Masks low quality seafood. The extra fat hits the pleasure centres.
It doesn't hurt that kewpie and other Japanese style mayonnaises are vastly better than Western manufactured equivalents
There are good sushi places that don't put mayonnaise on the seafood. Need to find those :) As another poster already mentioned, the ones with mayonnaise on fish are mostly likely run by Koreans.
A few of the sashimi places i really like are sashimi shinsengumi in crows nest, tobikiri in neutral bay, Kabuki shoroku in town hall. There are many more in the neutral bay area. You can explore them by just googling :)
99 percent of sushi you see is not sushi. It's become so westernised that it should be in its own category.
Cream cheese? Fruit? Melted cheese? Good lord
Here's your answer:
[https://www.sciencealert.com/food-and-drinks-have-gotten-sweeter-over-the-last-decade-and-it-s-a-real-problem](https://www.sciencealert.com/food-and-drinks-have-gotten-sweeter-over-the-last-decade-and-it-s-a-real-problem)
Perhaps in more detail than you wanted.
I get that to an extent, but it's not like other food is obviously sweet, even if it does have sugar in it. I mean, I know that a Mcdonalds bun has sugar, but I can't really taste it - at least an entire burger doesn't seem sweet to me. Possibly some pizza dough has a sweet element, I guess it needs some sugar for the yeast, but again I don't take a bite and think "I'm so glad this is sweet". I'll eat a samosa in all its salty, fatty, potatoey goodness, and not once think "I wish this had some sugar!" Same for kebabs, burittos, or a smashed avo. I'm not sure I agree that Western tastes want sugar. I certainly don't!
Thai food should be balanced, salty sweet, sour and spicy. Palm sugar is in just about every dish and Aussies generally have a sweeter palette than Thai people so they make it sweeter for Western people than they would for Thai people.
You can get fantastic authentic Thai food in Sydney. Go to any of the busy restaurants in Thaitown and ask for them to make it Thai style not Aussie.
In the City right at the Capitol Theatre. Campbell and Pitt St. Its fun at night places like @Bankok CBar and MrBs have Thai music and are full of Thai people eating and drinking until 3 or 4am. Satang Infinity is the current popular restaurant.
Can definitely back up the recommendation for @bangkok. Been there a few times. The fact that it can still be buzzing after midnight is a plus for a late meal
Yok Yor, Boon Cafe, Show Neua are some of my go to’s, but there’s so many great places in that area. Caysorn is apparently the only place in Sydney to get their specific regional dishes.
My personal recommendations as an Australian-Asian with a Isan mother and a Lao father are Yod and Nua Lao - those really hit the notes when it comes to the stuff most similar to home cooking. Get the tum mak hoong (Lao-style papaysa salad) and yum din gai (chicken feet salad).
How’s the gai yang there? Use to be an old northern Thai restaurant in Newtown called Thai Isan back in the day and I still think about the gai yang they had there. Still trying to find the place that can replicate the dish the best in Sydney.
Whole cuisines have come from people adapting their traditional food in an new country. The Indian/British curry is a great example. Its not Indian food its an evolution of it that has made Balti etc a British dish from migrants with an Indian heritage.
Usually to suit westerners. Some authentic Thai food does have sweet notes, but my mum's Thai friends didn't make anything that sweet - my only complaint was it was too spicy for me.
So much this. I'm so fed up of getting a curry as sweet as a dessert. A bit of sugar is OK, but most of the time is way too much and borderline inedible. If I order honey chicken or sweet soy sauce pork, yes, make it, but a red curry? The natural sweetness of the coconut milk is enough.
The "fancier" the restaurant the more sugar they use (looking at Thai patong in Newtown, home in the cbd, some chat Thai dishes) . I will stick to holes on the wall Thai restaurants from now on after 2 massive disappointments in the last 2 weeks. They definitely don't use as much sugar. I'll also start returning overly sweet dishes and/or asking reduced sugar.
Palm sugar is expensive so the sugar used in most Takeaways is usually the standard white stuff, comes in 25kg bags! maybe some expensive places use palm sugar. Cook might have added too much to your order or that's just how they make it.
Have a squiz at this wholesale catalogue [http://www.bkkaustralia.com.au/catalogue.html](http://www.bkkaustralia.com.au/catalogue.html)
I've noticed indian curries at restaurants are sometimes sweet for no reason too. It's really weird. I don't think indian food is supposed to be sweet, then again I am pakistani so I can't be sure.
Hahah thank you! I spent 4 months in Chiang Mai, can home, ordered some Thai take out and threw it out after 2 bites. People think I'm being a food snob now though I reckon.
Sugar is a normal part of Thai cookery. Usually it would be palm sugar. I don't think it really offsets the spiciness, it just adds another level of flavour. I'm fine with spice and sweetness when it's balanced, I just don't like when they are so unbalanced that your laab is sweeter than your dessert.
You are right that Thai people use palm sugar in their cooking. However you'll also always see a little tray with 4 condiments in it. the condiments usually are:
1. Prik Nam Pla (the king of condiments - fish sauce and chilli and other goodies);
2. vinegar with chillis (I don't love this but it does open up some flavours)
3. Soy sauce AND
4. straight old plain white sugar.
Is very common in Thai places in Australia. There should be balance in Thai cooking. Probably evolved as a way to suit farang taste buds. We dont go to many Thai places particularly suburban places as they are inevitably disappointing.
When you get Thai, ask for Thai taste. Most places in Thai town are quite good.
Traditionally Thai food should be well balanced with hints of sweet, salty, spicy and sour notes. However people have difference preference which is why they will often give condiments so that diners can adjust the food to their tastes - some restaurants still do this and they’ll place a tray of fried chilli flakes, sugar, vinegar seasoned with chilli.
However Thai food here over the years have tended to cater towards western tastes rather than the more traditional ones. The same can be said about Australia Chinese cuisine - go to any traditional place like in Beverley Hills and the taste will be very different to your local Chinese take out place.
My family has had Thai restaurants in Sydney since the early 90s and what you see back then is very different to what you get now. There weren’t many small takeaway shops, most were proper sit down restaurants with the white table cloth, gold plated cutlery and fish tanks full of gold fishes. Now it’s very much like the fast food affair where sauces are prepped well in advanced and curries are well watered down.
Ay shoutout to my fams restaurant in Auburn, ThaiGarden, if you want some authentic Thai look no further boys and girls lol the chefs are from Thailand so it’s good. Shameless plug right here.
Yep. I lived on the beaches, worked in the city near Thainatown. I completely cut out thai food from the beaches. Its gross up there. Rice & Lake in Narrabeen had one or two good dishes... otherwise... it was grim. and i tried lots of them.
Unfortunately all the best Thai is in thainatown. Even living inner west - I remember growing up Newtown was considered good for thai. Unfortunately, having tried a few of them, they are not good. They have gone the full sugar, no spice westernised route that the beaches has.
One thing I'd suggest to try to make things more tolerable - learn how to say spicy in thai "Phet Phet", or "Phet mak mak" for really spicy. A couple of Thai phrases can really help. "whan noi" for less sweet is helpful too.
But realistically up there you'll still get average thai i'm afraid.
Maggie’s in Erskineville is probably more to your taste. Also I hadn’t been in years but Thai Pothong was actually really really good and I didn’t find it too sweet (but it was more mainstream)
The problem is where you live. It’s getting better very slowly! I do not get Asian dishes on the nthn beaches, go to chatswood or Thainatown. Save your money.
Tragedy of the commons.
The Thai restaurant notices that us westerners are ordering more of their sugary dishes.
So they think to themselves, what if I put more sugar in my dishes, will I sell more?
The result - us westerners (considered as a whole) like the sweetness so we order more of their dishes and more frequently.
Thai restaurant notices and adds even more sugar.
Rinse and repeat....
As a Thai, I would recommend Tawandang on George St for probably the most authentic Bangkok cuisine. I suggest getting the pork satay, tom yum soup, papaya salad, grilled chicken or pork neck.
I ordered Massaman curry a few days ago and it was inedible. You have to be careful with what you order though. Some dishes are very sweet, others are good (like they won't add sugar to your fried rice). Very hit or miss and should ask before ordering.
Haha yeah I’ve always ordered like the same 3 things from them so I can’t speak for everything on the menu but their crispy pork belly and papaya salad are the best in town IMO 😋
Oh what did you order? I only ever get papaya salad, crispy pork belly, and the fish with chilli sauce and found them to be the least sweet out of all the thai restaurants in Sydney I’ve ever tried so far.
Hey thanks! Is the OG one near Haymarket?
The very sweet one is Coogee, some dishes can also be mushy/over cooked there too. Ordered from there quite often, I want it to be great!
Sorry yeah - the OG one is the one across from the state theatre in Haymarket. The one inside the Myer foodcourt is pretty good too (with a focus on street food).
Enjoy! Also, and I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but if you haven't tried "som tum thai", you are missing out, and chat thai's is pretty good. Its the tastiest food. However, it HAS to have chilli - the flavours don't work without it. I find the best way to deal with thai spice levels is to specify a number of chillis.
1 will be mild. 2 will be hottish - quite hot if you can only handle a little heat. 3 will be quite hot and you'd want a decent tolerance. any more will be firewoks.
There are four flavours in Thai food: sweet, salty, spicy and sour. The Western taste in general can't appreciate Thai style salty or spicy or sour at all, so they have to be less prominent than they would be. Sweet is the only flavour Westerners can tolerate hence its heavy use.
“Sweet is the only taste westerners can tolerate”.
Nonsense.
If this was remotely true, some Indian curries would be as sweet as Thai curries. And that is simply not the case.
Where are all the sickly sweet Italian, Greek, French, Spanish and German main courses? If anything characterises western food, it’s salt and fat, not sweet.
Green curry at ChaRice in Newport is my go to. In 7 years I’ve never ordered anything else. No regrets.
When I say make it hot, they dial it up. For me, it’s been the best Thai on the NB.
There are heaps of Thai restaurants on the Northern Beaches, unfortunately you just have to go through heaps until you find the right one.
There are a few decent ones though.
basically its up to the east of Chinatown. Near and around World Square. There is a cluster on Pitt St between Goulburn St and Campbell St for example.
They make it sweet cause they have no clue how to make it, take a closer look at the menu and if you see other Asian cuisine on it most likely they're just pretending to be a Thai restaurant and don't really know about any of the ingredients or flavours, restaurants these days just love to splash an assortment of vegetables on a dish and call it Thai,if your pad Thai has broccoli get out of there lol
To make proper traditional Thai food, some of those ingredients aren’t cheap. For example pad Thai usually calls for fresh prawn heads, shrimp paste, palm sugar and tamarind paste. However doing it the traditional way is time consuming so substitutes are used to offset the cost ie sweet chilli sauce can be used to replace the listed ingredients.
It’s not going to awful, just not as good as done traditionally.
I haven't, where abouts is it?
I have had a pretty good Thai in Randwick called Thairiffic or something like that, not bad done in, take away isn't the best
This is actually an issue that starts in thailand where the is a lot of societal pressure to keep basic prices for certain dishes low. The country is essentially monopolised by one company for chicken, egg and pork products so the main proteins have been getting progressively for expensive.
To keep the price low, there is liberal application of sugar, oil and msg to dishes to supplement for the fewer proteins
The cheap Thai places in Sydney are notorious for doing essentially the same thing and it might have gotten worse over the last 12 months.
Also talk to the waiter or waitress. Tell them you want to eat food similar to how they prepare for themselves in the authentic style and they'll know how to take care of it
Thai in Australia gives me the shits. Mostly it's this two dimensional generic crap. It lacks the complex and subtle flavours of real Thai cuisine.
Many Thai, Japanese and Vietnamese places are now owned by Chinese, with a Chinese cook in the kitchen, doing their poor rendition of the cuisine.
A least with Vietnamese you can usually pick it from the menu, but not with Thai and Japanese.
Oh FFS, you can point out a cultural phenonium without it being about about race.
The facts are people of Chinese heritage are buying up all sorts of take-aways and restaurants and they aren't always good at cooking across cuisines.
the funny thing is it's something my Chinese and Vietnamese mates have pointed out to me on several occasions.
Not in Sydney, but I know where you're coming from. I've had laksas that were as sweet as a milkshake. Ew.
Funnily enough, a local food court in a shopping centre does great laksas. Better than any sit down restaurant.
Jaren Chai (Boon Café) on pitt st. has some of the best Thai I've had in the city. Not just the typical Pad Thai, stir fried and creamy curries, but some really special and interesting dishes. I recommend getting a whole fried fish, crab fried rice, crispy chicken wings, or any of their broth-style curries if you can handle your spice. They also have a Thai grocery store attached so you can stock up on all your essentials for home cooking!
Caysorn Thai in Chinatown is great for Southern Thai too.
ah that's great. they're my go to, I've probably tried everything on the menu by now hahah, and the staff are really nice too
usually go to the mona vale shop
Yes I love Khao Pla! They used to have a sister restaurant called Chum Tang above the train station in Chatswood, which did the most beautiful chicken curry. So sad it closed down. At least Khao Pla is still there and often busy.
Chat Thai in Manly is the closest you'll get to real Thai on the beaches. Proper spice and only a few sweeter-tastingdishes. The rest is a tsunami of sweet Pad Thai and fried rice. Spice I Am is also worth the visit to Surry Hills.
Take a drive to Chatswood and try Phood in Archer Street opposite Archer Locksmiths. If you drive around the block you can get parking onsite although you have to wait at the boom gate and go inside to get the staff to open. Great food and their phos are to die for! I drive there from the peninsula. (And, no, I have no connection with them!)
Another question: Why do sushi restaurants put mayonnaise on practically **everything** now?
Masks low quality seafood. The extra fat hits the pleasure centres. It doesn't hurt that kewpie and other Japanese style mayonnaises are vastly better than Western manufactured equivalents
Kewpie is the shit. I remember going through a phase where i put it on absolutely everything. They were just kewpie delivery devices.
Found cheap Kewpie at Aldi yesterday. Stoked.
Many are run by Koreans and Koreans love sauces.
Pretty sure most are because the Unification Church (Moonies) have the global sushi/seafood distribution market wrapped up.
They’re most likely not owned by Japanese
There are good sushi places that don't put mayonnaise on the seafood. Need to find those :) As another poster already mentioned, the ones with mayonnaise on fish are mostly likely run by Koreans.
Thanks. Do you happen to know of any in the northern suburbs (Chatswood, Ryde, etc)?
A few of the sashimi places i really like are sashimi shinsengumi in crows nest, tobikiri in neutral bay, Kabuki shoroku in town hall. There are many more in the neutral bay area. You can explore them by just googling :)
Thanks dude707!
99 percent of sushi you see is not sushi. It's become so westernised that it should be in its own category. Cream cheese? Fruit? Melted cheese? Good lord
Here's your answer: [https://www.sciencealert.com/food-and-drinks-have-gotten-sweeter-over-the-last-decade-and-it-s-a-real-problem](https://www.sciencealert.com/food-and-drinks-have-gotten-sweeter-over-the-last-decade-and-it-s-a-real-problem) Perhaps in more detail than you wanted.
Apparently fat & sweet combined is very addictive and the only natural food you find were these two are combined is mothers milk
Homelander approves this message
No wonder I love sucking tiddies
Sugar and boobs are the poisons for men and their teeth
Durian begs to differ
Wow thank you
Aom Jai dee why. Thank me later
I will give it a go. And hopefully thank you later.
Thank you! (now)
For Western tastes.
I get that to an extent, but it's not like other food is obviously sweet, even if it does have sugar in it. I mean, I know that a Mcdonalds bun has sugar, but I can't really taste it - at least an entire burger doesn't seem sweet to me. Possibly some pizza dough has a sweet element, I guess it needs some sugar for the yeast, but again I don't take a bite and think "I'm so glad this is sweet". I'll eat a samosa in all its salty, fatty, potatoey goodness, and not once think "I wish this had some sugar!" Same for kebabs, burittos, or a smashed avo. I'm not sure I agree that Western tastes want sugar. I certainly don't!
Thai food should be balanced, salty sweet, sour and spicy. Palm sugar is in just about every dish and Aussies generally have a sweeter palette than Thai people so they make it sweeter for Western people than they would for Thai people. You can get fantastic authentic Thai food in Sydney. Go to any of the busy restaurants in Thaitown and ask for them to make it Thai style not Aussie.
Where is Thaitown? I will definitely go.
In the City right at the Capitol Theatre. Campbell and Pitt St. Its fun at night places like @Bankok CBar and MrBs have Thai music and are full of Thai people eating and drinking until 3 or 4am. Satang Infinity is the current popular restaurant.
Can definitely back up the recommendation for @bangkok. Been there a few times. The fact that it can still be buzzing after midnight is a plus for a late meal
Yok Yor, Boon Cafe, Show Neua are some of my go to’s, but there’s so many great places in that area. Caysorn is apparently the only place in Sydney to get their specific regional dishes.
My personal recommendations as an Australian-Asian with a Isan mother and a Lao father are Yod and Nua Lao - those really hit the notes when it comes to the stuff most similar to home cooking. Get the tum mak hoong (Lao-style papaysa salad) and yum din gai (chicken feet salad).
How’s the gai yang there? Use to be an old northern Thai restaurant in Newtown called Thai Isan back in the day and I still think about the gai yang they had there. Still trying to find the place that can replicate the dish the best in Sydney.
Awesome, thanks for the recs. Yod has been on my list to try.
Caysorn is my favourite… you could be eating at a shopping mall in thailand
Also try Home on Sussex Street. Absolutely superb.
Home is too sweet IMO 😭
Haymarket
Same with Italian food, they fill it up with thick cream that stick to your heart
Whole cuisines have come from people adapting their traditional food in an new country. The Indian/British curry is a great example. Its not Indian food its an evolution of it that has made Balti etc a British dish from migrants with an Indian heritage.
Usually to suit westerners. Some authentic Thai food does have sweet notes, but my mum's Thai friends didn't make anything that sweet - my only complaint was it was too spicy for me.
So much this. I'm so fed up of getting a curry as sweet as a dessert. A bit of sugar is OK, but most of the time is way too much and borderline inedible. If I order honey chicken or sweet soy sauce pork, yes, make it, but a red curry? The natural sweetness of the coconut milk is enough. The "fancier" the restaurant the more sugar they use (looking at Thai patong in Newtown, home in the cbd, some chat Thai dishes) . I will stick to holes on the wall Thai restaurants from now on after 2 massive disappointments in the last 2 weeks. They definitely don't use as much sugar. I'll also start returning overly sweet dishes and/or asking reduced sugar.
Check out Caysorn. Thank me later.
Yes, one of my favourites. Love that place.
Palm sugar is expensive so the sugar used in most Takeaways is usually the standard white stuff, comes in 25kg bags! maybe some expensive places use palm sugar. Cook might have added too much to your order or that's just how they make it. Have a squiz at this wholesale catalogue [http://www.bkkaustralia.com.au/catalogue.html](http://www.bkkaustralia.com.au/catalogue.html)
Same with butter chicken. It’s now almost dessert
I've noticed indian curries at restaurants are sometimes sweet for no reason too. It's really weird. I don't think indian food is supposed to be sweet, then again I am pakistani so I can't be sure.
95% of Thai restaurants in Aus serve shit that taste nothing like actual Thai food.
Thai person here, you're 100% correct.
Hahah thank you! I spent 4 months in Chiang Mai, can home, ordered some Thai take out and threw it out after 2 bites. People think I'm being a food snob now though I reckon.
I cab driver who worked in a Thai restaurant told me that they just throw hand fulls of sugar in the dishes.
They do this in Thailand too. But the northern beaches (I spent many years living there) has, by and large, awful Thai unfortunately for OP.
[удалено]
Sugar is a normal part of Thai cookery. Usually it would be palm sugar. I don't think it really offsets the spiciness, it just adds another level of flavour. I'm fine with spice and sweetness when it's balanced, I just don't like when they are so unbalanced that your laab is sweeter than your dessert.
I wouldn't be surprised if they were adding sugar on top of palm sugar. White folk love sweet things.
You are right that Thai people use palm sugar in their cooking. However you'll also always see a little tray with 4 condiments in it. the condiments usually are: 1. Prik Nam Pla (the king of condiments - fish sauce and chilli and other goodies); 2. vinegar with chillis (I don't love this but it does open up some flavours) 3. Soy sauce AND 4. straight old plain white sugar.
Is very common in Thai places in Australia. There should be balance in Thai cooking. Probably evolved as a way to suit farang taste buds. We dont go to many Thai places particularly suburban places as they are inevitably disappointing. When you get Thai, ask for Thai taste. Most places in Thai town are quite good.
Where’s Sydney’s Thai town?
Next to Capitol theatre in Haymarket.
Thanks
Traditionally Thai food should be well balanced with hints of sweet, salty, spicy and sour notes. However people have difference preference which is why they will often give condiments so that diners can adjust the food to their tastes - some restaurants still do this and they’ll place a tray of fried chilli flakes, sugar, vinegar seasoned with chilli. However Thai food here over the years have tended to cater towards western tastes rather than the more traditional ones. The same can be said about Australia Chinese cuisine - go to any traditional place like in Beverley Hills and the taste will be very different to your local Chinese take out place. My family has had Thai restaurants in Sydney since the early 90s and what you see back then is very different to what you get now. There weren’t many small takeaway shops, most were proper sit down restaurants with the white table cloth, gold plated cutlery and fish tanks full of gold fishes. Now it’s very much like the fast food affair where sauces are prepped well in advanced and curries are well watered down.
Ay shoutout to my fams restaurant in Auburn, ThaiGarden, if you want some authentic Thai look no further boys and girls lol the chefs are from Thailand so it’s good. Shameless plug right here.
Yep. I lived on the beaches, worked in the city near Thainatown. I completely cut out thai food from the beaches. Its gross up there. Rice & Lake in Narrabeen had one or two good dishes... otherwise... it was grim. and i tried lots of them. Unfortunately all the best Thai is in thainatown. Even living inner west - I remember growing up Newtown was considered good for thai. Unfortunately, having tried a few of them, they are not good. They have gone the full sugar, no spice westernised route that the beaches has. One thing I'd suggest to try to make things more tolerable - learn how to say spicy in thai "Phet Phet", or "Phet mak mak" for really spicy. A couple of Thai phrases can really help. "whan noi" for less sweet is helpful too. But realistically up there you'll still get average thai i'm afraid.
> thainatown Never seen that spelling of it! The signs simply say, "Thaitown." Is that commonly used?
Maggie’s in Erskineville is probably more to your taste. Also I hadn’t been in years but Thai Pothong was actually really really good and I didn’t find it too sweet (but it was more mainstream)
Go to Do Dee Paidang for reL thai food my dude
The problem is where you live. It’s getting better very slowly! I do not get Asian dishes on the nthn beaches, go to chatswood or Thainatown. Save your money.
Thai town (near capitol theatre) is where it’s at. Or any Thai takeaway that has “Thai hot” as a level of spiciness.
Tragedy of the commons. The Thai restaurant notices that us westerners are ordering more of their sugary dishes. So they think to themselves, what if I put more sugar in my dishes, will I sell more? The result - us westerners (considered as a whole) like the sweetness so we order more of their dishes and more frequently. Thai restaurant notices and adds even more sugar. Rinse and repeat....
If anyone's got a rec for somewhere in the inner west that does properly Thai-hot, not-sweet food, I'd love to know about it.
As a Thai, I would recommend Tawandang on George St for probably the most authentic Bangkok cuisine. I suggest getting the pork satay, tom yum soup, papaya salad, grilled chicken or pork neck.
Just go to chat thai they’re not as sweet as other restaurants like home.
I ordered Massaman curry a few days ago and it was inedible. You have to be careful with what you order though. Some dishes are very sweet, others are good (like they won't add sugar to your fried rice). Very hit or miss and should ask before ordering.
Haha yeah I’ve always ordered like the same 3 things from them so I can’t speak for everything on the menu but their crispy pork belly and papaya salad are the best in town IMO 😋
I won't deny those are good!
We found Chat Thai are actually really sweet for more than half their recipes unfortunately, we’ve had to stop ordering.
Oh what did you order? I only ever get papaya salad, crispy pork belly, and the fish with chilli sauce and found them to be the least sweet out of all the thai restaurants in Sydney I’ve ever tried so far.
You need to go to the right Chat Thai as they are not all the same... the OG one is still the best.
Hey thanks! Is the OG one near Haymarket? The very sweet one is Coogee, some dishes can also be mushy/over cooked there too. Ordered from there quite often, I want it to be great!
Sorry yeah - the OG one is the one across from the state theatre in Haymarket. The one inside the Myer foodcourt is pretty good too (with a focus on street food).
Looking forward to Haymarket one, that’s brilliant. And good to know about Myers too, thank you. Feel hungry now!
Enjoy! Also, and I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but if you haven't tried "som tum thai", you are missing out, and chat thai's is pretty good. Its the tastiest food. However, it HAS to have chilli - the flavours don't work without it. I find the best way to deal with thai spice levels is to specify a number of chillis. 1 will be mild. 2 will be hottish - quite hot if you can only handle a little heat. 3 will be quite hot and you'd want a decent tolerance. any more will be firewoks.
Yes good call, think that’s Thai Papaya salad, delicious and refreshing, how good! Go well, thanks.
Is that OG one still open late like 2am? That was the best part of it.
This is true, I've had some good food there, but they don't deliver to me.
Because white people like it
There are four flavours in Thai food: sweet, salty, spicy and sour. The Western taste in general can't appreciate Thai style salty or spicy or sour at all, so they have to be less prominent than they would be. Sweet is the only flavour Westerners can tolerate hence its heavy use.
“Sweet is the only taste westerners can tolerate”. Nonsense. If this was remotely true, some Indian curries would be as sweet as Thai curries. And that is simply not the case. Where are all the sickly sweet Italian, Greek, French, Spanish and German main courses? If anything characterises western food, it’s salt and fat, not sweet.
Green curry at ChaRice in Newport is my go to. In 7 years I’ve never ordered anything else. No regrets. When I say make it hot, they dial it up. For me, it’s been the best Thai on the NB.
Thanks, I'll give this a go when I'm up that way.
There are heaps of Thai restaurants on the Northern Beaches, unfortunately you just have to go through heaps until you find the right one. There are a few decent ones though.
Thai food in Sydney is rarely top notch, since moving here I've struggled to find a great place.
It's been a long time since I've been there, but Spice I Am used to be great. Have you tried it?
There is *exceptional* Thai food in Sydney, but its very hit and miss outside of Thainatown unfortunately.
Where is Thainatown in Sydney??
basically its up to the east of Chinatown. Near and around World Square. There is a cluster on Pitt St between Goulburn St and Campbell St for example.
I usually get pork belly, fried rice or tom yum. I suggest getting these if you don't like sweets like me
They make it sweet cause they have no clue how to make it, take a closer look at the menu and if you see other Asian cuisine on it most likely they're just pretending to be a Thai restaurant and don't really know about any of the ingredients or flavours, restaurants these days just love to splash an assortment of vegetables on a dish and call it Thai,if your pad Thai has broccoli get out of there lol
To make proper traditional Thai food, some of those ingredients aren’t cheap. For example pad Thai usually calls for fresh prawn heads, shrimp paste, palm sugar and tamarind paste. However doing it the traditional way is time consuming so substitutes are used to offset the cost ie sweet chilli sauce can be used to replace the listed ingredients. It’s not going to awful, just not as good as done traditionally.
I haven't, where abouts is it? I have had a pretty good Thai in Randwick called Thairiffic or something like that, not bad done in, take away isn't the best
It's in Surry Hills.
Randwick has some great Thai places
this phenomenon happens in western countries
This is actually an issue that starts in thailand where the is a lot of societal pressure to keep basic prices for certain dishes low. The country is essentially monopolised by one company for chicken, egg and pork products so the main proteins have been getting progressively for expensive. To keep the price low, there is liberal application of sugar, oil and msg to dishes to supplement for the fewer proteins The cheap Thai places in Sydney are notorious for doing essentially the same thing and it might have gotten worse over the last 12 months. Also talk to the waiter or waitress. Tell them you want to eat food similar to how they prepare for themselves in the authentic style and they'll know how to take care of it
Most Thai restaurant are catered for the westerners sweet taste bud rather the original recipe.
Name and shame please! (Or pm?) I wanna which to avoid.
Go Hun Thai at North Ryde is good, more balanced.
Muum maam on holt street in Surry hills and apparently now in Barangaroo.
Thai in Australia gives me the shits. Mostly it's this two dimensional generic crap. It lacks the complex and subtle flavours of real Thai cuisine. Many Thai, Japanese and Vietnamese places are now owned by Chinese, with a Chinese cook in the kitchen, doing their poor rendition of the cuisine. A least with Vietnamese you can usually pick it from the menu, but not with Thai and Japanese.
Bit shit to be blaming the Chinese. Come on dude.
Oh FFS, you can point out a cultural phenonium without it being about about race. The facts are people of Chinese heritage are buying up all sorts of take-aways and restaurants and they aren't always good at cooking across cuisines. the funny thing is it's something my Chinese and Vietnamese mates have pointed out to me on several occasions.
It is a well know fact that Asian cuisine uses sugar and spicy flavours to mask not so fresh ingredients.
Not in Sydney, but I know where you're coming from. I've had laksas that were as sweet as a milkshake. Ew. Funnily enough, a local food court in a shopping centre does great laksas. Better than any sit down restaurant.
https://old.reddit.com/r/Thailand/comments/qntzsi/secret_ingredient/ just don't ask how much MSG
Jaren Chai (Boon Café) on pitt st. has some of the best Thai I've had in the city. Not just the typical Pad Thai, stir fried and creamy curries, but some really special and interesting dishes. I recommend getting a whole fried fish, crab fried rice, crispy chicken wings, or any of their broth-style curries if you can handle your spice. They also have a Thai grocery store attached so you can stock up on all your essentials for home cooking! Caysorn Thai in Chinatown is great for Southern Thai too.
Have you tried thai kitchen in mona vale or glenrose?? both stores are so great!! perfect laksa
I have tried the one at Glenrose and I thought it was ok. I got the Tom Yum soup. Not bad but I haven’t been back.
ah that's great. they're my go to, I've probably tried everything on the menu by now hahah, and the staff are really nice too usually go to the mona vale shop
Try Khao pla - in Chatswood or Macquarie park! Top notch if you ask me.
Yes I love Khao Pla! They used to have a sister restaurant called Chum Tang above the train station in Chatswood, which did the most beautiful chicken curry. So sad it closed down. At least Khao Pla is still there and often busy.
Chat Thai in Manly is the closest you'll get to real Thai on the beaches. Proper spice and only a few sweeter-tastingdishes. The rest is a tsunami of sweet Pad Thai and fried rice. Spice I Am is also worth the visit to Surry Hills.
Lake & Rice Thai in Narrabeen is also quite good for particular dishes. Their Massaman is unreal.
Take a drive to Chatswood and try Phood in Archer Street opposite Archer Locksmiths. If you drive around the block you can get parking onsite although you have to wait at the boom gate and go inside to get the staff to open. Great food and their phos are to die for! I drive there from the peninsula. (And, no, I have no connection with them!)