Street food - Why does my fried noodles often taste like seafood - ever wondered why ?

In a sit-down restaurant your complaint is I think fair, but in general, if you have allergies or sensitivities then street food is best avoided.

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If you have an allergy, tell them so; if you hate all fish and seafood products, tell them you’re particular; and if you want to sound racist, keep doubling down on the ‘lazy’ ‘amateur’ etc. Gross.

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I may come off as an arrogant individual, but I think the reasons for this is not my lack of respect for other cultures, but more so my drive and commitment for professional behaviour in a kitchen - no matter where in the world I am and I simply expected far too much of smaller driven street food places and restaurants in general, whether I’m in Copenhagen Denmark, in Paris France, in Bangkok Thailand or Hanoi Vietnam.

I would most likely go broke fast, if I sold street food.
But out of respect for my guests I would manage to have at least two separate woks for my stir fry dishes.
Yes, you add a bit of fish sauce and oyster sauce to even chicken chow mein, but I would never make stir fry with chicken in a wok I moments before used to make a shrimp noodle stir fry in. It would intentionally infuse the chicken with a shrimp taste.

Unless I served a chicken chow mein with an infused taste of shrimps, and in that case I would make a note about it on the menu card in my little tiny street food place.

But I’m also an OCD semi-autistic perfectionist in certain areas.
I admit to that.

Excuse me, but what has racism to do with being lazy and sloppy in a professional kitchen ?

You have a very limited western-influenced view which comes over as not very open to any other “foreign” culture - the typical white tourist eating only what they are used to but nothing new to them. There are two factors you are not counting on - the street food guy won’t have the capability to wash the wok or have more than one - that has nothing to do with laziness but more your western expectations of a typical western restaurant and your inexperience of asian street food (which is clearly you are not familiar with). In addition, many (non-seafood) dishes in those countries use fish-based ingredients (fish sauce, dried shrimps etc) intentionally and so again it is not laziness but your missing out in being open to other cultures and their foods

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I disagree completely.

I know very well that most stir fried noodle dishes have a bit of oyster sauce and/or fish sauce in them, but you don’t seem to know that this is only in there to balance the flavour of the stir fry noodle dish, not to infuse the whole noodle dish with seafood flavours.

There’s a huge difference between balancing flavours and infusing flavours.
You should know that very well with your ‘huge knowledge’ of the asian cuisine.

Also, owning two woks for separate dishes should be not be a problem for even the smaller food trucks.
A carbon steel wok in Thailand is perhaps 300 baht or so.

Are you using the term “semi-autistic” because you are on the autism spectrum, or merely as a descriptor for your behavior? If it is the latter, that is ableist.

Please listen to the feedback you are receiving here from members. It is not unreasonable to say that street food isn’t your thing, but to double down about what, in your opinion, is how something should be made, without regard to culture or circumstances, and that because it is not being made in the fashion that you would (on a street, no less!) renders a whole category of cooks and their good works “amateur” and to be derided is unacceptable.

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You were in Thailand eating ribeye though. In case you are waiting for someone to ask why you were ordering ribeye in Thailand I just want you to know I am not going to ask. :no_good_man:t3:

And I will go on record saying if I order prawns I sure don’t want it to taste like ribeye. :smiley:

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I was ordering a Ribeye steak, because I was tired of stir fry noodle dishes all tasting like they were all infused with seafood flavours even though I specifically ordered my stir fry dishes without seafood flavours :wink:

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I really honestly don’t think I have to justify to you why I use the word semi-autistic about myself.

I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate here.

I travelled to Tyrol with a Chinese Canadian friend. I’m very familiar with Austrian food. My friend owns a restaurant. He is very familiar with Chinese, Thai, French, and upscale Canadian food. He has been to many Michelin-starred restaurants.

His view of Tirolean and Austrian food was very narrow. He was so dismissive of the entire region’s food as peasant food and boring. We went to one Michelin-star type restaurant which was contemporary in a modern French style, and he liked that. He liked the bread and the krapfen at the local bakeries. He considered most other foods he tried off as inferior to French. Tirolean food isn’t trying to be French food, so I could care less how the breads or soups compare to what one might experience in France. Every day, he mentioned the food wasn’t as good as what he could have in France. His measuring stick was French.

I think some of us have preconceptions that cause us to compare everything to what is proper or ideal, based on our own culture or maybe the ideal Michelin-starred French standard , whereas as some of us really like trying new foods , regional foods and going with the flow. Some people fall in the middle.

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I think that’s why Michelin has problem in infiltrating in Asia, the Asian have their own guidebooks.

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Let’s make 2 things clear, when there is a medical issue such as allergy, if a restaurant has promised you that the dish is whatever free (you asked beforehand), they have to deliver that promise, failing to do that is their fault, and you can say this is not professional. But if one just assumes things that will be done in the same way as in their culture or saying I don’t like it certain way, that’s another issue.

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Bangkok street vendors barely pull in enough to cover their living expenses. They typically are at the market by 5 am, return home to cook until 10, move their products and set up their “restaurant” only to tear down after 6 pm. Then they go home to clean their kitchen, shower, and go to bed to do the same the next day…often 7 days a week. Ramadhan is even more difficult to survive as a vendor.

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BTW, many of the best business are also the street vendors, depending how good and popular you are.

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I guess you’re right.

But I have given Thai food a really good chance.

I actually am quite a fan of Thai culture.
Just not their food, since seafood is not my thing.

Thai culture is a proud culture and in many ways superior to the danish culture, if you ask me.

I love the fact, that Thais can enter into museums and temples for free while tourists have to pay for the entrance. It shows how you as a Thai in Thailand have the respect from your country.

I love that they protect their own country by not giving away citizenship to foreign people.

I like how they support their older family members and how they respect the older people in their society.

Dane’s could learn a thing or 3 from the Thai culture.

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I’ve some problem with Thai street food, but not because of mixing proteins, but rather their use of different spices and sometimes overwhelming to an extend to mask the food. But I’ve found some places I like, especially cooking local heritage dishes in Bangkok.

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It’s a very fine balance here, I agree.

But as said in another post - there’s a difference between balancing a dish with fish sauce and oyster sauce and infusing the dish unintentionally (in fact intentionally) by not using separate woks for different type dishes.

Balancing flavours is very important in Asian cuisine and in fact all cuisines.

Infusing flavours unintentionally not so much.

If you still want to give Thai food a try, test out some David Thompson’s recipes. He isn’t Thai, but his understanding of Thai food is better than many locals.

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They’re not lazy or sloppy, they just do things differently.

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