Former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was so bothered by the state of Thai food around the world that she raised the issue at a Cabinet meeting.

She has since been deposed by a military coup but her work lives on.

The Thai Delicious Committee was formed and it is rolling out a new robot that will taste Thai food and declare when it’s bad.

Diplomats and dignitaries have been invited to witness the debut of a machine that its promoters say can scientifically evaluate Thai cuisine, telling the difference, for instance, between a properly prepared green curry with just the right mix of Thai basil, curry paste and fresh coconut cream, and a lame imitation.

A boxy contraption filled with sensors and microchips, the so-called e-delicious machine scans food samples to produce a chemical signature, which it measures against a standard deemed to be the authentic version.

Properly prepared green curry

I’d love to deploy this robot throughout much of the United States, although I don’t think it would do much good. Thai food is bad where there isn’t much competition, and there isn’t a customer-base with a developed taste for good Thai food. Put another way, informed customers who want good Thai food and know the difference will find restaurants competing to provide it for them. Places without a critical mass of such customers will have bad Thai food.

Of course, in lieu of the robot you could just go here.

(HT: Tyler Cowen)

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