Was Thai food popular in the US during the 1980s?

Not here in Southern CA. It gained popularity in the 90s.

Love Thai food! Just returned from Bangkok yesterday.

Late 1980s, yes in NYC.

If it had only penetrated NYC by the late 80s, then, no, Thai food was not “popular in the U.S. in the 80s.”

It’s a government plot. Seriously.

R1 that's what one friend said. He says that Thai food started going mainstream in the 90s. My other friend claims they used to order Thai takeout for his office in the 80s. This was in Chicago.

It certainly wasn't popular in the hinterlands in the 80s. I think the first time I encountered it was on a vacation to Milwaukee in the mid 90s.

Agree with r3. Late 80s, into the 90s.

It certainly was popular in Southern California in the 1980s. Lines to get in the better-known places, and neighborhood Thai restaurants opening up all over.

Ruth Reichl on the 1980s food scene in L.A.:

[quote]Thai food was one of the great revelations of the decade. It was colorful and exotic, sweet and spicy with a tropical tinge that we all found overwhelmingly seductive. We loved the heat, we loved the sweet, we loved the coconut flavor that bound so many of the dishes together. We loved the way it looked and we loved the way it tasted. Most of us couldn’t get enough of it; before the decade was over Los Angeles was the Thai restaurant capital of the country, with virtually hundreds of little Thai places dishing up mee krob and pahd thai. While the rest of the country remains grateful to be able to simply taste Thai food, Los Angeles offers the opportunity to taste Thai food from various regions.

In the mid-to-late 80s Thai food was just starting to happen in Boston.

I remember Thai co-workers getting Thai takeout in NYC in the 1970s. That's the first time I tried Thai food, it was probably 1976.

It was available in some places in the 80s, but it certainly was not yet popular.

I lived in Minneapolis and Boston during that time. In Boston it was very popular; in Minneapolis no one had heard of it.

I don't know when its popularity started, but I'm glad that it did! Thai food is everywhere now.

there was only one Thai restaurant on all of Eastern Long Island way up until early 2000. It was up in Sag Harbor.

Better than Chinese food.

Thai restaurants started appearing in the DC-Baltimore region in the mid- to late 80s. I first tried it in 1987.

It really was everywhere in West L.A. and Hollywood by the early 1980s.

[quote]Though Bangkok Market was in Hollywood, the Thai restaurant boom primarily took place on the Westside. The owner of Bangkok Market, Pramorte “Pat” Tila, opened Royal Thai restaurant in 1978 along Pico Boulevard. He became one of the first to do so in the area, according to Padoongpatt. By 1980, there were over 50 Thai restaurants on the Westside, he says.

Can't remember the name of the super-trendy Thai restaurant that had locations in Hollywood and in West L.A., but there were long waits and you usually could spot celebrities in the Hollywood one.

Definitely ‘80s in DC . We lived in Adams Morgan and regularly walked over down to Dupont Circle where there was Thai and Indian. Both were popular.

It was around in some big cities but the quality and variety has improved since then.

I could have typed R17. I was dating a guy who loved Thai food in 1987, and we used to go to a place on Connecticut just above Calvert. I know it was 1987 because "I Wanna Dance with Somebody Who Loves Me" was our song.

Chinese food was the first to be popular, then Japanese, and then afterwards Thai and Vietnamese.

R17, R19 and R21. The first time I had Thai in DC, or anywhere, for that matter, it was around 1980 or '81. I don't remember where it was, except that it was in DC, not Virginia or Maryland. It was a little exotic, but not wildly so. Trendy types were eating it. Anyway, the point is that Thai food was around, and people who ate out a lot - which was fewer people in those days than today - knew about it as early as very beginning of the decade.

“Knew about it” does not equal popular. Thai food became popular nationwide in the 90s.

We were busy eating Vietnamese food in the early 80s in Houston. I'm sure Thai restaurants appeared in Houston by the late 80s, but I wouldn't say it was popular.

I moved to DC in 1989 and had my first Thai food at that time introduced to me by friends as I was coming out. So it was around in the 80s, at least at the tail end of it. We would go to a basement place on P Street. I also went to a place out in Rockville with friends. Both restaurants were decorated with purple neon, so I associated that with Thai dining for a long time, but now it seems that was just the 80s being the 80s.

I've never eaten it, since I don't really like any Asian cuisine, but I know there is a Thai restaurant in a small Southern former mill town, near where I grew up, that has been there since the early 1980s. It must be popular with the locals, to have lasted this long.

Are there chain Thai restaurants in Flyoverstan?

R28, I don't think I've ever seen a chain Thai restaurant. They almost always seem to be mom and pop places.

r13 Vietnamese food was popular in the 80's. Thai restaurants didn't get popular until the 90's though there was at least one Thai restaurant that showed up in the late 80's

I first had Thai food in San Francisco in about 1979. I absolutely loved it (it might have been a particularly good Thai place). I moved to LA in 1980 or '81 to Silver Lake and found that there were many Thai restaurants all over (East Hollywood, right next to Silver Lake, has been called Thai Town for years because of all the Thai restaurants). They weren't as upscale as the place I tried in San Francisco but my impression was that there had been Thai restaurants for quite a few years (since mid-70s?) already in Hollywood when I first moved to the area. There had been Vietnamese restaurants in Berkeley since the 'mid-70s. They were much better than the typical pho joiints that I've been to in LA, similar to Thai food but more delicate seasoning. Anyway, LA esp has had Thai food for a long time.

Twadt Pai

Thai iced tea is like liquid crack!

Thank you all for the responses! I'm going to have to show this thread to my friends.

I had no idea that Thai or Indian were different until 25. Indian and Thai were mixed.

When will Fillipino food happen. My ex's mom made amazing food. Seems like Americans would love it.

IIRC In the early to mid 80s, it was regional Chinese that was in and popular in NYC. Szechuan and Hunan, rather than the usual Cantonese and Mandarin. Thai came in the late 80s as others have noted.

It depends on where you live. It was pretty much unknown where I live (Midwest) until the 90s. I had heard of it in other cities, though.

It's still rare to find in some states.

First Thai meal was in an Army town in 1985. Never saw it before that time. Probably didn't have it again for a couple years. Even in the early-mid '90s, Thai restaurants were few, though popular.

Late 80's is when you started to see a few - then early 90's it became popular. So - really early 90's.

R28 I believe Thai is the new Chinese, so that it is familiar to most outside major US cities. However, I think it was a bit later than the 1980s that it really took off to the extent it's present now.

Filipino food would be rather exotic for most Americans oh, so that I can't see it taking off as more than a niche market.

Is teriyaki considered to be a standard in North America now?

Weirdly, I remember Poplar Bluff MO having more than one Filipino restaurant back in the early 2000s, though I believe they've since disappeared. Maybe there was a substantial immigrant population from the Philippines back then.

Indonesian food is really good as well, but I don't think there is enough of a population to push it through into popularity.

Difference between Thai and Chinese in America as Thai uses standard Thai recipes, modified for available ingredients. Chinese is principally Hunan style and based more on Americanized recipes and many invented here versus authentic Chinese recipes.

This Thai song was popular in the 80s!

This thread got me in the mood for some Thai curry.

We had a great Thai restaurant in Hell's Kitchen, probably back into the 1970's. For certain, it was there in the '80's and very popular. Around 55th or 56th Street, as I recall.

If you were worldly, it was popular in the 1980's If you were all backward and provincial, then maybe not.

I remember sushi as the hot East Asian cuisine of the 80s. Before that it was Chinese. Thai was not widespread in the 80s; even in this thread the only people claiming they had it are all from coastal cities. So, again, no, it was not popular in the US in the 80s. It was only starting to penetrate the most elite markets at that time. Even in those cities, it was only a handful of places at most, serving a very trend-oriented slice of the local market.

Not widespread. Not popular.

I think Thai is fairly universal r28 now. I just looked up thai restaurants in Oklahoma and there are many choices.

It's popular now because it's very unhealthy and fattening.

I wonder if/when Korean will ever become popular all across the US? It certainly is very tasty.

R51, Thai food can be decently healthy or at least non-fatty if you order the right things.

No, R49. No.

We do not have to wait for something to reach Rabbit Hash, KY, to know with certainty that it has attained national popularity. The overwhelming number of people in the US live in coastal areas. Nearly 40 % of the population lives in counties that are on the shoreline.

The less densely populated center of the country counts for some things, but hardly decides for the rest of us what is popular.

Was Dorothy Zbornak eating Thai food in the 80s?

R55, she was too busy eating ass.

Yeah, we ate Thai food in DC in the '80s.

It was widely available in Chicago by the mid-80s, Ethiopean, too. Thai was becoming common in DC around then, too. Places you'd expect to have good Thai food didn't for a long time, like SF.

Ethiopian food was popular in DC as early as 1983. But I lived in Adams-Morgan, and 18th Street was the Ethiopian restaurant epicenter. A friend used to joke about how many lasagne and enchiladas sacrificed their lives so the good citizens of Adams-Morgan could eat yet another meal on injera.

I grow my own Thai Basil purely for use in making Thai Red Curry w/ Chicken. One of my favorite things to eat.

We had a Thai place in our small Midwestern town by 1990 or so when I was a teenager, and I was surprised when relatives from California visited and were shocked to see it. They said there weren't many around in their area (San Jose) but lots in Hawaii, where they had just been visiting in-laws.

My flyover town had a Thai restaurant on every corner by March, 1980. Everyone in my town spoke Thai in the 80s. There was a short-lived movement in our town to secede from the U.S. and join Thailand. Then we all discovered Vietnamese food. That was April, 1980...

Thai Lanna, r18.

Houston has lots of chain Thai places. Nit Noi and Thai Spice are two with multiple locations. Both are... not great.

Depends on where you live. If you lived in California in the 1980s, then yes, Thai food was popular back then. I remember going to Thai restaurants back in the '80s with my family when we lived in San Jose.

R43, after the flips learned how to use toilet paper, they were allowed to emigrate to more progressive American cities.

Actually R51, Thai is probably the ethnic cuisine most closely adhering to the current dietary fads of keto and paleo. I eat low-carb and my daily staple is vegetables simmered in coconut milk, with meat and seasoning added per serving.

I love Thai food but haven't eaten it in years because I'm allergic to shellfish. Don't they use a lot of dried shrimp and the like?

My other problem with Thai is a sensitivity (not the same as an allergy) to most mushrooms, other than regular button mushrooms. I've never heard of anyone else with this problem, but I get quite sick from the sort of mushrooms they often seem to use in East Asian cuisine. I skip Vietnamese food as well, which I also used to love.

I miss tom kah gai, pad thai and the various curry dishes. It is reasonable to ask a Thai restaurant to leave mushrooms out of a dish? If I ask for pad thai with chicken, can I be confident there's no shrimp hiding in it?

R67. In a reputable restaurant, they should accommodate you. In a shithole, not so much.

Mark a food request like this as “allergy”. If you find shrimp or mushrooms, get out and quickly. That place would kill you without a second thought. It’s not just thai restaurants, which I adore because I have celiac and they’re a cuisine that can be safe *YMMV*

For shellfish, peanut and any other potentially life-threatening allergy, you are right to be very careful.

Hmm, the Thai restaurants I've eaten at haven't seemed to sneak mushrooms or shrimp into the dishes. Unless shrimp is used in the fish sauce with/instead of anchovies. Tom yum soup is the only thing I've noticed mushrooms in.

I first tasted Thai food when I visited San Francisco in the late 80’s.

All the Thai restaurants were called “Thai Food” or some variation of that.

R68, shrimp and mushrooms are found more in Chinese dim sum than Thai.

I know because I have a shrimp allergy

r69 - dried shrimp are ingredients in some of the condiments depending on the brand they use.

Thai food is popular in the Twin Cities now. Last weekend there as a Thai Street Food Festival and it was packed with people. Long lines at the food booths. I had the papaya salad and it was excellent. It had dried shrimp in it and who knows what were in some of the condiments they added.

Yup, in the 80's Minneapolis had one place I can remember-- the King and I-- which was a bit more upscale Thai. We had a ton of Vietnamese as a large contingent settled here after the war.