Why do we find Thai cuisine so mesmerizing?

[Mjx]

The popularity and enthusiasm over Thai food is probably due to a combination of intense flavour and execution. You can certainly get dreadful Thai food, but you're more likely to come across (perhaps even regularly consume) dreadful Chinese food, simply because there are more Chinese than Thai restaurants, even today. Also, many Chinese restaurants are better known for their low prices than the quality of their food, and there's a good chance that many (most?) people haven't ever had good Chinese food, even where it is available. Japanese food is often very good, but many find it a bit bland, whereas Thai food tends to be more intensely flavoured (and is more likely to be spicy).

[Dave W]

It's exciting because Thailand, the kingdom of Siam, has always been independent of western colonialism and it's geographically isolated and as such it's shrouded in mystery while being allowed to develop its own strong food traditions without influence. So it's novel for westerners, culturally.

Also we get some flavors and especially flavor combos in Thai food that you rarely see in other cuisines. Galangal, kefir lime and shrimp paste are three that are emblematic of Thai cuisine while rarely appearing elsewhere. Compare this with western foods that are different in technique while using largely the same ingredients.

It's my preferred SE Asian cuisine because it is ubiquitous and bold and not as expensive as sushi which would make a close second. But I couldn't say if Singaporean or Malaysian food would be better due to lack of exposure.

Finally the balancing of sour sweet salty hot in Thai is important in all Thai dishes and across entire Thai menus. In other foods you see it more across (good) menus than within each dish.

[huiray]

The popularity and enthusiasm over Thai food is probably due to a combination of intense flavour and execution. You can certainly get dreadful Thai food, but you're more likely to come across (perhaps even regularly consume) dreadful Chinese food, simply because there are more Chinese than Thai restaurants, even today. Also, many Chinese restaurants are better known for their low prices than the quality of their food, and there's a good chance that many (most?) people haven't ever had good Chinese food, even where it is available. Japanese food is often very good, but many find it a bit bland, whereas Thai food tends to be more intensely flavoured (and is more likely to be spicy).

 

True enough, I suppose - but that alone still doesn't fully explain (IMO) why Thai seems to be favored over Vietnamese, Nyonya, or Malaysian-Singaporean-Chinese-inflected cuisines, where Malay influences are also thrown into the mix; or Malay-Indonesian cuisine, as a few examples.**  These other cuisines also use many common or similar ingredients (and many other different ones as well) and taste profiles that also are often intensely flavored and so on.

 

I suppose the widespread availability of Thai restaurants versus other SE Asian restaurants also does factor in (yes, lots more Chinese places both good and bad) - and here, at least in the last dozen years or so, I suspect that the Thai government program to promote and quietly support good Thai food abroad really did have an effect.  (See the links in my post above)^¶¶   Ditto, perhaps, the availability of proponents for the cuisine who are Westerners themselves, in the same way that Fuchsia Dunlop is a proponent for Sichuanese food.

 

"Familiarity" with a cuisine, insofar as the US is concerned (this is no doubt different elsewhere) ought to suggest that Vietnamese would be on an equal footing - if not anything else because of the country's involvement in Vietnam. Yet Thai has an advantage in the "popular imagination", it seems to me, notwithstanding the certainly widespread popularity and appreciation for Vietnamese cuisine.  But here perhaps tourism also had a hand?  Thailand remained freely open to Westerners whereas Vietnam was closed off after the Vietnam War and has become accessible to a limited extent only very recently.

 

There is also the issue of "adaptation to the local palate" within the context of this discussion, as also touched upon by some earlier posters - could Thai restauranteurs have "adapted" their food better (speaking in a general sense, and not necessarily with regards to food experts or eGulleteers or food lovers) to, say, the US population? But that is another (although related) matter.

 

** On reading this old thread, I see that one poster definitely preferred Vietnamese food over Thai food.  :-)

 

^¶¶Where one also reads about the Malaysian and Korean governments getting into the game...and, recently, the US government too...

 

As for "dreadful Thai food" which you mention one could certainly get, commentators have pointed out in this context, as well as in the sense of "adaptation"/"spiciness" that Thai food - as the current subject - often gets dialed down in "hotness" for US (and Western) clientele but some chefs neglect to adjust the other components such as sweetness (especially sweetness) so Thai food in the US, for example, sometimes comes out as overly sweet.  Add that to the Thai propensity for sweetness anyway, and one has a double-whammy there...

 

With regards to the difference between E/SE/S/wheverelse Asian taste profiles, I have mentioned this study before but it may be of interest in the context of this thread and apropos to some of the comments in earlier posts to cite them again:

http://www.nature.com/srep/2011/111215/srep00196/full/srep00196.html

...and a "popular take" on this paper:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2075237/Why-Western-Asian-foods-taste-different-Study-reveals-pair-flavours-totally-different-ways.html

Edited November 30, 2014 by huiray (log)

[huiray]

It's exciting because Thailand, the kingdom of Siam, has always been independent of western colonialism and it's geographically isolated and as such it's shrouded in mystery while being allowed to develop its own strong food traditions without influence. So it's novel for westerners, culturally.

Also we get some flavors and especially flavor combos in Thai food that you rarely see in other cuisines. Galangal, kefir lime and shrimp paste are three that are emblematic of Thai cuisine while rarely appearing elsewhere. Compare this with western foods that are different in technique while using largely the same ingredients.

It's my preferred SE Asian cuisine because it is ubiquitous and bold and not as expensive as sushi which would make a close second. But I couldn't say if Singaporean or Malaysian food would be better due to lack of exposure.

Finally the balancing of sour sweet salty hot in Thai is important in all Thai dishes and across entire Thai menus. In other foods you see it more across (good) menus than within each dish.

 

Galangal, kaffir lime and shrimp paste are widely used and common/necessary ingredients in Nyonya and Malay cuisines, as two examples^¶¶ and is also used throughout the rest of SE Asia.

 

Have a look, if you like, at the Nature article on why Western food and "Asian" food differs that I referenced above.

 

^¶¶ Note that "Malay" is NOT the same as "Malaysian".

[liuzhou]

 

allowed to develop its own strong food traditions without influence

 

Only if you ignore the massive influence of China. And in Northern Thailand, the huge influence of Laos.

[Dave W]

Please xcuse my Malay vs Malaysian gaffe. I meant free of western influence but good point.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Dave W (log)

[cdh]

Why Thai and not other SE Asian foods?  Ubiquity probably has something to do with it.  There's more chance of finding a Thai restaurant than there is a Malaysian or Lao or Burmese or Indonesian spot. Sure there is the Penang chain in East Coast megalopolis, but what else?  Suburbs get Thai spots opening... I would need to go downtown to eat any of the other listed cuisines.

[Simon Lewinson]

I am quite catholic about the Asian foods that I love. From Sarawak laksa in Kuching, char kueh teow in Penang, pho in Vietnam to som tum and pad khi mao in Bangkok, I find the clarity, intensity and balance of flavours in well executed dishes quite alluring and often addictive.

Thai food seems to have an intensity, subtlety and balance of flavours that makes the ingredients shine.

Simon