My Thai Food Experience

When trying to decide what restaurant to eat at, I picked the ethnic group I knew the least about. I was hoping that Thai food would be delicious, because I knew nothing about what meals were common in Thailand. Upon entering Surin & Company, the smell and aromas immediately invoked my curiosity.

A mixture of wine and an unknown scent lingered heavily in the air. My first thought was, what could that different but lovely smell be? My second thought was, wow, I am horribly undressed for such a nice restaurant. The tables were nicely set and every person there was middle aged and dressed in nice business suits. My boyfriend and I are young and we were dressed in blue jeans and t-shirts. We automatically felt out of place, but we were still excited to try a different ethnic food.

After being seated, the waitress served us water. Being from a small town, we were not used to being served water before being asked what we would like as our main beverage. I began to wonder if being served water is a universal occurrence or is it simply based on social class.

The waitress gave us our menus and we began to search for a meal that would be truly different from anything we have ever had before. The menu contained many interesting meals. Most of the meals consisted of some kind of seafood. My boyfriend asked our waitress what she would recommend. She suggested trout with sweet sauce.

  

He ordered the trout on rice with sweet sauce. I ordered coconut tofu soup with shrimp and crab angles. When my soup first arrived I was not too excited about all of the mushrooms. I hate mushrooms, but I thought maybe since they were being prepared in an ethnic dish they would taste different.... they did not. Overall, the soup was very delicious and full of flavor. 

The crab angles were filled with crab meat and cream cheese. A delicious dipping sauce was served with the crab angles. I have never tasted a sauce quite like this one, it was very different and sweet.

My boyfriends trout with sweet sauce was also very delicious and very different. I have never had trout before, but it left a very good first impression.

Personally, I do not feel like I learned a whole lot of Thailand culture just from eating at a Thai restaurant. I had to do research outside of visiting this restaurant to really learn more about Thailand's culture. With my etic perspective I did not see anything other than the food that differed from my own culture. The food was very beautifully prepared. In our society, individuals do not usually care so much about appearance as they do about taste. It seems Thai food contained an eloquent look and a desirable taste. I expected this restaurant to be a cheaper buffet style type of place, but, I was wrong. I do not know what I expected the food to taste like, but either way, it was very delicious and I would eat there again. Next time though, I think I will better dress to match the atmosphere of the restaurant.