Is Thai food better outside of Thailand?

[nithisa78]

Probably depends on how much love is being cooked into it.

[Aussieroaming]

My wife and I eat in a restaurant close to home about 3 or 4 times a week.. Excellent food and realistic price. Slightly more than a cheap Falang based place but worth it..95% thai customers and the taste is sensational. They don't sell alcohol there ..just great food.

Between chatrium and Robinson in Bangkok..right next to the temple.

[rgs2001uk]

The first thing you should do is, define what you mean by "Thai" food.

Northern, Issan, Southern or Bangkok food?

Do you know how hard it is to get a decent Mattsaman in Bkk?

Issan people make me laugh, they tuck into "dancing shrimp" and Pla Ra yet tell me Pat Sa Tor stinks.

Take a look at what passes for a green curry in a upmarket hotel in Bkk, now head off to the nearest market, they are two different dishes.

Another common mistake, not all Thai people can cook Thai food.

[Showbags]

Outside los its dumbed down for westerners....says a lot about those saying how great it is

[Jingthing]

Outside los its dumbed down for westerners....says a lot about those saying how great it is

Not always.

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[tutsiwarrior]

whenever my wife and I ate in a thai restaurant outside of Thailand she described the food that was served as 'chinese food'.

certainly most of the dishes my wife and her family prepares would never appear on a 'westernized' thai restaurant menu...

maybe thai food outside of thai land appeals to westerners because it has been westernized...

[smotherb]

I think what a lot of you are comparing cosmopolitan food to original food. Most foreign restaurants in all countries suffer from lack of home country ingredients. In the States, Asian wholesale grocers sell most of the spices, sauces, and other Asian ingredients to the Asian restaurant communities. My Vietnamese ex-wife owns three Viet restaurants in St. Pete and Tampa Florida; they frequently have to settle for Chinese, Korean, or Thai brands because no Viet brands were available. Another issue is that many foreign food restaurants in the West calm their food to more appropriately address local consumers' tastes. My used to be favorite Thai restaurant in Sarasota, Florida has changed their style so much that chopsticks are used as utensils and they rarely have prit nam pla, let alone use it in food preparation. Yet, the owner and all waitresses are Thai.

[carter1882]

So many missing the point. Food doesn't need to be "authentic" to be good. It just needs to taste good. Take Indian food. In England it is great by and large but certainly not authentic, besides 90 per cent of it is cooked by Bangladeshis. I wouldnt go to a Thai restaurant in England because of the price but in the States there are great Thai restaurants. And i am glad it's not authentic as i prefer it that way.

[SoiBiker]

It doesn't need to be authentic to be good. But it does need to be authentic to be Thai. Otherwise it's just food.

[puukao]

All great replies, thanks. Part of my comedy when I go to a Thai place in the States (I'm out West), is to ask them in Thai, "What is your name? How are you? Where are you from?" Most say BKK (Krung Thep they say, and I should then ask them to say the entire name of BKK!!!! lol. that is an entire paragraph). Anyhow, of course it is case-by-case. If you like the cook in Thailand, there is a chance, a chance, you remember the cooking better than it was. I tend to do that. And when you find a good place in Thailand, why experiment all the time if you are happy. Once in America a cook came over to speak thai to me and was pretty happy, so maybe she gave me more than normal. who knows.....

I have had the spicy fish from the south. man that was rough in some green sauce. that was too spicy for me. i am too weak and good luck finding that in your basic American Thai place. Also, if you eat the same food over and over it might not be as special as if you eat it once a month in America. I am not the expert on any of this, and I only have 1 year in Thailand under my belt. Enough to post, but not enough to tell anyone, "I know the truth!!!" lol

oh, and i am certainly eating the "proper" rice as I get it from a pretty famous international supermarket and there is no uncle ben's picture. on that, i am the expert!!!!!!!

[Ashto]

I've yet to find a decent Thai restaurant meal outside of Thailand with the exception of eating with Thai friends who home cooked. I've eaten in Thai restaurants in Europe, UK, Middle East and Oz.

One of the biggest failures I found was a lot of the so called Thai restaurants especially in Oz were run by Vietnamese or Malays who jumped on the band wagon when Thai food became popular.

I know of one Thai who was sponsored into Oz as a cook by a Vietnamese owned Thai restaurant. He's slowly adjusting the food and customers tastes to the authentic Thai taste and its working. The clientele numbers have greatly increased as they remember the taste of meals they had while on holiday in Thailand

Can you give is the name of that place? It's so damned hard to get good Thai food in Australia, knowing where would be great, thanks.

[Ashto]

Paris, milan, marbella, switzerland , brussels - all tried and tested with the wife as judge - yes and no...

Not spicy enough or sweeter than normal

However outside thailand i am happier to eat thai food on occassions ( rarely as in once a week

And at least you know the rice outside of thailand is good quality and the rest of the ingredients.

Now fish... In thailand it is the norm to have fish that smell. - fish only smells when rotten by the way as fish has no taste ...

Sorry to hear of your bad experience with fish in Thailand. I get spectacularly fresh whole fish cooked at Cafe Pireya in Bangkok in Sathorn on Rama IV about 20 metres from Soi Ngam Duphli (the Soi has various spellings, sometimes Ngamduplee, good luck with Google etc). I must have had whole fish cooked there 20 or more times, always glorious.

BTW Cafe Pireya looks like the kind of dump some contributors would run a mile from, and the seafood are kept on the street on ice before being cooked to order. Another warning if you hate this kind of thing is that's its a local karaoke bar from about 9pm on. The singing tends to be very good, all Luk Thung. It never closes.

Re getting Thai ingredients in NZ the situation is rapidly improving. Dare I say it some commercial pastes here are excellent and a very good Thai cook I know here uses some. Fresh herbs in the supermarkets are prohibitively expensive given the lavishness with which they're used in Thai food.

But Kings Plant Barn is increasingly stocking the plants so you can grow them cheaply at home. These include the various basils, kaffir lime trees etc. I found fresh lemongrass cheaply at the Avondale market Sunday mornings sold by a Thai woman and I freeze it. Same place cheap fresh chilies which keep frozen perfectly if dry when put in container in freezer. Galangal plant I got from a friend and is easy to grow.

On thing I cannot find is unripe papaya. Anyone in Auckland know where this can be got?

[MAJIC]

Yes the raw ingredients are a better quality,especially meat!

[MAJIC]

Grilled Thai beef salad ... often much better in the U.S. just based on the beef. Thai beef is wretched.

I never had any Beef that wasn't tough as old Boots! perhaps I was the unlucky one!

[MAJIC]

Not from my recent experience. A friend took me to the "best" Thai restaurant in an English town recently. The Massaman curry was not fit for a dog to eat. The sauce was watery, overly sweet (not made with coconut sugar but with white sugar from the taste) and tasteless. I've eaten better ones from a market for 20 baht.

...bought frozen. The only plus for this restaurant was that they had proper Chang beer and not the Export variety.

I take it you didn't pay for this meal or you got a refund? I'm sure you are quite an expert at choosing your 20 baht market stall meals, or Tesco or Big C,food halls in Thailand!

[Norvid]

Toronto has the most restaurants per ca-pita than any other place on earth and this mean competition. All food in most restaurants is excellent including Thai food. In Thailand however is a different story. Being there twice I couldn't eat anything especially sweet juiced, or watered-bath half digested salads. Dirty restaurants tells you a lot; what about the kitchen?

Pure BBQ chicken was clear of what it was, but the rest ....?????

Spicy chicken sandwich in 7-11 was to rescue me from time to time. Western/German style food in Krabi, Rayong was good; you knew what was cooked. In Nakhon Nayok and Issan (somewhere) there was no such luck. In Issan I tried deep fried strange creatures, but just to try; not bad and not good; just curiosity really. Life sweet shrimps made me vomit.

I will never eat soups, which might be cooked on anything which was moving or crawling on earth; ruts, or dogs, or ..??? are one of the suspects here of course.

However if you have your own kitchen, you could do wonders with fresh ingredients, provided you have access to single herbs and not already mixed pasts; can't eat or smell coriander in any food.

All his Toronto's applies to all exotic food in Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian and even Italian (pizza) restaurants. If you want to know what you eat try Korean and Japanese food cooked just in front of you; I haven't seen these in Thailand however.

This is just my two words.

[jcnbkk]

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A massive no from me. I mean I don't know where you eat or what aspect of Thai food you are referring too but certainly not for me. I would swap a fancy meal abroad for any amount of decent eateries I know in Thailand. Maybe if you can eat somewhere like the Pok-Pok restaurants in the US you might approach how good Thai food can be outside Thailand, can be hard elsewhere. Forgot how many counties I have eaten a Thai curry in and thought " yep that's " X" curry paste (libel laws) and it would have to be a pretty poor place in Thailand where that homogenized, pasteurized, taste would greet me. The over reliance of Thai overseas restaurants on these mass produced pastes and sauces means Thai food abroad is very much in danger of becoming the Ronald Mc Donald of SE Asian food. Won't disagree that the meat quality can be better abroad but I would rather chew my meat with Thai tastes bouncing around my palate than eat the tenderest of meat coated with this horrible over salted glutinous gloop. Btw,Thailand's previous PM also bemoaned the poor quality of Thai food abroad and one can reasonably assume she ate at some fairly upmarket places, hard to think of a Thai food blogger who would disagree.

My experience also, the food is very standarized and all curry paste is from those same brands, green, red or yellow all coconut milk from a can (though Mendoncas frozen Samoan is exellent). Very little variety seems every place has the same menu and the pad thai is too sweet and made with ketchup, many USA thai restos were started by x-BGs and their teeraks so not much cooking experience. There are exceptions.

Here there is variety, just going to a night market and selecting from the vendors is great, BBQ, curries, omlets cooked to order, soups, nam prik and veggies I only eat in a few trusted restaurants but often buy from the markets.

Agree with both posts. The key word here is authentic.

[happydude303]

I think it depends on the chef , I've had shit food in Thailand, my Thai lady will just look an say not tasty and I've had great food In Thailand , in England in Southampton we have a few really good Thai restaurants and when my mrs come here she loves it, and as for some restaurant catering for the western pallet well that happens but the real places are out there to be found.

[Strangebrew]

speaking from first hand knowledge I Las Vegas there are several Thai resturant's run by Thais's but they are geared to US crowd so food not as hot unless you request it. But in US if you order in Thai you tend to get larger portions than the rest. Krung Thai in Las Vegas makes the best Phad Thai I have eaten. But that maybe due to quality of the chicken too. Veggie's were fresh and very clean. But in US they lack the things you can only get here in Bangkok. you don't get the Tuk tuk's spewing smoke. You don't get being called Hansome by all. can't get Tat as cheap. But over all food is as good to better. But then again The fish don't swim in sewer water in the US. But no problem don't eat fish so all good for me here. Oh best part your less likely to hear Thai's yelling at you here While in US you can expect it.Besides I'm starting to get use to eating the bug snacks now.

[eldragon]

I have two Thai friends who own restaurants in the UK. The best Thai food they serve is the food they cook for themselves after the place is shut. Half the stuff they eat simply wouldn't sell if it were put on the menu..

This is true at some tourist restaurants in TH too. The staff won't eat the food the restaurant serves.

But the more I think about this whole topic, the more I think it's ridiculous to even discuss. I mean, I've had some food for ฿30 here that was so good- way better than the Thai food I had back home- it made me laugh out loud.

[Ace of Pop]

I think some of You would upset a meeting of Thai Chefs, they are proud of the regional heritage,be it N.E, or South, so different..!!. Just as Indian Chef's worldwide show pride their Regional Dish .

[smokie36]

Many Thai restaurants in the UK serve Western style Thai food.

Some do it properly....one on Guernsey does a mean Krapow.

Few and far between though....good Thai restaurants in country are much much better.

How many British restaurants serve great food in the UK compared to those abroad?

Same same really and you have to shop around.

[Slain]

Everyone seems to be forgetting the many noodle shops offering outstanding value and taste. If you live local to a good one of these you can keep your taste buds in paradise for very low cost.

Sadly my experience of Thai noodle shops in UK where I live at the moment, is not so good.

Edited December 1, 2014 by Slain

[Johpa]

Just last night I had a rare Thai meal in Chiang Mai at an up scale restauant aimed at the tourist trade and the Thai Hi-So trade. Great ambiance and great presentation, but the food was rather blasé compared to the same dishes served at local eateries outside the big city. In fact it tasted just like the rather blasé food most commonly served in Thai restaurants in the US. Sure the meat on the chicken was plumper on the bone, but clearly corporate raised chicken that lacks the taste of locally grown chicken. The curry contained nice large chunks of vegetables, but was missing the flavors found in home cooking and the consistency was a bit watery. So the rather bland Thai food found in your typical Thai eatery in the US seems slowly becoming the norm in the larger cities and in the mall food courts, but great Thai food outside the big cities is still easy to find and I find such food to be a rare find in the US where half the dinner orders are for phat thai. And I now of no Thais who would go out to dinner and order phat thai.

[fullcave]

Not better tasting, but healthier for sure. No MSG for one thing. It's added to nearly every dish. Noodle soup in particular is loaded with this toxin.

[Gonsalviz]

Negative. Thai food prepared for farang is in no way, shape or form good. First it is not Thai food. It is semblance of Thai food as in it kind of looks like Asian food but the taste is just not what it should be.

[tutsiwarrior]

I was in a bar in Philadelphia drinking my way thru their considerable selection of malt whiskys when I noticed something called 'Thai Turkey Supreme' on their bar menu (upmarket sorta place)...

confused, I motioned to the bartender: 'excuse me, I believe that there has been a mistake in your menu preparation...I live in Thailand and have never seen a turkey there, not even in the supermarket......'

and then he looked at me and said: 'whaaa?...you have obviously never been to Chiang Rai...up there they got loads... '

Edited December 3, 2014 by tutsiwarrior

[villagefarang]

I have seen live turkeys in Chiang Rai and my wife prepared one recently for Thanksgiving. Butterball bought at Makro.

[shaggy851]

very very few options for authentic good tasting thai food in western australia. The best thai food in perth is at s&t thai cafe in northbridge khao pad gai, pad see-ew gai, larb moo khao neow together expect to pay up to $30 AUD, no where else compares or even comes close to resembling thai food, that i can buy in my soi for 30baht.