I hadn't realized how much my local Thai food scene seems to still be in sync with the homeland until I wandered into a discussion at Chowhound where there was much talk about how standard red ketchup was (shudder) an expected ingredient in pad thai in the Thai restaurants in their area.

There are actually as many or more Thai restaurants in my neck of the swamp these days as there are American Chinese restaurants, probably because the Chinese places have a hard-won reputation for being pretty terrible, and the Thais seem to have a decent handle on quality for a sub-$10 price point.

So many of the dishes in your 'hood are legit spicy then?

Not my favorite two cuisines (at least when eaten in the US), but the ketchup comment is interesting. Having brown sugar or (gasp) condensed milk in Filipino pasta is apparently de rigeur.

You can find Thai hot on a lot of menus 'round here. The key is convincing the staff that you really want it like that. A lot of them are reluctant to go full heat if they don't recognize you as a regular because they don't want you complaining about how the dish is too hot to eat.

Me, I stick to 'mild' for most dishes at my local strip mall place, and move up to medium only on the curries because the fat helps cut the heat because I'm inherently a bit of a peppers wimp.

I saw a sign for a new restaurant the other day advertising 'Korean, pizza, and breakfast food'. I think it's a sign that I've been living near Ft. Walton Beach too long when I just assumed there was a perfectly logical reason for this.

Or, it's a sign I should pay a visit to Ft. Walton Beach...though I don't want to imagine what "US banchan" would look like. Let us know if you try it!