I'm in Houston and most of the Thai restaurants are run by Thai. And it was easier here to get things ridiculously spicy, and the curries thicker which maybe cuts the sweetness.

What about the thickness/heaviness of the curries? They seemed thinner in Thailand. Here in the states a lot of the curries feel heavier like closer to an north Indian curry in terms of consistency.

It totally could be that I'm just more selective about where I go in my home town than I was in Thailand. And I was just wandering into a bunch of tourist shops there.