Wow, I saw a lot of good tries, but none that seemed to speak from experience. My mother is Thai and...

1. What is the difference between Chinese, Vietnamese, and
Thai cuisine?
Wow, I saw a lot of good tries, but none that seemed to speak from experience.
My mother is Thai and I've Vietnamese friends. There is some difference between them, but both are
VERY different and distinctive from Chinese food (and Korean and Japanese are VERY, very
different!) and I'll tell you why.
Recipe Videos
Chinese food, the stuff you get from the take-out, isn't really "Chinese" cuisine. It's Americanized
Chinese. Real Chinese is different and is most similar to Thai, as it can be very sweet. Sweet-toothed
people love real Thai and Chinese food (or should). If you've ever been to the RG Lounge in San
Francisco, then you've eaten real Chinese food. The flavors of each dish are very bold, whether
they're salty or sweet or full of ginger; it can also be very daunting, as you will find yourself subject
to "entire" animals on the plate (like entire catfish or entire fried quail, with the head). It is NOT the
"chow mein" you get from your corner restaurant.
Thai does use lots of the same ingredients as the Chinese, particularly oyster sauce (which is NOT
the same as soy sauce), but their flavorings are both an amalgamation of different things and flavors
are subtle and bold at the same time(whereas I think Chinese is more straight-forward). You would
be able to taste the subtle flavor of lemongrass in a chicken curry; you would be able to taste peanut
in the "rare beef" that's saturated in lemon slices.
That, actually, is one of the similarites between Thai and Vietnamese; they both have the same "rare
beef" dishes. Pho 84 here in Oakland, California prepares a rare beef with lemon slices and mint that
is almost identical to the rare beef that my mother makes/made from her homeland experience. Both
cuisines also rely heavily on lemon (grass, slices, or flavor), hot chili sauce and oyster sauce, and
sweet basil leaves.
The big difference I think between Thai and Vietnamese is that the "pho" noodle soup with the boiled
rice noodles is more of a Vietnamese dish, whereas the fried rice noodles, pad thai and lard nah, are
Thai. Vietnamese food, the good stuff, is often very spicy; the Thai food, the good stuff, is often
sweet (and yes, you can get very spicy, too). In fact, most of the dishes offered at Pho 84 are "too
spicy" or just plain spicy for people who're used to Thai food (so that analogy about Thai food as
being "papa bear" is incorrect; Vietnamese--real Vietnamese--is very, very hot!).
Korean and Japanese are a whole different cuisine. You don't get the sweet basil or peanuts that you
get in Thai and Vietnamese. You get more of a bland (sorry, but it's true!) taste of the food without a
boatload of spices. Korean noodle bowls have less spice, mostly pepper and garlic. Japanese udon
does not taste anything like Chinese or even the Vietnamese pho. Miso soup (Japanese) is practically
a bowl of salt water, but their best flavors come from sushi (as teriyaki meat is just that: Meat with
teriyaki sauce); you want to experience the clean, crisp subtle flavor of the slightly sweet and
vinegary rice mixed with fresh, uncooked (sometimes cooked, but it depends on what you get) fish.
We've also noticed that (real) Korean food can range into the very bizarre, and we're not exactly fans
of it (there is one place here in Oakland that was the only place open one night and we had to go/eat

2. there, and it wasn't pleasant...everything was in Korean and what we ordered wasn't what we
expected). Korean barbecue meat though, is very tasty and very similar to Chinese barbecue,
probably because they use -almost- the same sauce.
So while there ARE similarities, there are many differences, and depending on your tastebuds, you
may prefer one over the other. The key to knowing about the differences is experiencing -real- Asian
ethnic cuisine. Chinatown (any one of them) will have some good truly ethnic Chinese, but it might
also house some of the best non-Chinese/ethnic restaurants (and you're lucky if you're like me and
live where there is a Chinatown, a Japantown AND a Koreantown...there's no Vietnamesetown, but
there are plenty of Vietnamese restaurants to choose from in the Bay Area).