Hi Dr Dave,
No offence taken I hope - my comment was not meant as a personal jibe. As for Thai food, I like it and will eat it, depending on my mood. However, the more time I have spent in Thailand, the less I have OD'd on Thai food. Although I really enjoy it when in the mood, it just doesn't pass the salivation test for me. I just don't have that slavering sense of anticipation at the thought of a bowl of khao tom or yesterdays cold curry or yum knor bamboo shoot salad, or for that matter at the thought of any Thai food for beakfast. Give me a plate of baked beans on well buttered toast, maybe with some eggs and bacon, any day. And for dinner - what could be better than a juicy steak?
If you think western food is uniformly bland then I reckon your palate has been stripped by eating too much Thai food and you should return to eating pies, cheese, fish 'n' chips, gravy and apple crumble and wash it all down with a nice cup of tea.
It is well known that the Thai population are unable to distinguish between subtle flavours. To the average Thai meat is just meat and fish is just fish which, if not steamed and smothered with nam prik, is deep fried into something resembling a crusty table tennis bat. No pan fried halibut in butter sauce or stuffed trout in wine sauce - if it's fish just blast it in the palm oil! Contrary to the Western notion that Thai cuisine is full of subtleties, my own experience is that it relies heavily on pungent flavours and lots of palate sterilising salt (in the form of Nam Bplah) and chillies. Chillies are tempered by bland old rice which fails miserably against its western rival the spud, which can be chipped, baked, roasted, boiled, mashed, croquetted, gnochied, fish caked, made into Monster Munch and even used for recreational purposes in the form of potato stamps. What is more the chilli is not even indigenous, having been brought to the east from the Americas by the Portuguese and Spaniards.
I rest my case, baked beans it is!
