I want your opinion on Thai food

Fortunately we can get all levels of Jalapeño here in Northern California. I prefer the Oh My God variety cooked in food, but not to eat directly.

Small Mexican restaurants often have the real thing:cheer2:but the big chain Mexican restaurants use the mild Jalapeños here too

 

I used to like Thai, but it gets old after a while, especially now that most restaurants have the same things on their menu. I am a very adventurous eater, so I can understand the OP's frustration.

However, my wife can cook some awesome Thai dishes from scratch, so I must say that Thai food in itself is not bad, you just have to do it right.

One thing Thai cuisine has that Chinese doesn't is fresh (ie. uncooked) green vegetables and herbs. Not sure why Chinese don't eat green leafy stuff raw, they have to cook everything. You lose a lot of flavor and nutritions that way.

 

Which Thai curry?

When I see the word 'curry' without a preceding name, I think of the thin bland powdered stuff in American branded boxes. That isn't among the varieties going into my pot. And the half dozen I use are but a tiny portion of what the natives have available.

 

I love Thai Food. They have many things in the menu. If you don't like the curry. You can try something else like Tom Yum Kung Soup. The best Thai spicy & sour soup.

 

Here's how I look at it:

Thai food is just too sweet. Vietnamese is more of the same and Cambodia is similar. The king of Asian foods is Chinese. I think the three great tastes of the world is Chinese, Japanese and Italian. There's others but they don't come close. I'm not talking about American Chinese or American Japanese and especially not American Italian, but the authentic stuff.

Buon Appetito

 

Ah, THAT also explains your feelings. I love me some Thai food, but a little goes a long way. I maybe have it twice a year (as opposed to Chinese food, which I usually have once a week or so, or Japanese food which I probably have once every month or two).

Here's how I usually end up at a Thai restaurant:
Other Person: Let's go out to eat.
Me: Sounds good. Where should we go?
OP: Chinese?
Me: Just had that last night.
OP: Indian?
Me: Just had that a couple of days before. How about Mexican?
OP: I don't feel like Mexican food. How about...
(one half hour later)
OP: How about Thai?
Me: Huh. Haven't had Thai in awhile. Yeah, let's go there.

 

I have Thai food about once a week. I make it at home about once every other month as well.

 

Those ain't really hot peppers... they have a very mild bite compared to the little fireballs that get used to make the wife's 3-alarm chili... for an 8 qt pot = 4 little fireballs... you ain't eating a whole bunch of it, but it sure does make for a great spicy chilidog at the ball game.


We chop Jalapenos up fresh and toss em on a lot of foods...


And I prefer the taste of Indian curry to Thai... I think the aroma is better too

 

I just had a mini-pepperoni, jalapeno and cheese pizza for lunch

I prefer the flavor of habaneros but no way will I try to eat one by itself. I frequently use some habanero sauce in things to brighten up the taste. Hash browns an over easy eggs mixed together with a generous dose of Habanero sauce makes a great tasting breakfast.

 

I see youre in the Bay area.
I havent tried Marnee Thai yet ,but it looks pretty good in this video of Check Please.

 

Capsaicin is the main chemical we call 'spicy' in pepper. An interesting trivia is that Capsaicin cream is an analgesic. Works as an anaesthetic on pain receptors.

 

Well... if you do not poop maybe... I believe if you do doo doo... you'll know about the peppers Bra.

 

Various liniments that cause local a hot feeling have been used as pain relievers for decades. Absorbine Jr is one.

I hadn't heard of capsaicin cream before, thanks.

 

I wish I could eat Thai food. Here is the problem. I seem to be rather sensitive to hot peppers. And it may be getting worse. I used to eat Thai food frequently, but now I have sworn it off.

I don't think it's all kinds of peppers. Maybe just certain ones, but you never know what you're eating in a restaurant. My biggest problem is with Jalapenos. One bite and my mouth burns and doesn't recover until long after the meal is over. I taste that distinctive taste (kind of bitter?) for a fraction of a second, and then my taste buds go completely blank. Other peppers, such as Habernero, sure they are hot, but there is no permanent damage, I can often even taste them, and I recover in a few minutes.

A couple of months ago, I went to my favorite Thai restaurant. It had been a while, due to some road construction that made it hard to get there for many months. The dish I ordered was one that I had previously eaten there without a problem. It was a one-star dish, so it wasn't supposed to be very spicy. I started to eat it, and wow, it really burned. Although it didn't have the Jalapeno taste, it had the long-lasting effect. I ended up with a sore throat later in the evening. The waitress didn't know what kind of peppers were in their sauce. All she could tell me was that they got it from Chicago.

I decided the best way to avoid anything like that in the future would be to not set foot in a Thai restaurant again.

As for the OP, there are nearly infinite ways to combine and prepare foods. You aren't going to like all of them equally. I suggest you encourage your coworkers to keep trying new restaurants. They probably just keep eating Thai food out of habit. Find them some alternatives.

 

I tend to avoid Asian restaurants altogether due to MSG, especially at Chinese places. Nowadays I find Korean food more to my liking.

 

Atlanta has a lot of Thai and Indian restaurants. With both cuisines, I've noticed every restaurant is so different with their presentations....especially something like Pad Thai: I don't eat that dish that much...but when I've tried it, some places make it way to peanut buttery...and others seem to have it soaking in oil. My normal go to dishes for trying a Thai place tends to be chicken basil dishes. IMO, you can't go wrong with those dishes since the basil ads a nice fresh feeling, you can get a good deal of spice, and the sauces tend to be lighter. I've also had a mean lamb dish at one of the Thai places here....but that was pretty extravegant. For regular "what's a basic dish I might like", basil dishes are it for me!

 

Pepper tends to be a digestive irritant; all the more so the hotter it is. You might try freshly ground black pepper to see if that suits you. Much of the problem with most pepper is mould, not the pepper itself.

 

Your problem is you go there too damn often. I would be sick of my favorite food (with the possible exception of In-N-Out Burgers) if I went there more than once a week. I just had some delicious Indian food last night, a meal that couldn't be beat, but now I don't want to see Indian food for at least another couple of weeks or so.

Here's the challenge: Don't go to a Thai restaurant for a year. After that, order something, and I bet you'll say, and this is a direct quote, "Oh Em Gee! This is so good! NOM NOM NOM!"