The French term terroir was originally used to describe the environmental factors that affected the outcome of wine grapes, whether it was the vintner’s farming practices, the composition of the soil, the climate, or a whole host of other determinants. The concept has spilled over into other fields (forgive the pun), most notably, the culinary. It is an intangible quality that is easily recognizable (even to the most discriminating palette) but difficult to convey. Why does a simple dish of cacio e pepe made in Rome taste so much better than when the same three ingredients are combined together at home? Is the water used to boil the pasta harder in the Emerald City than in the Eternal City? Is the cheese made by cows only found in Italy? Is the store-bought pre-ground black pepper inferior to the whole peppercorns freshly arrived from India? Or is it something else completely?
The four quintessential flavors of Thai cuisine are salty, spicy, sour, and sweet; they are present in most savory dishes (and even in some desserts!) in some shape or form and are expertly balanced. The taste may be spicy at first but as it lingers on the tongue a nuanced sweetness later emerges, to surprise the taste buds a touch of salty sourness at the very end. Thai food in America however, relies heavily on only one of these flavors: sweet. Thai restaurateurs have caught on to what more established Asian cuisines (Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese) in the US already know; sugar makes “foreign” food more palatable to the American stomach. Spicy comes in a close or distant second, depending on how many “stars” (spice level) the diner has asked for in the dish–5 stars for the most heat, 0 stars for none.
Aside from visiting the exotic land of The King and I, our other main motivation for the Groupon tour of Thailand was to experience how terroir affected one of our favorite international culinary traditions. We wanted a taste of real Thai food!
