It's all because of the pineapple
Pineapple, originally uploaded by fanelendil.
Ever since I know Frank a topic in our conversation that kept coming up is food.
If you know Thais well enough, one thing that would stick out is the fact that Thai culture revolves around food and eating quite a lot. If we don't know what to do, we eat.
I used to say jokingly to my friends that instead of asking someone "How are you?", Thais would ask "Have you already eaten something?" or something along the line of "Are you hungry?". Which, when I come to think of it, is pretty true.
Frank himself used to live in Thailand for three years, thus he knows the Thai way of life...and the Thai centredness on eating. ;-p
Now, the thing that Frank noticed first - a thing that I subconciously registered also - is that a lot of restaurants around here offering Thai dishes would always integrate pineapple in those dishes.
Don't get me wrong here. We do have pineapples in Thailand and we also eat them....but as fruit and not as an ingredient in a savoury dish.
So, why put pineapple in the dish at all??? No wonder that every time I dare put myself to the mercy of eating in an "authentic" Thai restaurant here, I always end up thinking to myself that there was absolutely nothing authentic about the food at all....it's all because of the pineapple (and if I may, I'd also throw in carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. All of which I had never once came across in a proper Thai dish when I was still living in Thailand).
Thus so, I may ask: Is it some kind of cultural misconception that every dish that has an inkling of "exotic" in it has to include wedges of pineapple?
I really cannot fathom how all of these people/recipes could come up with the connection between Thai food and pineapple. Though I can still understand the connection between pineapple and Hawaii...but is that my own stereotypical misconception about Hawaii?
Does it all come down to stereotype then? If so, why are all Germans NOT the rosy-cheeked, bell-bellied, beer-drinking, Lederhosen-wearing folks a lot of us tend to think of? Because they are not!
So, peeps, whatever you do, if you want to cook Thai food, just steer way clear off those pineapples - no matter what the damn recipe says -, okay? Especially if you intend to even cook for me. ;-)