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Robotic Taster Will Judge 'Real Thai Food'
HughPickens.com (3830033) writes The NYT reports that Thailand's former prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra repeatedly encountered a distressing problem while traveling the world: bad Thai food. Too often, she found, the meals she sampled at Thai restaurants abroad were unworthy of the name, too bland to be called genuine Thai cooking. The problem bothered her enough to raise it at a cabinet meeting. Even though her political party has since been thrown out of office, in a May military coup, the Thai government is unveiling its project to standardize the art of Thai food using a robot. The government-financed Thai Delicious Committee, which oversaw the development of the machine, describes it as "an intelligent robot that measures smell and taste in food ingredients through sensor technology in order to measure taste like a food critic." Thailand's National Innovation Agency has spent about $100,000 to develop the e-delicious machine. The e-delicious machine has 10 sensors that measure smell and taste, generating a unique fingerprint (signature) for each sample of food that passes its digital maw. Generally with electronic tasting, there are electronic sensors that work just like the taste buds on your tongue, measuring the quantity of various taste-giving compounds, acidity, etc. While these electronic sensors can't actually tell you how something tastes — that's a very subjective, human thing — they are very good at comparing two foods scientifically. Meanwhile at a tiny food stall along one of Bangkok's traffic-clogged boulevards, Thaweekiat Nimmalairatana, questioned the necessity of a robatic taster. "I use my tongue to test if it's delicious or not," said Nimmalairatana. "I think the government should consider using a human to gauge authenticity."
Nakah Thawichawatt, who runs a business producing herbal supplements, has a vision for the machine that he says will take the next step in the digitization of our lives. The so-called e-delicious tasting machine would produce a digital signature of food at a particular restaurant. Consumers would then indicate their preferences on an app for mobile phones. The app would match consumers with their favorite tastes at other restaurants that participate in the program. "It's just like pressing 'like,' " says Thawichawatt. "You rate the food. Then we will know that you love that taste."
Asian restaurants in the US cater to what they the think the US public wants to consume and not what is "authentic" to their cuisine. While which probably makes for good economic sense, doesn't make for the best food experience. (As an extreme, Imagine how the local asian family restaurant in the US having a plate of fried chicken heads on its menu would fare).
I don't think you realize what is available in restaurants in the US. I live within walking distance from the "Chinatown" of one of the largest metro areas in the US and I assure you that there are plenty of restaurants with dead animals hanging in the windows, menus that don't have a single word of English on them and a staff of workers that don't speak a word of English either. They have plenty of customers that from visual and auditory clues you might describe as "immigrants" but also plenty of "Americans" too. A smartphone can give you a fairly good translation of things on the menu, after all. I can hop on the train and go over to areas of the city with similarly large concentrations of Vietnamese, Indian, Somolian, Thai, etc restaurants. You'll see "immigrants" and "Americans" sitting next to each other at those places too.
But - does the Prime Minister of Thailand go to these neighborhoods? Does the average American suburbanite? No. Not a chance. They go to restaurants where someone spent six figures on the decor and the chef is implementing a "concept" and sheltered children aren't going to cry when they see something unusual on their plate. You get what you pay for, and it's not "authenticity."