Maybe we should try to put some Thai prices to the below from a standard Thai restaurant, not a street stall. Pete

Well done, full marks for that! Admirable technique, 9.9/10!

And follow the Chinese restaurant rule: if its full of Chinese (or Thai) get your bum on a seat!

An authentic Thai chef I suppose.
On a similar note many of my Tunisian friends heap harissa, a fiery chillie paste, onto almost everything. Colemans English mustard, on the other hand, makes their eyes water. It all depends on your upbringing.

I'm with you on that one Pete.
Isn't the one made with field crab actually the Lao version anyway? Certainly when you order sum-tum Thai, you get the peanuts and dried shrimp.

I just order my somtam mai bpoo, the stink of the crabs puts me off. Nobody minds making it that way for me.

I though Isaan food was the hottest of the various Thai styles so wouldn't Indian be a walk in the park in comparison ??

That's what I would have thought as well, but very few Thais that I know can handle more than a vindaloo.

I've found the same thing; there seems to be something about the cooked spices in Indian food that tastes hotter to Thais than the usual diet of mashed up fresh chillis that goes into most Issan food.
It was the same in Indonesia. I took some of them to an indian restaurant in Jakarta and they really struggled which shocked me as they used to eat all the local food with tablespoons of industrial strength sambal mixed into it.

Lomu is probably the best person to comment on this Indian curry phenomenon with Thais - but Indian food does usually contain a few spices not found in Thai cooking such as garam masala, fenugreek, phanch pooran and cardomom. And of course sometimes okra - which is an acquired taste for anyone IMO.
Thai spices are few and simple by comparison, and of course they usually add sugar and nam phla, which would make the difference. Sweet/sour Thai as opposed to the more bitter/hot of Indian curries.

Yes, it's the Lao version per my understanding. The big difference besides the crab in what I like is using a green mango instead of a green papaya. Mango is too tart for some and I get strange stares, but I think it's great. Pete

The wife regularly orders a curried chicken here in the UK, Fahl hot, then smothers it in Thai chillies.

She goes cold turkey if she misses her chili fix, especially now that she is pregnant.

Just Keeping her supplied in chilies is a major logistical problem.

I did say 'very few', not all.

Reading this thread, I have learnt lots on what makes Thai food unique.
Those of you 'embedded' in Hua Hin give a good insight with help from their own celebrity live-in Chefs.
Big Boy: This sparks the thought in me of a possible new thread.
Which regional cuisine as the hottest food? Thai Issan Vs South Indian Vs Sichuan etc
I find some Sichuan food too hot to enjoy and guaranteed ‘ ring burn’ material.

With Thai vs Indian, I've always attributed it to the dominant usage of red-chili in Thai food, and green chili in Indian food. Whether that is the reason or not, I couldn't say for sure, but there clearly is a difference.

With Thai-nese restaurants, in some places - UK, Germany and perhaps to a lesser extent France, it seems that Thai or Malay are simply more in fashion so many of the incumbent Chinese restauranteurs simply produce a menu with Thai (say) dishes, which they cook in their Chinese style. I know of one restuarant, which is typical of the type, which has Thai (Isaan/Udon) serving staff, but the owners are Thai-Chinese from the Chiang Mai area. It is pretty difficult for most locals to tell that the Massaman Curry they are getting isn't either Thai or Chinese, but a Chinese estimation of what the customer expects it to be like. Remember Massaman would be fairly unfamiliar to the Chiang-Mai Chinese owners and the Isaan serving staff alike. The sauces are clearly bought in, either in bulk or as commercial pastes (no real problem there) so the taste is reasonably authentic, but the presentation is overtly Chinese.

Similarly, I have had 2 or 3 conversations with holiday makers who have expected Gaeng kiaw waan to be a thick paste, more like a curry sauce, than the soup type dish that it normally is in this part of Thailand.

On jimbob's queat for the hottest. I once ate fish at Makan (along the railway) smothered with minced red chilis. It was fabulous. Spice and hot but fantastic. However, the hottest thing BY FAR that I have ever tried to eat (I couldn't!) was a Tom Yam Gung on Ko Tao. Now how a soup could be soooo much spicier than minced red chili paste on a fish, I don't know. But it was! A lot.