A few weeks back, I wrote about a great Thai place, Bangkok Thai, and I mentioned how much I liked their Pad Thai. I figured letting people know that a Thai restaurant makes really good Pad Thai would be a helpful bellwether for the rest of the menu. I am such an uncultured rube:
So I can’t order Pad Thai at a Thai restaurant because that’s backwoods American Thai food. Oh yeah, it also happens to be THE NATIONAL DISH OF THAILAND! Boy are those Thai people going to be pissed when they find out how “unworldly” they are.
I’ve compiled a list here of other foods you should not be eating if you want to be as cultured as these two broads:
Bratwurst and Sauerkraut in a German restaurant
Pasta in an Italian restaurant
Sushi in a Japanese restaurant
Ceviche in a Peruvian restaurant
Pho in a Vietnamese restaurant
And you’re right elaine, these critics are real d-bags, makes this site awful.
Some other posts you might enjoy:
March 4th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Whenever I go out for Chinese, I get chicken fingers and french fries. I think that’s the measure of a good Chinese restaurant.
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March 4th, 2010 at 10:55 am
Ha, I love this post. Hysterical. Other than spicy peanut curry (my favorite Thai dish), Pad Thai is always my second choice!
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March 4th, 2010 at 11:00 am
I kinda wish Elaine would have been a little more specific with her name… Looks bad for the rest of us. I personally always go to restaurants, ignore what I enjoy, and eat whatever I think makes me look like a badass to those around me.
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March 4th, 2010 at 11:08 am
My Mexican food litmus test for authenticity of a restaurant is the mole. I love a good Mole Poblano, and I’ve eaten it in the homes of Pueblan women. If a restaurant’s mole is good, I’ll eat anything else on the menu.
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March 4th, 2010 at 11:27 am
I bet you pronounce Fajita “Fah-gee-tah”, don’t you?
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March 4th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
awesome.
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March 5th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Whatever. I love this site and always look forward to your new posts. Probably the same people who spend countless $$$ and hours waiting to eat at new restauraunts with wilted-vegetables-we’ve-never-heard-of-and-can’t-find-in-the-store-anyways and reductions of blood from a bull’s testes etc etc. Well guess what, that frou-frou stuff never lasts. How long have simple classics like Sokolowskis and Slymans been around for…and aren’t going anywhere anytime soon!
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March 5th, 2010 at 10:13 am
You should eat what you want and write what you want. This is a blog, your opinion, and if someone doesn’t like it they can go somewhere else or write a blog of their own. Love the site, especially the reviews, humor and honesty are the best!!
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March 5th, 2010 at 11:35 am
I love Pad Thai and have had many different versions of it, and it is always the litmus test I use for any new Thai restaurant I try. Those people who gripe about a restaurant being “authentic” should keep their opinions to themselves. Almost every national cuisine is formed and changed by the different groups that settle there over time. All world cuisine is fusion!! If I like a dish in any restaurant, that’s what I order and don’t give a flying fig about it’s authenticity. Keep up the good work, I love this blog!!!
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March 5th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Don’t worry… I lived in Ayutthaya, Thailand for 10 weeks and, yes, the Thais DO eat Pad Thai. And since I have actually eaten Pad Thai in Thailand, I also believe it is a great test for authenticity for a restaurant here. There are a lot of elements you need to get right (fish sauce, lime, peanut, noodles) to make it taste “right”. I even have several cookbooks that I have used to replicate the recipe but the only one that comes close is the one that I purchased in Thailand and had translated.
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