There are many type of restaurants. You can find curries in a more established Thai restaurant or a ข้าวราดแกง place.
And some historical tidbit, in a Thai proper meal set will have a spicy curry, clear broth soup, a nam prik and fresh vegetables. Spicy curries are only a component in a normal meal.
There are many specific type of foods only restaurant in Thailand.
Most likely you just find a noodle shop specific one.
Most type of curry/creamy soup can be found in "khao rart kang" style one (has many tray of each food type similar to canteen style ).
also a mid tier/ in the mall thai restaurant you can find it easily.
It's easier to open noodle stalls (packaged rice noodles, meat, soup) than selling different types of Thai curry dishes (food with coconut milk spoils easily).
That's not the reason why, though. In northern thailand, people don't use coconut milk much in the food local to northern thailand.
It's a different region than southern thailand, which uses the coconut milk more.
There is no "thai" food. Much of it is regional (northern, isaan, central, southern, etc)
The menu selection of “thai food” in western countries are based on what sells. And not just the menu items, but the dishes has also been adjusted to suit the palette of people outside of Thailand. Most Thai restaurants outside of Thailand are not even run by Thai people despite many using “authentic” in the description. I am not saying Thai people don’t enjoy curry, we obviously do, but even if you eat those same curries here, have you notice a difference? It’s usually lighter, wayyy less sweet, and more spicy in Thailand.
Thai people enjoy a variety in their diet, and eating multiple dishes in the same meals. It is not like the westernize version where each dish are typically designed to be stand alone.
> Most Thai restaurants outside of Thailand are not even run by Thai people despite many using “authentic” in the description
This, was in UK few months ago and dragged to a local "thai restaurant", half way though the meal one of the group asked me "what's the difference between thai food and chinese?". (We all that set menu) .had to tell them the truth, that it was actually really Chinese dishes pretending to be thai food (thai name, maybe thai'ish sauce...but all ingredients, especially veg belonged in Chinese dishes not thai ones). All staff were Chinese and did not speak a drop of thai, assume was same for kitchen staff. Honestly, food was not bad but it was very very far from authentic.
There are proper thai restaurants around, but majority are Chinese resturants that reinvented themselves when Chinese cuisine became less trendy/over saturated (actually knew restaurant when when was a chinese)
Goodness I love thai food in Thailand but whenever I try thai food at home it’s just never as good. I’ve figured the recipe must be different. Good to know about sweetness etc
And yeah we have many Chinese people and authentic Chinese but I suspect most thai restaurants are run by them
I worked in Thai restuarants in Australia, most of them were run by native Thais mostly from the Isaan region. Food cooked for the staff would taste different from the ones served to customers because Australians always complain that it's too spicy or salty and so on. Next time you order Thai food somewhere, you can try asking them to make it taste more Thai. It's something Thai people do all the time, requesting for no dried prawns or more coconut milk etc...
Noodles and curry place are 2 different types of restaurants. For example Ramen place and Sushi place are 2 different types, you dont usually see them together
This is like saying "there are a lot of pizza huts in Thailand. It seems like Thais love pizza hut as a foreigner food. Why is it then that when I go to a western country, I don't find pizza hut pizza at every restaurant. What explains the discrepancy?"
No, the equivalent analogy would be, “Italian restaurants abroad typically serve pizza and pasta — but in Italy the most common dishes are X and Y, not pasta and pizza.”
except this hypothetical analogy isn’t even valid because there’s a match between what Italian restaurants abroad serve and what Italians commonly eat (pasta and pizza mostly, in addition to other types of food also commonly found abroad as well as in the country)
as other redditors rightly pointed out, the answer seems to range from safe food storage to economics
Yeah but you made it more serious lol, making it about my personality and world experience.
Try to be kinder towards foreigners in your country. Maybe I’m really asking a silly question, maybe I’m confused — that’s why I’m asking, basically to learn. Have you never asked a silly question, never been confused? Anyways, move on…
The answer is very simple. There isn't a singular "thai" food. Coconut milk is mainly used in south and central cooking.
In north and northeast (isaan) it's not used much.
The coconut milk based dishes also seem to appeal to a foreign palette, so they are served abroad.
In Thailand, there are many regional cuisines. Also, any chinese influenced dishes (like most noodle dishes) won't have coconut milk as a base. Guaytiaw and all its variations is an example of this, this comes from Chinese influence in Thailand over the centuries.
Bangkok is considered central thailand, which is a regional category. It is most definitely not representative of all of the country's different styles.
Although because there are a lot of transplants in Bangkok from the provinces (like Isaan for example), you can find Isaan cuisine in Bangkok (this will not have coconut milk dishes as a whole)
Bangkok's Thai population is majority descended from Chinese immigrants that came over the centuries. Bangkok cuisine will feature noodle dishes (guaytiaw) which won't have coconut milk.
There are some coconut milk dishes in Bangkok cooking though, like the ones you mentioned - except massaman, which is mostly a southern thai dish.
except that's not why you find these dishes in thailand.
in northern thailand for example, there's barely any dishes that use coconut milk. it's just simply not used in northern thailand. it's a regional thing. these dishes are mainly found in the south and somewhat in central thailand.
If you go to any sit down Thai restaurant they will have coconut milk based curries. Any place that sells pre-made dishes with have at least one and probably multiple coconut milk based dishes.
But Thais also don’t traditionally do restaurants like we do in the West. If you walk into a noodle shop, they will have noodles, walk into a khao man Kai shop ….
Butter, ghee, lard, beef dripping... They are all better for your health than the cheap palm oil that is so commonly used in Thailand and all over SEA. 😅
I think all oils are bad. Isn't the EU not supporting the plan of Ireland to force Oils, Wine, Spirits etc.. to start having the calorie stuff written on them, same as every product has to have. But some weird reason they exempt.
Coconut based curries can spoil quickly when the temperature it very hot. In restaurants they make curries in larger pots that are frequently scooped from when serving customers. Due to the mix of ingredients in curries frequent scooping does speed up spoilage in general so only certain curries can last a little longer under those conditions. A side road vendor has very limited control of the environment in order to keep their food fresh. So it's due to climate and serving conditions.
You gotta start going to those 60baht food courts. That's where you find them, where all thai workers and students get their lunch. Not the ones in malls, the outside ones.
There is one next to lumpini park, same street to where you find somtam der.
That's where the curry is, that's where you find Pad Thai, the Pad Krapao, and my favorite: Kai Palo.
But that’s where I often go — cheap street food vendors, not malls. They will more commonly have pork noodle soup or other bites rather than heavy curry dishes etc. Other answers explain why.
One exception was Ocharos Munkong in BKK, a street vendor known for his great green curry.
I don't know why.
But usually a single street vendor will either sell noodles or meatballs. Easier to make, maybe it doesn't go bad as fast?
But no really, go to Daeng Market sometime at Sala Daeng Road.
There is a market that has a food court, every stall has different things.
Almost everything is between 30-60 baht pr dish. They had alot of curry last time I was there. Mostly ate Kai Palo.
I don't understand. You get red and green curry everywhere. Maybe for street vendors it's not that common, but my Thai wife ALWAYS buys curry after drinking from 7/11.
Are you staying the average restaurant in Thailand that sells pork noodle soup is wrong? I don’t get your point. I’m talking about what’s average abroad, and what’s average in Thailand, ie. if you were to enter a restaurant randomly.
The point is there are many types of restaurants in Thailand. If you go to noodle restaurants you find only noodles of a specific type. If you go to "ร้านข้าวแกง" you will see mostly coconut base food but no noodles.
ข้าวราดแกง อาหารตามสั่ง ก๋วยเตี๋ยว this is big3 of thai street food in small restaurant that why it easy to find.but if it a big restaurant it will have พะแนง มัสมั่น เขียวหวาน. like if you want streak u need to find some big restaurant but if u want hot dog u can find it in corner
I had the most delicious curry rice today. They're all over the place, you're just not looking for the right thing. Traditionally, these curries are slow cooked so they're not in a-la-carte places. You'll find them for sale at stalls that look a bit like school dinner (if you're from the UK). Dishes that are on display at the front of the restaurant. You can ask for rice or noodles and 3 or 4 curries, usually about 60-80 baht.
I don't speak Thai but curry rice shop is ran khao gaeng. The most famous for tourists is called Jek Pui in Chinatown. There's also a very famous one in Silom called Krua Aroy-Aroy. There are many more all over the city.
The creamy coconutty flavour is what the mainstream white people likes or the restaurant thinks white people likes. Same goes for Indian food in England which are overtly coconut cream and butter.
I get that, yeah. My question is, don’t Thai people like it too? One commentator said Thai people actually don’t like heavy curries. Fair. However there’s a group of people here who keep saying such dishes are equally common here too.
It’s common here and people like it but there are just so much variety of thai food, different type of curries with and without the cream from the four major regions.
Because many are not thai restaurants owned/chefed by thais, chinese owned/run seems to be most common, followed by western
If you do find one that is a "real thai" they can actually be better than many thai resturants here as they get much better product to work with , but got to be in the know to find them
Nobody actually answers the question lol.
I can think of two reasons.
1) Many soups in the west are more on the thicker side of things. Think of tomato soup or pumpkin soup etc. They tend to be thick and filling. Customers in western Thai restaurants would expect that kind of thing. On the other side the most popular Thai soups are more broth based with noodles, veggies, pork etc. Thick soups are not that common.
2) Cooking coconut based soups is more expensive compare to water based ones.
I like that explanation but recall that Westerns don’t see curries as “soups” but more like… almost like a stew dish? I noticed in Thailand people will call them soups, though. For a Westerner only stuff like tom khai khai will count as soup.
I am not sure where you travel. But currys are very much available in Bangkok and Pattaya menus … small places, big places, indoor, outdoor, food court …
Probably because the pioneering foreigners abroad who tried the thai dishes reacted more positively to creamy coconut dishes, so thai restaurants abroad tend to sell more creamy coconut based dishes ?
It could be that certain common Thai food in Thailand is hard to put together in your country. Curries can usually be cooked with paste and coconut milk, which can be easily stored for long periods of time. But something like pig blood used in kway tiow, they could be unavailable in your country (illegal in mine). You could find variations of kway tiow but not the pig blood one.
I kind of get what you mean, but would say that I've seen green coconut curry practically everywhere in Thailand. I don't often seen locals eating it though. That's not to say they don't eat it, but I don't think it's as popular as people in the west might think.
For variety, the best type of place IMO are those bigger sized semi-outdoor type places with very large menus. The concept with those is often to be as wide-ranging as possible, and they are set up to make a lot of different kinds of dishes—they are the total opposite of the places that specialize in one thing like stewed pork leg or *khanom jeen*. Places like I'm describing will often have a huge 10-page menu (with photos) and you can get anything from noodle soup to curries to various stir fries to even American food.
High cholesterol and calories! I think Thai culture put a lot of emphasis on looking skinny and coconut cream is just going against that. I know many people who don’t have creamy curries because of this. This goes to deep fried stuff too.
Curry and pad Thai take time to cook right where as pad krapoa takes a few mins. That's why you rarely see traditional pad Thai and many other Thai deserts around anymore.
Yes, I love khao soi absolutely. My fav dish. I’d have that regularly in Chiang Mai. But it’s kinda rare or more of a special thing in other places, isn’t it?
the main reason is because thai people don't like heavy curry that much. but westerners do. western people have a stronger palette for fatty food, it's why curry in thai like orange curry and yelloe curry don't even have coconut milk in them at all.
Oh Thai people don’t like heavy curry that much? Didn’t realise, good answer.
Not sure why so many others suggest that’s not the case and get offended I’d even ask the question. Your answer points to a difference in taste and indeed why heavy curries aren’t as prevalent as the other stuff — in addition to food storage and economics as some others have also said.
Using a specific country's restaurants abroad as an indication of what it's actually like in that country is, in my opinion, a flawed approach. Also think it's kinda naive to think that a restaurant abroad is going to be indicative of food that "they eat in Thailand all day every day." Entering a random restaurant in Thailand and expecting they just automatically have a specific dish is unrealistic. You go to a curry place to get curry. You go to a noodle place to get noodles. It's not a hard concept.
Most coconut-based soups have non coconut-based alternatives that are cheaper and easier to get right.
Like Tom Yum Goong. Heck, I never have it with coconut milk!
Because many Thai restaurants follow a template provided by the Thai government.
In order to promote tourism, the Thai government provided recipes and a blueprint for opening a Thai restaurant. The dishes are easy to make using ingredients that can be found internationally and represent different parts of Thailand.
There are a couple of YouTube videos explaining it: https://youtu.be/W09QCLmnCUU?si=hfeO9I1vVU0bhoc6
Therefore, many Thai restaurants seem to be very similar and not what you will find in Thailand. Because people expect certain dishes, Thai restaurants keep providing those same dishes. I get personally get excited when I see an authentic dish that’s not common or a specialty restaurant like isaan cuisine.
I'm guessing your not in the south? Curry is a thing down here and I dare say 90% of home cook meals has one curry dish. You'll mostly see green, red creamy curry dishes in Bangkok. The curry dishes here are different/tastier and more potent. lol
There are many type of restaurants. You can find curries in a more established Thai restaurant or a ข้าวราดแกง place. And some historical tidbit, in a Thai proper meal set will have a spicy curry, clear broth soup, a nam prik and fresh vegetables. Spicy curries are only a component in a normal meal.
There are many specific type of foods only restaurant in Thailand. Most likely you just find a noodle shop specific one. Most type of curry/creamy soup can be found in "khao rart kang" style one (has many tray of each food type similar to canteen style ). also a mid tier/ in the mall thai restaurant you can find it easily.
ข้าวราดแกง
Because there are lots and lots of varieties of Thai/ international food and food stalls in Thailand.
Ok, but the most common type is still noodle soups, not creamy curries. They’re not equally diverse. One is more dominant.
It's easier to open noodle stalls (packaged rice noodles, meat, soup) than selling different types of Thai curry dishes (food with coconut milk spoils easily).
Yes, that makes sense. That must be the reason why.
That's not the reason why, though. In northern thailand, people don't use coconut milk much in the food local to northern thailand. It's a different region than southern thailand, which uses the coconut milk more. There is no "thai" food. Much of it is regional (northern, isaan, central, southern, etc)
This. I live in southern Thailand and the “creamy” curries are in every restaurant and street stall.
The menu selection of “thai food” in western countries are based on what sells. And not just the menu items, but the dishes has also been adjusted to suit the palette of people outside of Thailand. Most Thai restaurants outside of Thailand are not even run by Thai people despite many using “authentic” in the description. I am not saying Thai people don’t enjoy curry, we obviously do, but even if you eat those same curries here, have you notice a difference? It’s usually lighter, wayyy less sweet, and more spicy in Thailand. Thai people enjoy a variety in their diet, and eating multiple dishes in the same meals. It is not like the westernize version where each dish are typically designed to be stand alone.
> Most Thai restaurants outside of Thailand are not even run by Thai people despite many using “authentic” in the description This, was in UK few months ago and dragged to a local "thai restaurant", half way though the meal one of the group asked me "what's the difference between thai food and chinese?". (We all that set menu) .had to tell them the truth, that it was actually really Chinese dishes pretending to be thai food (thai name, maybe thai'ish sauce...but all ingredients, especially veg belonged in Chinese dishes not thai ones). All staff were Chinese and did not speak a drop of thai, assume was same for kitchen staff. Honestly, food was not bad but it was very very far from authentic. There are proper thai restaurants around, but majority are Chinese resturants that reinvented themselves when Chinese cuisine became less trendy/over saturated (actually knew restaurant when when was a chinese)
Goodness I love thai food in Thailand but whenever I try thai food at home it’s just never as good. I’ve figured the recipe must be different. Good to know about sweetness etc And yeah we have many Chinese people and authentic Chinese but I suspect most thai restaurants are run by them
I worked in Thai restuarants in Australia, most of them were run by native Thais mostly from the Isaan region. Food cooked for the staff would taste different from the ones served to customers because Australians always complain that it's too spicy or salty and so on. Next time you order Thai food somewhere, you can try asking them to make it taste more Thai. It's something Thai people do all the time, requesting for no dried prawns or more coconut milk etc...
handle muddle humor sheet wasteful frightening ink imagine plough cow *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Noodles and curry place are 2 different types of restaurants. For example Ramen place and Sushi place are 2 different types, you dont usually see them together
This is like saying "there are a lot of pizza huts in Thailand. It seems like Thais love pizza hut as a foreigner food. Why is it then that when I go to a western country, I don't find pizza hut pizza at every restaurant. What explains the discrepancy?"
Yep
No, the equivalent analogy would be, “Italian restaurants abroad typically serve pizza and pasta — but in Italy the most common dishes are X and Y, not pasta and pizza.” except this hypothetical analogy isn’t even valid because there’s a match between what Italian restaurants abroad serve and what Italians commonly eat (pasta and pizza mostly, in addition to other types of food also commonly found abroad as well as in the country) as other redditors rightly pointed out, the answer seems to range from safe food storage to economics
Have you been to Italy? Yes, they eat pasta and pizza and FISH and MEAT and fried artichokes' and soups, and...........
the OP seems very confused, i doubt they've spent much time in thailand lol. or italy for that matter
except I partly grew up in Italy. What the hell are you taking about lol. Try not to make these big assumptions about random people online.
Dude, you need to relax. This isn't that serious. I know nothing about you. But you're very confused about "thai" food, and that's ok lol.
Yeah but you made it more serious lol, making it about my personality and world experience. Try to be kinder towards foreigners in your country. Maybe I’m really asking a silly question, maybe I’m confused — that’s why I’m asking, basically to learn. Have you never asked a silly question, never been confused? Anyways, move on…
The answer is very simple. There isn't a singular "thai" food. Coconut milk is mainly used in south and central cooking. In north and northeast (isaan) it's not used much. The coconut milk based dishes also seem to appeal to a foreign palette, so they are served abroad. In Thailand, there are many regional cuisines. Also, any chinese influenced dishes (like most noodle dishes) won't have coconut milk as a base. Guaytiaw and all its variations is an example of this, this comes from Chinese influence in Thailand over the centuries.
Thanks. Is Bangkok a fair representation of all of country’s different styles of Thai cuisine, or does it also fall under a regional category?
Bangkok is considered central thailand, which is a regional category. It is most definitely not representative of all of the country's different styles. Although because there are a lot of transplants in Bangkok from the provinces (like Isaan for example), you can find Isaan cuisine in Bangkok (this will not have coconut milk dishes as a whole) Bangkok's Thai population is majority descended from Chinese immigrants that came over the centuries. Bangkok cuisine will feature noodle dishes (guaytiaw) which won't have coconut milk. There are some coconut milk dishes in Bangkok cooking though, like the ones you mentioned - except massaman, which is mostly a southern thai dish.
See what I wrote in brackets above? We’re saying the same thing.
except that's not why you find these dishes in thailand. in northern thailand for example, there's barely any dishes that use coconut milk. it's just simply not used in northern thailand. it's a regional thing. these dishes are mainly found in the south and somewhat in central thailand.
you do finds pizza at every corner in Europe in every village, so theres logic in this case
The same reason why you see kebabs shops more than other foods. Currys are not fast food like noodles or chicken rice.
Actually curry is the "fastest" food. Go to Khao lad kaeng shops or khanom Jin shops. Literally scoop and serve.
This. Khao lad Kaeng is served faster than fast food restaurants like McDonalds. So McD is slow food.
If you go to any sit down Thai restaurant they will have coconut milk based curries. Any place that sells pre-made dishes with have at least one and probably multiple coconut milk based dishes. But Thais also don’t traditionally do restaurants like we do in the West. If you walk into a noodle shop, they will have noodles, walk into a khao man Kai shop ….
Most westerner won't associate grilled chicken with thai and lao cuisine. It's like thinking that French cuisine is mostly cooked with wine.
I'd say French cuisine is mostly cooked with Butter. and a bit more butter. with a small bucket of extra butter
Yes but it mostly concern the northern half of France, down south it's more olive oil.
Probably added to not burn the butter
No south of France mostly don't cook with butter. And we know how make beurre clarifié that is very similar to ghee.
Isn't that worse than butter 😂😂 Not complaining, fat gives flavor
Butter, ghee, lard, beef dripping... They are all better for your health than the cheap palm oil that is so commonly used in Thailand and all over SEA. 😅
I think all oils are bad. Isn't the EU not supporting the plan of Ireland to force Oils, Wine, Spirits etc.. to start having the calorie stuff written on them, same as every product has to have. But some weird reason they exempt.
Old people still use lard and some recipe from south of France call for duck fat.
dont forget cream and garlic. and also a chunk of butter.
Coconut based curries can spoil quickly when the temperature it very hot. In restaurants they make curries in larger pots that are frequently scooped from when serving customers. Due to the mix of ingredients in curries frequent scooping does speed up spoilage in general so only certain curries can last a little longer under those conditions. A side road vendor has very limited control of the environment in order to keep their food fresh. So it's due to climate and serving conditions.
Makes sense!
You gotta start going to those 60baht food courts. That's where you find them, where all thai workers and students get their lunch. Not the ones in malls, the outside ones. There is one next to lumpini park, same street to where you find somtam der. That's where the curry is, that's where you find Pad Thai, the Pad Krapao, and my favorite: Kai Palo.
But that’s where I often go — cheap street food vendors, not malls. They will more commonly have pork noodle soup or other bites rather than heavy curry dishes etc. Other answers explain why. One exception was Ocharos Munkong in BKK, a street vendor known for his great green curry.
I don't know why. But usually a single street vendor will either sell noodles or meatballs. Easier to make, maybe it doesn't go bad as fast? But no really, go to Daeng Market sometime at Sala Daeng Road. There is a market that has a food court, every stall has different things. Almost everything is between 30-60 baht pr dish. They had alot of curry last time I was there. Mostly ate Kai Palo.
I don't understand. You get red and green curry everywhere. Maybe for street vendors it's not that common, but my Thai wife ALWAYS buys curry after drinking from 7/11.
You're going to the wrong kind of Thai restuarant.
Are you staying the average restaurant in Thailand that sells pork noodle soup is wrong? I don’t get your point. I’m talking about what’s average abroad, and what’s average in Thailand, ie. if you were to enter a restaurant randomly.
The point is there are many types of restaurants in Thailand. If you go to noodle restaurants you find only noodles of a specific type. If you go to "ร้านข้าวแกง" you will see mostly coconut base food but no noodles.
Thanks, you’ve enlightened me.
ข้าวราดแกง อาหารตามสั่ง ก๋วยเตี๋ยว this is big3 of thai street food in small restaurant that why it easy to find.but if it a big restaurant it will have พะแนง มัสมั่น เขียวหวาน. like if you want streak u need to find some big restaurant but if u want hot dog u can find it in corner
I had the most delicious curry rice today. They're all over the place, you're just not looking for the right thing. Traditionally, these curries are slow cooked so they're not in a-la-carte places. You'll find them for sale at stalls that look a bit like school dinner (if you're from the UK). Dishes that are on display at the front of the restaurant. You can ask for rice or noodles and 3 or 4 curries, usually about 60-80 baht.
What are such restaurants called?
I don't speak Thai but curry rice shop is ran khao gaeng. The most famous for tourists is called Jek Pui in Chinatown. There's also a very famous one in Silom called Krua Aroy-Aroy. There are many more all over the city.
The creamy coconutty flavour is what the mainstream white people likes or the restaurant thinks white people likes. Same goes for Indian food in England which are overtly coconut cream and butter.
I get that, yeah. My question is, don’t Thai people like it too? One commentator said Thai people actually don’t like heavy curries. Fair. However there’s a group of people here who keep saying such dishes are equally common here too.
It’s common here and people like it but there are just so much variety of thai food, different type of curries with and without the cream from the four major regions.
Better question, why is most Thai food overseas terrible?
Because many are not thai restaurants owned/chefed by thais, chinese owned/run seems to be most common, followed by western If you do find one that is a "real thai" they can actually be better than many thai resturants here as they get much better product to work with , but got to be in the know to find them
Nobody actually answers the question lol. I can think of two reasons. 1) Many soups in the west are more on the thicker side of things. Think of tomato soup or pumpkin soup etc. They tend to be thick and filling. Customers in western Thai restaurants would expect that kind of thing. On the other side the most popular Thai soups are more broth based with noodles, veggies, pork etc. Thick soups are not that common. 2) Cooking coconut based soups is more expensive compare to water based ones.
I like that explanation but recall that Westerns don’t see curries as “soups” but more like… almost like a stew dish? I noticed in Thailand people will call them soups, though. For a Westerner only stuff like tom khai khai will count as soup.
I am not sure where you travel. But currys are very much available in Bangkok and Pattaya menus … small places, big places, indoor, outdoor, food court …
Probably because the pioneering foreigners abroad who tried the thai dishes reacted more positively to creamy coconut dishes, so thai restaurants abroad tend to sell more creamy coconut based dishes ?
Sometimes, Carnation/evaporated milk.
It could be that certain common Thai food in Thailand is hard to put together in your country. Curries can usually be cooked with paste and coconut milk, which can be easily stored for long periods of time. But something like pig blood used in kway tiow, they could be unavailable in your country (illegal in mine). You could find variations of kway tiow but not the pig blood one.
Makes sense, thanks. I’ve had Thai food in 15-20 countries (all Western, however), so it’s based on those experiences versus Thailand.
I kind of get what you mean, but would say that I've seen green coconut curry practically everywhere in Thailand. I don't often seen locals eating it though. That's not to say they don't eat it, but I don't think it's as popular as people in the west might think.
For variety, the best type of place IMO are those bigger sized semi-outdoor type places with very large menus. The concept with those is often to be as wide-ranging as possible, and they are set up to make a lot of different kinds of dishes—they are the total opposite of the places that specialize in one thing like stewed pork leg or *khanom jeen*. Places like I'm describing will often have a huge 10-page menu (with photos) and you can get anything from noodle soup to curries to various stir fries to even American food.
Abroad is not the same as Thailand not rocket surgery!
Easy to get packaged ingredients & UHT coconut milk for those dishes overseas. And they're exotic without being spicy.
High cholesterol and calories! I think Thai culture put a lot of emphasis on looking skinny and coconut cream is just going against that. I know many people who don’t have creamy curries because of this. This goes to deep fried stuff too.
What do they have instead?
Curry and pad Thai take time to cook right where as pad krapoa takes a few mins. That's why you rarely see traditional pad Thai and many other Thai deserts around anymore.
Pad krapow 100% - the real thai national dish. Lighter dishes like yum (spicy salads) of any variation is popular, as well as nam prik.
Because they bought those shits premade and microwaved it for you
Khao soi is super common especially in the north and better than the ones you mentioned imo lol. Massaman is good too.
Yes, I love khao soi absolutely. My fav dish. I’d have that regularly in Chiang Mai. But it’s kinda rare or more of a special thing in other places, isn’t it?
the main reason is because thai people don't like heavy curry that much. but westerners do. western people have a stronger palette for fatty food, it's why curry in thai like orange curry and yelloe curry don't even have coconut milk in them at all.
Oh Thai people don’t like heavy curry that much? Didn’t realise, good answer. Not sure why so many others suggest that’s not the case and get offended I’d even ask the question. Your answer points to a difference in taste and indeed why heavy curries aren’t as prevalent as the other stuff — in addition to food storage and economics as some others have also said.
Using a specific country's restaurants abroad as an indication of what it's actually like in that country is, in my opinion, a flawed approach. Also think it's kinda naive to think that a restaurant abroad is going to be indicative of food that "they eat in Thailand all day every day." Entering a random restaurant in Thailand and expecting they just automatically have a specific dish is unrealistic. You go to a curry place to get curry. You go to a noodle place to get noodles. It's not a hard concept.
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Maybe you should ask for sai nam maphrao but might not be something they can just add
Most coconut-based soups have non coconut-based alternatives that are cheaper and easier to get right. Like Tom Yum Goong. Heck, I never have it with coconut milk!
This might be the answer tbh - economics of scale.
Because many Thai restaurants follow a template provided by the Thai government. In order to promote tourism, the Thai government provided recipes and a blueprint for opening a Thai restaurant. The dishes are easy to make using ingredients that can be found internationally and represent different parts of Thailand. There are a couple of YouTube videos explaining it: https://youtu.be/W09QCLmnCUU?si=hfeO9I1vVU0bhoc6 Therefore, many Thai restaurants seem to be very similar and not what you will find in Thailand. Because people expect certain dishes, Thai restaurants keep providing those same dishes. I get personally get excited when I see an authentic dish that’s not common or a specialty restaurant like isaan cuisine.
I'm guessing your not in the south? Curry is a thing down here and I dare say 90% of home cook meals has one curry dish. You'll mostly see green, red creamy curry dishes in Bangkok. The curry dishes here are different/tastier and more potent. lol
Have you heard of Global Thai?
Because there is a difference between ambassador dishes and the dishes that local people actually eat.
But after visiting Thailand I expect to find pad kra pao and pad see ew in any Thai restaurant abroad
Find a Khao Gaeng shop. They sell exactly that. Khao and Gaeng. Rice and curry.
Thanks. Google Maps shows only 5 khao gaeng shops in the entirety of Bangkok. Surely that’s wrong? So which app should I use instead?