Best Thai food is in Los Angeles

[egeefay]

Among the Thais living in the US the word is that if you want to taste authentic Thai food you have to go to places like Los Angeles where Thai immigrants established restaurants 30-40 years ago and stuck to the traditional recipes.
In my opinion Present day Thais have changed a lot of the traditional recipes, perhaps to appeal to the tastes of a new generation of Thais who have been influenced by McDonalds, Pizza Hutm, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Subway.
In Bangkok I notice they use the word "Boran" a lot when they want to describe a restaurant where you can get food which has the "old world flavor".

[johnnyk]

"Old World" flavour is alive and well in Isaan and not watered down for falangs.

[Jaime]

"Old World" flavour is alive and well in Isaan and not watered down for falangs.

And in Ye Olde Lanna too!

Present day Thais have changed a lot of the traditional recipes, perhaps to appeal to the tastes of a new generation of Thais who have been influenced by McDonalds, Pizza Hutm, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Subway.

I do not see the influence of any of those operators in any of the food I am served up - that reminds me, must see if my bowl of duck blood has curdled enough to attach itself in slimy clots to the sticky rice yet.

[DawnHRD]

Among the Thais living in the US the word is that if you want to taste authentic Thai food you have to go to places like Los Angeles where Thai immigrants established restaurants 30-40 years ago and stuck to the traditional recipes.
In my opinion Present day Thais have changed a lot of the traditional recipes, perhaps to appeal to the tastes of a new generation of Thais who have been influenced by McDonalds, Pizza Hutm, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Subway.
In Bangkok I notice they use the word "Boran" a lot when they want to describe a restaurant where you can get food which has the "old world flavor".

I find this a little incongruous. The Thai restaurants in another country where (30 or 40 years ago, at least) you couldn't get authentic ingredients are more authentically Thai than in Thailand? And as for being influenced by Western tastes, isn't the taste in LA far more Western than the taste in Cosmopolitan Bangkok? All of the fast food restaurants you mentioned are American; surely tastes would be influenced more from them in a place where they're on every corner, rather than where there's a handful of them in each big town?

[migrant]

I live outside Los Angeles, and find a wide variety of Thai restaurants. My Thai fiance, and I, try different ones as we come across them. Some are extremely close to our favorite restaurants in Thailand, some vary.

I used to live in Maine, on the opposite side of the states, and there was a Thai restaurant there that I would rank as good, and as authentic, as any I have been to.

Like many ethnic restaurant here in the states I think the menu is altered to fit the perceived tastes of us Westerners.

Like Indian, Mexican, etc, one can find authentic cuisine, or 'westernized' I believe, depending on luck, and how hard you look.

[egeefay]

You may be right. I won’t try to defend my opinion which is based on anecdotal evidence only.
I recall when I lived in Thailand back in the late 1960’s , the city was 1/3 the size. The restaurants were all mom and pop operations , many of them specialized in dishes that they were famous for throughout the city. Back then, there were no Thai food chains like MK. There was Central Department store but they didn’t serve food. Food Courts didn’t exist back then. And I don’t recall seeing a McDonalds or a Kentucky Fried Chicken at that time. Back then If you wanted lamb chops or steaks you could buy them…frozen or from the PX (if you were permitted). At that time Thai food was “kingâ€

[Guess]

This is a topic that could be discussed for ever, and will be.

Firstly authenticity is more or less in the eye of the beholder. All cuisines, ragrdless of their labels have been evolvong for centuries and part of that evolutionary process has been foreign influence. Another major factor of course is constituent availability.

Bangkok has had Western influence since day one (late 18th century) and Thailand as a whole for 400 hundred years. Other foreign influences have crept into Thai cuisine for much longer than that.

I would challenge anybody for a detailed description of authencicity in this context.

Another point of interest and in line with the OP, is that of availability of ingredients. My first encounter with Thai people was in the Bay area and the family had been in The US since the end of the Second World War. They had grown into a big family with some of the US born being married into Chinese families. They had move up the coast from LA in the sixties.

One thing that the Thai people had manged to do was to grow many, so far unailable and non indigenous herbs and spices, in parts of California. Along with the "Thai" tradditional ingredients such as prik thai, which are actually American indigenous plants anyway, they managed to get everything needed to cook "authentic" Thai food and in many ways kept kept it as "authentic" as possible. They have had every reason to maintain "authenticity" in an area that is multi cultured. In Bangkok it is go with the flow.

[dane48]

Nothing better than mom's food

The ongoing industrialisation and pre-fabrication of our food-products make everything taste the same. Most restaurants make use of thoose pre-fabricated ingredients, even up-scale restaurants - it's cheap and fast and they need to be competitive.
Take a look at the chicken-meat, after the avian flu strict regulation was implemented on producing chickens.Only big companies can cope with these restriction coarsing further centralisation and more uniform product's.
In Thailand there is actually only producer left in this market ( PC-Food)
so all chicken-meat in Thailand and many places in Europe taste the same - nothing...

Off thread:
Kin Khao - Athlone,Ireland
Soya Bean - Arklow, Ireland

Super Gourme, especially the upper one

[Mestizo]

I went to a Thai restaurant in Los Angeles (recommended by an officer at the Thai consulate). While the food was decent, it was short of the mark set in Thailand and was about 20X the cost. Example: som tum, sticky rice, and moo yang with an ice coffee was 28 USD. Out here it's about 60 baht or $1.50 US. With price not even a consideration, I would have to say the Thai version is better (especially in Issan).

[STEVE G]

Unfortunately, ethnic restaurants the world over have to tone down their food to suit the local palette. In Luxembourg I use a small Thai restaurant which is good, but not the quite the same as the food in Thailand. However I have been invited to eat with the owner a couple of times, and in her home the food is very authentic, obviously not all the ingredients are as fresh as they would be in Thailand, but aside from that it’s the real thing.

[PeteC]

Unfortunately, ethnic restaurants the world over have to tone down their food to suit the local palette. In Luxembourg I use a small Thai restaurant which is good, but not the quite the same as the food in Thailand. However I have been invited to eat with the owner a couple of times, and in her home the food is very authentic, obviously not all the ingredients are as fresh as they would be in Thailand, but aside from that it’s the real thing.

Ahh haa!, you've resorted to picking up Thai female restaurant owners to satisfy your craving for authentic Thai food. Unique approach but I like it! Pete

[migrant]

[/quote]

Ahh haa!, you've resorted to picking up Thai female restaurant owners to satisfy your craving for authentic Thai food. Unique approach but I like it! Pete[/quote]



I met my Thai fiance here in California at the Thai restaurant she worked at. Slow night, 1.5 hours of talk and good Thai food, then 2 months before first date.

[PeteC]

Ahh haa!, you've resorted to picking up Thai female restaurant owners to satisfy your craving for authentic Thai food. Unique approach but I like it! Pete[/quote]



I met my Thai fiance here in California at the Thai restaurant she worked at. Slow night, 1.5 hours of talk and good Thai food, then 2 months before first date.[/quote]

I remember you telling that story, Migrant. So, when is the big move to Thailand going to be. It ain't getting any cheaper over here. Maybe wait until the USD hits 40-42 again, if ever? Pete

[STEVE G]

Prcscct wrote:
Ahh haa!, you've resorted to picking up Thai female restaurant owners to satisfy your craving for authentic Thai food.

Hi Pete, for the sake of my relationship, I had better point out that I resorted to befriending a Thai restaurant owner, and her husband to satisfy my craving for authentic Thai food!

[The understudy]

Yeah Finally a Topic which I can realte to
I live with my sisters in the San Fernando Valley in the outskirts of LA. and all I can say say is the Thai Community here is huge and so the variety of Thai Restaurants here is also not to be under estimated. Speaking of "Boran" style Food here I could not found one of Thai Restaurants that have such a traditional Menus or Taste that would fit the desription "Old World". But as fellow speaker Guess had nemtioend before Thais are abel to Plant the same kind of Vegetable and Herbs overhere as well. One example would be the small Plantation of "Prak chi" near Fresno which a Thai owns a Land overthere.
Tp cpme back to Good Thai Cusine in and around Los Angeles. I would sugggest The Thai Fantasy Reatayrant" Abd "The Palms" on Hollywood boulevard. which located right in front of the Entrance into "ThaiTown" an own district for Thais (which we share the area Armenians). The worst Thai Kitchen I had ever tasted was "Ocha Restaurant" iInside the restarant the decoration was pretty bland. The food was merely to be moderate in taste @!

From L.A. The Inderstudy!