Thai food in Sydney: the real deal?
I found Sujet Saenkham’s separation of authentic Thai food and “Australian Thai food” to be an interesting one; having been to Thailand before and eaten myself stupid, I did notice that there were differences between the two countries, despite being the same dishes. I spoke to a few experts to try and figure it all out.
Renowned food critic and popular culture blogger David Dale once famously stated that “there is no such thing as bad Thai food”. I spoke to Dale earlier this week about his experiences with Thai restaurants in Sydney, which he has been reviewing since they started to first started to pop up all over Sydney.
“I began reviewing Thai restaurants in the early 1990s, that’s when Thai food became really popular with Australians” says Dale.
Dale gave me his take on Australia’s love affair with Thai cuisine: “It gave Australians salt, sugar and chilli – which Australians love. People didn’t and still don’t really realise just how much sugar is in Thai food.”
Through his reviews, Dale noticed that the number of Thai restaurants that were springing up to cater for Australia’s newfound love of Thai food, didn’t quite match the number of Thai immigrants who were coming to Australia.
“What I wrote I wrote about ten to fifteen years ago was a phenomenon I noticed emerging: there were lots of Thai restaurants springing up but there were very little Thai people actually immigrating to Australia. What was happening was people who had previously sold Chinese and Vietnamese food were changing to Thai food, because that is what the people wanted,” says Dale.
Now, I don’t think there’s any problem at all with non-Thai people running Thai restaurants (Bar Italia, in Leichardt, has a kitchen comprised of Chinese chefs and they do a stellar job) – food is food, really. But it does shed a bit of light on the distinction between authentic Thai food and the sugary Thai food which we are served here in Australia. Which, for the record, I adore.
Air Chartthanan, former manager of Newtown Thai 2, confirms this distinction, but says that it’s not intended as a watered-down alternative to authentic Thai food.
“Lots of Thai food already contains lots of sugar and salt. Yes, a lot of the Thai food which is sold in Sydney and also Australia does contain lots of sugar and salt too, Australians love this,” says Chartthanan.
“There are many types of Thai food. Different regions in Thailand make different types of food: some have lots of spices, some have lots of sugar, some lots of chillis, and so on. You can’t just say that there is one type of real Thai food,” she says.
I’ll eat to that.
