Originally Posted by
tg911
If you use a street vendor look for where lots of Thais buy,why not try Som Tam Thai and sticky rice.That can be very spicy but you will get to taste it while the person makes it.So can adjust sweet,spicy,sour to you own taste.
Som Tam and Laab Moo are 2 of my favorite meals.
Please....
NO.
Tam Thai is sweet with peanuts and dried shrimp; it is far from spicy.
If you want spicy try
tam Lao or
tam bu pla ra. Of course neither is typically ordered by tourists and ordered in English will likely leave the vendor very confused.
Originally Posted by
BuildingMyBento
Eh, but a lot of the tourist-heavy places are also Thai-heavy, save maybe for Khaosan?
You'd be surprised how many Thais, mostly the younger crowd, flock to Khao San. At least that's what I'm told as I avoid the place like the plague.
Originally Posted by
aBroadAbroad
Sorry, but this just sounds like good old fashioned bias. The difference between reality and what people "like to think" can be quite significant. The food you've been eating in CA may be delicious to you, but perhaps it simply does not reflect the reality of typical Thai food. Given that the central coast is not exactly a hub of southeast Asian expat culture, I strongly suspect that may be the case.
I've divided my time between homes in California (native) and Bangkok for many years. My Thai friends in the USA are mostly unanimous in saying that they do get reasonably good Thai food from a select few restaurants in the LA/OC area (home of the largest Thai expat population in the world), but that even those best eateries just aren't as good as the stuff in Thailand.
Spot on at so many levels. After my first major Asia trip in 2004 I ventured back to SF ready to eat, once again, at my favorite Thai locales. Instead I was now greatly disappointed at the meager flavors and lack of certain ingredients
across the board. That was the impetus for me to learn to cook Thai food.
The best Thai food in the states that i've explored has been near my friend's place in Hollywood (AKA Thai Town) and in Elmhurst, Queens, NY. Other than that I usually defer all my friends' requests of, 'oh, you should try this Thai place I know of.'
There is one place in SF in the Tenderloin, the exact streets/resto name I forget, that I enjoy. Other than that it's a very loud and continual meh.
Originally Posted by
aBroadAbroad
Besides, the art of great Thai food is balance, hitting all five favors in one dish or meal in exactly the right combo. The fact is that extremely spicy-hot food kills the palate, and all the subtlety of those intricate, carefully achieved flavor profiles is completely lost.
Which is why a very spicy dish often has strong salty and/or sweet flavors to accompany/contrast.