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I keep seeing Thai places popping up left and right.
Very disappointed overall with most Thai places, just Chinese people that used to run Chinese take-outs converting to Thai by just changing out a few ingredients.
Most Chinese diners today cater to American diet and is not authentic at all. Thai food is the same, most places are't authentic at all. If I had to pick a random Thai or Chinese or Korean, I would go for Korean. As majority of Korean diners have to stay authentic because the majority of customers are still Asian.
1) What you 'see' in the very small portion of the world that you observe is not necessarily reflective of widespread popularity. Really, that's as self-absorbed as someone in Kansas City wondering why BBQ is 'more popular' than Chicago dogs or gyros or New York style pizza. You have certainly not demonstrated that there are more Thai restaurants than Chinese or Korean restaurants in New York, much less across the United States.
2) Aside from that - why, why, why do people confuse their subjective states with objective facts? Thai food is not better than Chinese food. Chinese food is not better than Thai food. Neither is better than Korean food. Korean food is better than neither of those. Some people merely like one better than the others and vice versa. I prefer Malaysia cuisine to Thai, Chinese and Korean, but I don't delude myself into thinking that those with different preferences are wrong. What about the word 'personal taste' confuses people?
Eat what you want. Quit worrying that others want something else.
We have a Koreatown, and lots of Korean places. Thai peaked in the Bay Area about 15 years ago. Now Korean is hip here.
I enjoy Korean food, too, and find it most plentiful at Japanese restaurants run by Koreans.
I just wish that there were Korean restaurants near me that were Korean and not sushi, because as well as Koreans cook grilled meat, I don't find they tend to make authentic Japanese foods as I like them.
One potential reason - Chinese food implies cheap prices. Chinese restaurants cannot charge much for food except for PF Chang's and the likes. Thai meals are generally more expensive and hence higher margins. Japanese meals have even higher margins. I have seen a lot of Chinese-run sushi places around my area.
I've had authentic Korean, Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese directly from all of those countries, and much prefer Thai or Vietnamese. Korean can be good, but is just eh. They simply don't have the tropical fruits and vegetables that grow like they do in Thailand, with bold flavors that punch you in the face. Thais are simply masters at mixing sweet, sour, hot, and salty. Many Korean dishes a quite hearty and would absolutely warm you up if you had to live through absolutely brutal winters like they can get in the Koreas, and it is reflected in their food. Thai food is just more refreshing.
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thatguydownsouth
Thai food is like Outback and Chinese food is like McDonalds. Ill just put it that way. When I get Chinese I know what Im asking for, mediocre food that has had no effort put into it. Its just heavy sauce on "fried rice" and some meat. I put fried rice in quotes because sometimes what your getting is in no way fried rice. Its just some kind of steamed yellow rice with carrots and peas.
Thai food on the other hand has more fresh ingredients like lemongrass as well as better flavor that isnt derived from some MSG laden sugar sauce.
Also which ones do you see failing health inspections over and over again in your area? Hint, not the Thai restaurants...
It's "flied lice" in an Asian accent.
Yeah, Chinese restaurants get flunked fairly often ..... some of it is because they tend to have "back room" meat dishes off the official menu that have been cooked rare or might even be still twitching, or that have been aging at room temp before cooking. But also people have noticed going back for decades that there are no stray cats or dogs near Chinese restaurants ....
Here out West, Mexicans do most of the low-end Asian cooking, especially less expensive buffets. They work for half the pay and a quarter of the backtalk, and have spent their high school years going to culinary trade schools so they are quite good at a variety of ethnic foods. The only problem is that almost always they slightly overcook the food, so that veggies aren't crispy and are often drowned in syrupy canned sauces. I like the ones where you can have a cook make a platter to order in front of you, so that I can skip the sauce except maybe a little hot sauce and soy sauce.
Thai is definitely increasing in popularity, but overall there seems to be a heck of lot more Chinese restaurants than Thai places. Unfortunately, finding GOOD Chinese food is incredibly difficult. I don't ask for much, just a simple, flavorful sauce, tons of vegetables, and properly cooked rice, no sticky, sweet, friend crap dumped over mushy rice. I've been living in my current large city for 9 years, and have only found one Chinese place that's halfway decent. I've had better luck finding good Thai food.
I prefer Thai because it appears fresher...crisp cilantro, lemon grass, love the peanut satays,
fresh colorful little peppers.
Similar to Viet Namese...less oily and definitely less fried dishes.
This.
I personally think that the ingredients in the food are fresher as a whole. The overall product is soooo good, as a result. Chinese food (at least the Americanized version) is greasy and filled with "meat" that I always feel I'm questioning the authenticity of.
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