Who Loves Thai Food?

We DO and we hope you do too! This group is created to unite the addicts, enthusiasts, beginners, and everyone in between. Get together, sit, enjoy Thai food and have great conversations. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to invite your friends and family to become a part of our group.

We're new to meetup.com but not entirely to the event hosting scene so we appreciate all the support we can get. Before discovering meetup.com we were holding events through Facebook and other mediums. We're very excited to have found a new home for hosting our events and we'll make sure that all our events are fun and full of positive energy.

We look forward to seeing you at our next event. You can find out more about Thai food history below.


Goal: To promote Thai food, provide fun and unforgettable experiences for everyone.

Please visit our website Localthaifood.com to find Thai restaurants near you.

What is Local Thai Food?

The answer is pretty simple: spicy and delicious Thai food so close you can smell it! Well, maybe not that close, but close enough to fill yourself on great food, and fast. You see, LocalThaiFood.com's job is to help you find Thai restaurants that are in your immediate area, or as close as possible, and to help you choose the one that best fits your Thai food needs.

Who should join Local Thai Food?

Explorers (Beginners): We know you may be scared because you've been hearing people say that Thai food is spicy. Actually good Thai food is not measured by the spice level, but rather a perfect bled of great flavors and fresh herb scents. That's why Local Thai Food is the group for you. We will guide and mentor you until you are comfortable going to a Thai restaurant and ordering for yourself.

Experienced (Intermediates): For those of you who have one favorite Thai restaurant and order the same exact dish every time because you don't know what else to order, Local Thai Food can help! We'll bring you out of your safe zone and who knows, the next time you go back to your favorite Thai spot, you may save your waiter from another "Groundhog Day." (I know it's cheesy but it gets me every time.)

Enthusiasts (Experts): If you are the type that might die if you don't get your Thai food fix, or if you just simply love Thai food, can handle your spices, and one dish is not satisfying enough in a meal, Local Thai Food will suit your cravings. We will discover new Thai restaurants together. While having great conversations with new and old friends, you will enjoy sharing countless dishes without breaking your bank. And if you feel like being generous, you may share your expertise of Thai food with the intermediates and explorers (not required).

Guru of Thai Food: Hopefully we find enlightenment and become a Thai food Guru, but it's probably easier to find one along our journey.

Organizers: Local Thai Food welcomes organizers from any group. We encourage you to host Thai food events or co-host an event with us. We will help you find information about Thai restaurants and we may be able to get you some discounts. We're doing this to fulfill our goals of promoting Thai food and providing fun and unforgettable experiences for everyone.






Here's a little history about Thai Food

Among the cuisines of Southeast Asia, Thai food is unique. Thai cuisine is distinctly identifiable from Chinese and Indian cuisines, both of which influenced Thai cooking. Thai cooking is completely identifiable in its own right, incorporating all 5 tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and spicy. Thai people have taken foreign influences and transformed them into a cuisine uniquely their own.

The "Tai" people migrated from valley settlements in the mountainous region of Southwest China (now Yunnan province) between the sixth and thirteenth centuries, into what is now known as Thailand, Laos, the Shan States of upper Burma, and northwest Vietnam. Influenced by Chinese cooking techniques, Thai cuisine flourished with the rich biodiversity of the Thai peninsula. As a result, Thai dishes today have some similarities to Szechwan Chinese dishes.The influence of the foreign trade was also important.

Thailand was a cross roads of East to West sea routes causing its culture and cuisine to be infused with Persian and Arabian elements. The Portuguese brought their sweets to King Narai's court in the seventeenth century. Foreign recipes have been integrated with traditional Thai dishes, resulting in unique flavor that is unmistakably Thai.

Although popularly considered as a single cuisine, Thai food is really better described as four regional cuisines corresponding to the four main regions of the country: Northern, Northeastern (or Isan), Central and Southern. Southern curries, for example, tend to contain coconut milk and fresh turmeric, while northeastern dishes often include lime juice. Thai food is known for its enthusiastic use of fresh (rather than dried) herbs and spices as well as fish sauce.

Thai food is popular in many Western countries especially in Australia, New Zealand, some countries in Europe such as the United Kingdom, as well as the United States (especially in California, Chicago, and New York), and Canada.


See more stats