The way to a foreigner's heart is through their stomach?

"There are Thai restaurants all over," said M as we passed a window that announced the opening of a restaurant at what was previously one of those Mongolian grills.

"All because of the Thai government that saw the benefit in this," I said, as a smug know-it-all.  Sometimes, the know-it-all stumbles.  But, is mostly on the correct path, mostly thanks to reading across a wide range.  And, thankfully, not forgetting them.  Of course I forget the particulars, but I do remember the big-picture.  Thanks to Google, I can always hunt down the details.  Did I say I am a know-it-all? ;)

Which is what I did even about this Thai restaurant diffusion, so that I can blog about it ;)

Way back in 2002, The Economist, which used to be a regular source for me until they went all out with the paywall, reported about the Thai government's ambitious plan:

The Thai government has discovered that foreigners quite like Thai food. There are about 5,500 Thai restaurants around the world. In a plan ambitiously called Global Thai, the government aims to boost the number to 8,000 by 2003. This, it is argued, will not only introduce deliciously spicy Thai food to thousands of new tummies and persuade more people to visit Thailand, but it could subtly help to deepen relations with other countries.

The government aimed "to make it easier for foreign restaurants to import Thai foods, to help them to hire Thai cooks and sometimes to benefit from soft loans."

It is amazing that there are so many Thai restaurants now!

[According] to a representative from the Royal Thai Embassy in DC, there are just 300,000 Thai-Americans—less than 1 percent the size of the the Mexican-American population. Yet there are an estimated 5,342 Thai restaurants in the United States, compared to around 54,000 Mexican restaurants; that’s ten times the population-to-restaurant ratio.

That's impressive!

Using a tactic now known as gastrodiplomacy or culinary diplomacy, the government of Thailand has intentionally bolstered the presence of Thai cuisine outside of Thailand to increase its export and tourism revenues, as well as its prominence on the cultural and diplomatic stages.

Has worked out well, don't you think?

The Ministry of Commerce’s Department of Export Promotion, most likely run by bureaucrats rather than restaurateurs, drew up prototypes for three different “master restaurants,” which investors could choose as a sort of prefabricated restaurant plan, from aesthetic to menu offerings. Elephant Jump would be the fast casual option, at $5 to $15 per person; Cool Basil would be the mid-priced option at $15 to $25 a head; and the Golden Leaf prototype would cost diners $25 to $30, with décor featuring “authentic Thai fabrics and objets d’art.”

Systematically creating the "authentic" ;)

Success spawns imitation.

Though Thailand’s efforts may have been the most extensive and successful, this initiative to gain soft power through food has been utilized by other governments as well. Inspired by Thailand’s success, South Korea, for example, has earmarked tens of millions of dollars beginning in 2009 for its Korean Cuisine to the World campaign. Taiwan has followed suit, as has Peru with its Cocina Peruana Para el Mundo (“Peruvian Cuisine for the World;” quite creative) initiative, as well as Malaysia (“Malaysia Kitchen for the World 2010”—clearly there’s a pattern here).

I am ok with this kind of a foreign influence in America, unlike the tRump supporters who prefer the illegal and immoral kinds!

Of course, as with most foreign foods, the foods at the Thai restaurants here are not what most Thai folks eat in Thailand.  It is like with the Indian restaurants here.  But, does "authentic" matter more than how the food tastes?