# Why is Thai food more common in the US than, say, Laos or Cambodia? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 21, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-thai-food-more-common-in-the-us-than-say-laos-or-cambodia/619521 "2012-04-21T18:37:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-thai-food-more-common-in-the-us-than-say-laos-or-cambodia/619521/21 "2012-04-23T18:30:44Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Turns out they all seem to be advertised as “Mediterranean” restaurants, and typically serve Greek and Italian cuisine from what I saw. That’s also common with small restaurants run by Middle Eastern families; they’ll advertise as “Mediterranean” food, probably hoping to attract customers looking for “Greek” food. In fact, I recall one restaurant owned by a Lebanese family that advertised as “Greek” food. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-thai-food-more-common-in-the-us-than-say-laos-or-cambodia/619521/22 "2012-04-23T20:33:07Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I used to live practically across the street from a Laotian restaurant. This was in a mid-sized Midwestern city. IIRC their sign actually said they were a Lao-Thai restaurant, but the name of the place was Vientiane (after the capital of Laos). I lived in a mid-sized city in Wisconsin that had a large Hmong population and several Thai restaurants (including one billing itself as Thai-Lao). > [@mister\_nyx](#): > > And around here the workers in the sushi places speak Chinese, not Korean. In the suburbs of Chicago, in my experience, they speak Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-thai-food-more-common-in-the-us-than-say-laos-or-cambodia/619521/23 "2012-04-23T20:40:27Z")
There’s a Japanese restaurant just up the street. It is owned, and run, and the cooks, are all Korean. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-thai-food-more-common-in-the-us-than-say-laos-or-cambodia/619521/24 "2012-04-23T21:12:48Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > There’s a Japanese restaurant just up the street. It is owned, and run, and the cooks, are all Korean. That’s really common. Just about every buffet in Koreatown will have decent sushi section. Not only is sushi very popular in Korea, but many things that are trendy in Japan will subsequently become trendy in Korea thereafter. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-thai-food-more-common-in-the-us-than-say-laos-or-cambodia/619521/25 "2012-04-23T22:13:46Z")
There’s a Laotian or maybe its Cambodian food stand, frying things up at the regional market. Looks like a mom and pop operation (there are quite a few Laotian and Cambodian refugees settling here). Sorry, I can’t bring myself to try anything, I don’t like the looks of the food, the stand, or the cooks. Imma square unadventurous suburban girl who loves her sushi, Thai, and curry, but this stuff is too darn strange. ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-thai-food-more-common-in-the-us-than-say-laos-or-cambodia/619521/26 "2012-04-24T02:34:35Z")
Another factor may be that tourism has only been open in Laos and Cambodia relatively recently, so they haven’t necessarily been on a lot of people’s radar. Amok is delicious. I found Lao food pretty good although sticky rice isn’t my favorite, and BeerLao was surprisingly good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-thai-food-more-common-in-the-us-than-say-laos-or-cambodia/619521.md?page=1)