actually the Aunt was on a very restricted diet due to heatlh reasons and she gorged herself eating a giant bowl of it.

 

A lot of Mexican food is similar to Thai food in ingredients and taste (both heavy use of lime and chilis), you just have to make it for them yourself. Don't expect them to like everything though.

 

Yes!

 

Havrum answered the question & came to the same conclusion as me - lack of exposure. Most Thais (and once again let me reiterate that I am not discussing those married to farrang) simply do not know what foreign food is, therefore what it is called and ergo, how to go about cooking it.

 

Thanks Havrum (I could usesum!) - you are one of the few who answered the OP's question!
 

 

and that lack of exposure is because they cannot afford it. and the OP's statement that the citizens of most western countries regularly eat ethnic foods is a myth

[wotamess]

 

 

I think it is more due to lack of exposure, and what there is in Thailand is often quite bad. My old girlfriend's family stumbled upon a roadside market in the hills where an a minority ethnic group there was selling all of their produce on the side of the road. I stumbled upon some good looking avocados, a rare find in Thailand. It was funny because Grandma was like a botanist, we would camp on the river in the hills and she would pull plants out of the ground, knowing which ones are edible, putting them in a bag to be eaten later. But when I showed her the avocados she was like what the hell are these things?

 

When we got home Grandma had everything else in the garden needed to make it, lime, cilantro, chilis, and everyone loved it. Actually the Aunt was on a very restricted diet due to heatlh reasons and she gorged herself eating a giant bowl of it.

 

A lot of Mexican food is similar to Thai food in ingredients and taste (both heavy use of lime and chilis), you just have to make it for them yourself. Don't expect them to like everything though.

 

Yes!

 

Havrum answered the question & came to the same conclusion as me - lack of exposure. Most Thais (and once again let me reiterate that I am not discussing those married to farrang) simply do not know what foreign food is, therefore what it is called and ergo, how to go about cooking it.

 

Thanks Havrum (I could usesum!) - you are one of the few who answered the OP's question!
 

 

and that lack of exposure is because they cannot afford it. and the OP's statement that the citizens of most western countries regularly eat ethnic foods is a myth

 

 

Umm I think you just agreed with me. Ambiguous!

 

"citizens of most western countries regularly eat ethnic foods is a myth" - can't say for everyone of course, but I certainly did. Contrarily, I knew plenty morons who wouldn't consider trying anything new, wherever it came from - you'll find xenophobes wherever you look. I knew English who wouldn't try escago or brie, and I'm sure plenty of all nationalities would be somewhat turned off at the thought of a battered "Marsbar".

 

If the OP meant ethnic junk, then you're wrong: kebabs, curries, pizza, meatballs. Perhaps if the OP meant true ethnic cuisine, then I think you've probably got a point.

 

[AYJAYDEE]

 

 

 

I think it is more due to lack of exposure, and what there is in Thailand is often quite bad. My old girlfriend's family stumbled upon a roadside market in the hills where an a minority ethnic group there was selling all of their produce on the side of the road. I stumbled upon some good looking avocados, a rare find in Thailand. It was funny because Grandma was like a botanist, we would camp on the river in the hills and she would pull plants out of the ground, knowing which ones are edible, putting them in a bag to be eaten later. But when I showed her the avocados she was like what the hell are these things?

 

When we got home Grandma had everything else in the garden needed to make it, lime, cilantro, chilis, and everyone loved it. Actually the Aunt was on a very restricted diet due to heatlh reasons and she gorged herself eating a giant bowl of it.

 

A lot of Mexican food is similar to Thai food in ingredients and taste (both heavy use of lime and chilis), you just have to make it for them yourself. Don't expect them to like everything though.

 

Yes!

 

Havrum answered the question & came to the same conclusion as me - lack of exposure. Most Thais (and once again let me reiterate that I am not discussing those married to farrang) simply do not know what foreign food is, therefore what it is called and ergo, how to go about cooking it.

 

Thanks Havrum (I could usesum!) - you are one of the few who answered the OP's question!
 

 

and that lack of exposure is because they cannot afford it. and the OP's statement that the citizens of most western countries regularly eat ethnic foods is a myth

 

 

Umm I think you just agreed with me. Ambiguous!

 

"citizens of most western countries regularly eat ethnic foods is a myth" - can't say for everyone of course, but I certainly did. Contrarily, I knew plenty morons who wouldn't consider trying anything new, wherever it came from - you'll find xenophobes wherever you look. I knew English who wouldn't try escago or brie, and I'm sure plenty of all nationalities would be somewhat turned off at the thought of a battered "Marsbar".

 

If the OP meant ethnic junk, then you're wrong: kebabs, curries, pizza, meatballs. Perhaps if the OP meant true ethnic cuisine, then I think you've probably got a point.

 

 

the OP's point was that thais dont eat ethnic foods because they lack imagination and are content with their boring thai diet day in day out. I, on the other hand, put it down to finances.

[Harold G]

To educate the average Thai about farang food one needs to 'get down to their mentality' so they find it amusing and funny. Then, and only then will they want to learn and try something different.

 

Here is an example of what I mean that could be shown on prime time TV...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAni5XvrstQ

 

 

[wotamess]

@AYJADEE - I'll run with that, to a point; but the fact is no one around here had even tried mashed potatoes & they couldn't cook chips. If your saying they were too poor to get into a farrang restaurant to try them, then I'm with you.

[AYJAYDEE]

@AYJADEE - I'll run with that, to a point; but the fact is no one around here had even tried mashed potatoes & they couldn't cook chips. If your saying they were too poor to get into a farrang restaurant to try them, then I'm with you.

I'm saying theyre too poor for restaurants and for most of the required ingredients . and even if they had the ingredients, they dont know how to cook them and dont have many of the necessary appliances . 

[pigeonjake]

my wife still dosnt like mashed potatoes, so when i do liver in bisto gravy in the oven she loves it but she has it with rice,

 

as for chips, im not tight, but i think man falang/potatoes are so expensive that we have started growing sweet potatoes,

 

as for me, well i love thai food, 

[jji23]

Because western food isn't Thai


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[BillyBobThai]

Sometime I think my wife could live on peanut butter and jelly sandwichs.  She never had one until we met.

[seajae]

 

my thai wife makes some of the best ciabatta bread I have ever tasted and she got the recipe from the internet just as she gets lots of western recipes online to give me some western food occasionally. Anyone trying to say that thais dont know how to cook western food is sadly mistaken, its more like they try to change the recipe to suit their own tastes. The food my wife cooks is brilliant and she does it all herself, I love to cook as well(father was a chef) but I do not interfere with what she does. As for ingredient costs, most of what she uses is obtained at the local markets so in reality it costs no more than thai food. Even when I cook I find most of my needs at the markets, fresh is always best. It doesnt take a genius to do it, just someone with  the enthusiasm to try, after all, everyone has to start somewhere and cooking is no different, teach your other halves to use the internet and then they can see exactly what it involves. My wife never tells me what she is cooking, she does it all herself with no input from me at all, everything she cooks is a surprise to me when I get to taste it.

 

That's really great - I never suggested that a keen Thai with an interest in Western food couldn't cook Western food, but it's hardly the norm. We're not in fact discussing Thais married to farrang which is also pretty rare if you take the entire population into account -

 

Yes, I've just come back from the local market having bought some tomatoes, mushrooms, string beans and lettuce. I'm going to make a mushroom pasta with a Western style side-salad, and no it didn't cost much. I'll bet nobody else who visited that market today (who isn't married to a farrang) will do similar.

 

The OP asked why Thais don't routinely eat foreign food, which was the question I was trying to answer.
 

 

this is true but the op asked it in an english speaking section not a thai speaking section so we have to assume he was referring to western/thai couples and their families. After all, how many people in here are thai/thai couples, the bigger majority will be western/thai couples so the answers have to be theirs in the majority. Now if it was only to thai/thai couples I doubt a lot would answer as the majority dont have the english skills to do so, this isnt a put down, its just a fact plus not many would even come in here in the first place. Based on this reasoning what I have stated in my answers is what the op wanted unless he tells us different.

[mumjokmok]

Thai's may have an aversion to some of their neighbours cuisines based on history and a certain amount of pride.

 

Burmese and Cambodian delights probably off the menu. Don't you bring that into my house.

Lao food is for farmers as Malay food is for muslims.

Vietnamese is ok as long as it is only two dishes and we pretend it's still Thai.

Indian food smells. Lots of stuff from India smells.

I'm not Chinese, that is chicken and rice Thai-style, or roast pork and rice Thai-style, or egg noodles and wontons with bbq pork Thai-style, or stir fried rice noodles Thai-style.

Japan is ok, they are pretty and fashionable, as is Korea progressing towards a restaurant franchise or two. Plus they got money. And they hate Chinese.

 

 

Not to look at the other cultures in the region as at all similar to Thailand was probably the idea that got them into this headspace. I don't know how many Chinese or Indian families are really pushing the boundaries of international cuisine in their own kitchen's at home. Maybe it's all too Same Same but Different for the people of ASEAN to get all that excited about each others food.

 

Plus most of our (us west european falangs) knowledge of other far-away nations came from plundering the poor bastards for centuries eventually developing a taste. Were you eating sushi in the 40's?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2014 by mumjokmok