Why Pad Thai in US taste sweet?
 

Love going to Europe to enjoy their pastries and biscuits/cookies because they are not as sweet as in the U.S.

To see Americans buying and enjoying orange chicken with rice at Panda Express, Yuck!
Such a sweet dish ! lol!

I love spicy savory taste! Not only that, I add more chilly or hot sauce.

That's probably why there are so many obese Americans.

We don't have any chain Asian locally, but quite a number of Thai, Korean, Philippine, Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants. The Chinese places are all over the map and hard to talk about collectively. I suppose that's good as it allows you to find the one that matches your taste. I would agree that in general, their food is far sweeter than "American" dishes. Even our Thai restaurants, although owned and operated by folks from Thailand, tend to be sweet. It's surprising, since my theory is that they cater to the 2 local military bases where I would expect patrons to know what the real thing tastes like. Interesting observation on the part of the OP. I hadn't considered it until now. I may just have to try a few new places to see what I can find.

BTW, not all European countries leave out the sugar. I challenge anyone to eat a weeks worth of dessert in Vienna without the urge to make a dentist appointment upon returning home.

Sugar where sugar belongs. A loaf of bread should not be sweet, but almost all US bread is horribly sweet, unless you buy the "artisan" type which would just be ordinary bread in other parts of the world.

I wouldn't call PF Chang a restaurant, and I wouldn't call the stuff they serve food.

As somebody that loves bread, and being in the SF Bay Area where sourdough comes from, I just never noticed any of the breads I eat having the slightest bit of sugar.

Most Americans don't. Sugar is pervasive in the American diet. To a foreigner it seems as though everything is sweetened. Even at higher end restaurants food often still has a certain sweetness to it.

Sourdough comes from San Francisco? That's a new one!;)

They are bland to me in that they don't have enough flavor, not that they don't have enough sugar. More cinnamon, or vanilla, or whatever the flavor is supposed to be. (I also don't generally like nut fillings in pastry)

I find that generally true, but equally in places like New York and San Fran you can get utterly authentic food from almost any country in the world. I've never seen such a wide range from amazing food to basically inedible in one country.

I think it might go back to early Thai restaurants in the USA having problems sourcing tamarind for the dish. So they'd substitute tomato ketchup to try to get roughly the same flavor profile, and if anyone complained about the ketchup, they'd say that, hey, it's a traditional SE Asian sauce and additive. Never mind that the original version of ketchup doesn't really resemble Euro-North American ketchup all that much. I also think that many North Americans go with the insanely hot spice level you can find in Thai food that helps balance out the sweet.

BamaVol- if you find yourself in Destin, I adore the massaman curry at Jasmine Thai over by Destin Fresh Market. I also don't think their pad thai is overly sweet- if I want a sweet noodle dish from there, I go with the pad kee maw.

Maybe in the fall. A little too hectic this time of year. Any possibility it's related to Jasmine in PCB?

PF Chang and Pei Wei serve Americanized Chinese food. In case of other SE Asian cuisine, they serve a version which has been Chinesed and then Americanized; double whammy!

If you want Thai food, find a Thai restaurant.

I can understand the desire to avoid summer US 98 traffic all too well. Not sure about common ownership with the other Jasmine.

Maybe I'm just the odd one out but when I eat Asian food "sweet" is not a word that ever entered my mind. Bread--sweet? Huh? :confused: