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Comment by JamesBarney | Hacker News Reader

It's weird he complains about Thai food being too sweet, because I honestly prefer American Thai over Thai food I had in Thailand because it's less sweet. When I was in Thailand all the Thai food was sweeter and less spicy than Thai food I found in the states. Heck 90% of the restaurants I went to in Thailand had a jar for sprinkling sugar over your food, like you would traditionally do with salt.

Also vietnamese food is sometimes too weird for my palate. I love pho, but can't stomach the congealed pork blood.

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The sugar on the table is usually for tourists to dampen the spiciness (sugar neutralizes the burning flavor surprisingly well)

And there’s a chance they didn’t give you “real” Thai food because you’re white (just assuming your ethnicity here)

That's pretty racist.

Why? It makes sense to adapt what you are giving to the ethnicity (= where they likely come from) of the guests.

When I was in Malaysia, I was warned all the time (I am white) and thanks God because the few me I did not listen I suffered.

Listen, dude, bro, amigo, compadre, chief, dude ... just because you can't stand spicy food, doesn't mean the rest of those that fall under the category of 'white' can't stand spicy food.

In the realm of formal logic, we call this "hasty generalization".

It's stupid. Don't do it. I mean, for fork's sake, one of the most popular show on YouTube right now is a white dude who eats spicy food with every guest they interview.

Maybe the times you were warned and didn't listen, they decided to fork with you and give you the extra hot ingredients.

I suggest you read again my message as apparently you are stuck on your idea of "white people eat spicy food".

I am saying that taking into account the possible differences because someone is from abroad and may have different tastes is a nice thing to do and I appreciate the gesture. But yeah, they probably do not teach this in youtube videos.

Have a good day.

Claiming racism when none exists devalues the real claims against actual racism.

I’m not sure about that. I’ve spent almost 2 years in Thailand (cumulatively). I find Thai food in Canada is definitely way sweeter and much less spicy. I was able to find only one restaurant in Toronto that served authentic Thai food. The chef was actually a Thai, so that makes a difference.

I'm in Houston and most of the Thai restaurants are run by Thai. And it was easier here to get things ridiculously spicy, and the curries thicker which maybe cuts the sweetness.

What about the thickness/heaviness of the curries? They seemed thinner in Thailand. Here in the states a lot of the curries feel heavier like closer to an north Indian curry in terms of consistency.

It totally could be that I'm just more selective about where I go in my home town than I was in Thailand. And I was just wandering into a bunch of tourist shops there.

My experience in Thailand was when I went to restaurants catering to tourist the food was bland/less spicy. Compared to eating at a food stall catering to Thai workers

You are lucky, because Houston has a big Thai diaspora!

As for curry thickness, it actually depends on the region. I find northern (Chiang Mai) curries to be thicker. But even then, there’s little consistency and it is different from restaurant to restaurant.

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