Whats the deal with Thai food?

Question

Don't get me wrong, I love Thai food. Its just that there are either cashews or some form of nut sauce used in most dishes. Yesterday while at lunch I was asked if the Thai people were big peanut farmers, which I do not know. Could this be a reason. I know most people are afraid when you say Thai because they are expecting to have their faces melted off by spice, but I honestly don't think its too bad.
Long live Thai Kitchen in Bridgewater, NJ. and Chao Phaya in Somerset, NJ. Both have amazing food.

Answer 1

Interesting article:

Satay and spicy peanut sauces have become mistakenly identified with Thai cuisine. They actually originated further down the Malay peninsula and in the Indonesian archipelago where they dominate the offerings in food bazaars and streetside stalls as well as in refined restaurants.

I am always amused when I come across a recipe in a magazine, a bottled sauce in a supermarket, or a dish on the menu of a western restaurant, that alleges to be "Thai." Very frequently, the recipe, sauce or dish contains peanuts or a peanut sauce, which really is not at all very "Thai." I often wonder what the Malaysians and Indonesians think about all this.

Curiously, peanut is really a New World native, originating in Brazil. European explorers spread the nut across the oceans and continents – to North America, where its value as a food crop was first recognized, and to India, China and Indonesia in the Far East. Along with the United States, these three countries today are among the top growers of the peanut.

Most of the peanuts in America are consumed as peanut butter, a form which is eaten very little by the rest of the world. So when a restaurant makes a peanut sauce using peanut butter, it is really an American sauce and the furthest thing away from Thai or other Asian foods.

To me, a peanut sauce made from peanut butter always will taste like peanut butter. Back in Southeast Asia, when we make a peanut sauce, we always start with whole, freshly roasted peanuts, which we grind and then simmer with other ingredients to give the sauce a fresh taste of roasted peanuts. A peanut sauce made this way tastes lighter than when peanut butter is used and the flavor of the peanuts blends in more intricately with the spice flavors.

I have posted my favorite recipe for a full-flavored peanut sauce, combining a host of dry spices common in Indian and Indonesian cooking with herbs associated with Southeast Asian cooking. The spices and herbs are cooked with ground roasted peanuts in coconut milk, seasoned with fish sauce, shrimp paste, palm sugar and tamarind. My preferred brand of canned coconut milk for this recipe is Chao Koh. Shrimp paste is a fermented greyish brown concentrate available in small plastic containers from Southeast Asian markets. A small amount of the odiferous paste goes a long way to adding a whole lot of delicious flavor.

If the multitude of ingredients in the recipe makes it seem too complicated, please feel free to simplify the sauce to suit your schedule and taste, by omitting some of the ingredients you may not readily have on hand.

But if you are like me and appreciate a full range of flavors, you will do as I do and make a large batch of the sauce, freezing it in small containers for those afternoons when you feel like grilling some chicken or pork, or even tofu and vegetables. With such a tasty sauce, you won't need to marinate the meat in much of anything, but maybe a sprinkling of salt (or fish sauce) and pepper, and perhaps some curry powder and minced garlic.

Answer 2

There are a thousand menus of Thai dishes but the best seller for foreign are few or less know so you would see only Pad Thai, Tom Yum Kung or cashew nut with chicken and oyster suace. I know only 3-4 menu with nuts and nut sauce.

Answer 3

Hmmm..not all Thai foods use peanuts or nuts..but yes-- quite a few do--maybe it's teh protein element--nuts have protein adn perhaps not everyone could afford meat--adding nuts to a diet adds protein--also--nuts--when dried etc--last longer--so even if people could afford meat--well--maybe the meat ran out--or could not be used all the time--so nuts were added--either way--it adds flavor to the food adn tastes wonderful--and I don't think most people feel that Thai food is too hot--you just have to ask for mild spices and they'll make it mild...but you have to ask...I know they use a lot of lemongrass and basil and mint, coconut and green chilis--yum--I'm getting hungry!

Answer 4

I love all sorts! Here is in order of preference: 1.Southern (always good, all the time) 2.Mexican 3.Cajun 4. Indian (nice spices) 5. Chinese (I actually like Chinese a lot, I just eat too much of it because my parents are chinese, so they cook it all the time) 6. Polish (I've been to Poland three times, the food was good)

Answer 5

No, they just make use of what they have.
It was probably either cashews or peanuts.