QUOTE (Buddhalove @ Jul 16 2009, 06:00 AM)

So Thai invented sushi. Let me laugh......

Thais also invented "Thai" chilies and our larb dish. LOL!
Thai sushi, Thai larb, Thai papaya salad, Thai sticky rice, Thai pizza, Thai spaghetti, Thai wontons, Thai dumplings, Thai egg rolls, Thai fresh rolls, and the list goes on and on...LOL!
For those people who live in the U.S., it's quite hillarious what kinds of dishes you'd find at Thai restaurants over here just so the owners could stay in business. Many of the Thai restaurants are nothing but poor immitations of Chinese, Lao, Malay, and Indian cuisines. Many people nowadays consider Thai cuisine in the U.S. as a copy-cat of Americanized Chinese cuisine...meaning that Thai cuisine has become so watered-down and generic that people are getting bored with it, which is why so many Thai restaurants in the SF Bay Area have gone out of business...either that, or the owners would sell their business to other people who don't know any better resulting in a Thai restaurant with a new name but the same crappy foods. It's a non-ending cycle of Thai restaurants constantly being under new ownership because only a few select Thai restaurants are capable of staying in business under the same ownership.
Some Thai restaurants nowadays are slapping on "Lao" to their name to bring in customers who are looking for Lao foods. But other Thai restaurants are slapping on "Sushi" to attract customers who want Japanese food...which makes you wonder is there really such a thing as authentic Thai cuisine? Why is it so easy for Thai restaurant owners to attach other cuisines and dishes to their "Thai" restaurant? Has Thai cuisine become that generic and played out? Especially nowadays, more and more people are looking for Malaysian or Indonesian cuisine because they're getting tired of the Satay skewers, Massaman, and Penang curries that are poorly immitated at Thai restaurants. They're now going to the true sources of those dishes. The popularity of Vietnamese cuisine is growing rapidly. Lao and Malayasian restaurants are also cropping up across the U.S. Westerners are now smarter and have become quite familiar with SE Asian cuisines so much so that the small samplings of SE Asian dishes at "Thai" restaurants are getting played out.