. . . for the masses.
Don't get fooled by the white tablecloths and cute little bistro tables one sees at most Thai restaurants. Thai food is family food, not snooty high-end dining.
I don't blame Thai chefs and restaurants for trying to keep it classy: consider what has happened to Chinese restaurants: In the past thirty years I've watched them race to the bottom to cater to the all-u-can-eat-lunch-buffet crowd. Low prices, uninspired predictable food.
In a community with a vibrant Chinese community, the restaurants will be vibrant and exciting. Otherwise, you get tedious, predictable, and boring.
Like Mexican restaurants: they all serve the same thing.
If you compete in a race to the bottom, you have to be willing to live in crappier house or tent than your competitor is willing to do.
My guess is that most Thai restaurateurs took one look at that business model and said, "I don't think so."
And I think that's why most Thai places look pretty upscale when compared with the crummy old-school Chinese restaurants offering large quantities of low-quality food at low, low prices.
This reporter's introduction to Thai food was in the late '70s in Ventura, Calif.
Thar I wuz, living in a one-bedroom apartment with the first Mrs Elliott. I was working for minimum wage in the display department at Montgomery Ward, she was a housecleaner. We discovered this new restaurant downtown. It was dimly-lit, funky, it was never crowded. We'd never heard of Thai food. The table service was done by a white guy wearing traditional Thai clothes.
The food was amazing, the flavors shockingly bold, the cost was low.
The guy was American. He'd lived in Thailand for a while, met a woman, married her. He, she, and her mother, moved to Ventura where they opened a restaurant. The mother provided the recipes, her daughter helped with the cooking, the husband served the tables.
My eyes were opened to fine, inexpensive, bold Thai cooking. But that was a long time ago.
Since then, Thai food has become more popular, but in the process, more generic, less interesting, less exciting. Thai restaurants have learned to cater to the American palate -- sweetness has been elevated, heat has been lowered. The jarring contrasts between sour tamarind paste, rich peanuts, hot red chiles, and fresh mint have been toned down.
What passed for medium heat is now a -1 on the scale of heat. And I got bored with Thai food.
Anyway, long story not even close to short.
Mrs Elliott and I went to Wild Rose Thai on Oregon street today for lunch.
Best Thai I've had in a long time.
It's northern Thai cooking, they say. There's no Pad Thai (the "chop suey" of American Thai restaurants, I say). No chopsticks (back in 1970, the guy at that restaurant in Ventura told us that chopsticks are not used in Thailand). No white tablecloths. Oilcloth, in fact. Casual, but in the funky sense, not in the slumming sense. But a full menu -- currys, soups, small plates -- and I could sit there for a while. A full, though modest, bar. Moderate prices. Fine service, not officious. The place felt ... if not family ... homey.
The food was rich, tasty, flavorful, bold, interesting.
Check them out.
(Note: they rank their food's fieriness on a scale from "1" (baby food) to 5 (their hottest). I ordered both my soup and plate at "4". They were what this SoCal boy would call a "2". Maybe a "1". PNW palates are timid. -Ed.)
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