A Few Western Staples Thai Cuisine Refuses to Embrace [S7.E70]

Thai cuisine is remarkably good at adopting flavors and ingredients into its fold, but there are some that just have not made the cut. In a city where you can find almost any type of food from around the world, certain Western foods seem to get embraced by Thais, while others don’t. For example, while not SUPER popular, both pizza and hamburgers are eaten regularly by the locals. But what things haven’t made the cut?

First, Greg brings up cheese, especially of the stinky variety. Outside of pizza, Thais rarely eat cheese and haven’t really incorporated it into their own cuisine. Although excellent cheese is available, especially in gourmet markets, it’s more of a passing fancy rather than the obsession it is in the West. Second, Ed mentions bread, which opens up a bit of debate among the guys. Ed contents Thais don’t really eat sandwiches, hence sliced sandwich bread is not very popular. Further, ‘table’ bread, Italian-style, is not very common. But Greg notes that his Thai wife does like to snack on bread, so perhaps bread plays more of a role in-between meals than the central role it plays back home.

The guys then run through six more very common Western foodstuffs that Thais eat but haven’t fallen in love with. 

PS - While at a water stop on a bike ride last week, Greg told his buddy Wim about this episode, mentioning cheese and bacon. Wim happened to look to next to him, and hold up a packet of macaroni cheese and bacon, highlighting the fact that the topic is never a cut-and-dry case. (pic below)

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