Nice presentation
I have no idea what kind of cheese this is, but it was fabulous. It was served as a dessert at a decent restaurant in Italy. The cheese itself was very light and sweet, with a berry sauce on the side. I can barely get any cheese here in Asia, let alone these more unique types. My mouth is salivating now just looking at the photo.
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cow tongue
Here’s a photo of a cow tongue being served in a nice, european restaurant. Many people may think it’s quite strange or gross, but it’s actually a very tender and tasty cut of beef. I posted this photo because it’s in stark contrast to one of the odd things I could post from Thailand. What might be seen as a luxory food or delicious meal in Europe can also be served in Thailand, although in different circumstances.
In Bangkok I occassionaly see the ‘pig head’ vendor at the end of my street. This vendor has a whole, cooked pig head (or two) in the morning and throughout the day chops bits of it for the customers. You can request the tongue or the more exotic pieces: chin, cheek, ear, snout, forehead, etc. That’s right, nothing goes to waste. Some parts are a bit chewy, but others are nice and tender. The meat is usually served with a spicy chili sauce for dipping. Not quite the same as Europe, but it all gets eaten in the end.
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Gourmet rabbit
This is another European gourmet meal: rabbit. It tasted quite good and seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. What is strange is the fact that I have never seen nor heard of Thais eating rabbit! They seem to eat just about anything over here yet while I do see live rabbits around, they are exclusively sold as pets. I can’t really think of an explanation for this either. Anybody else heard of Thais (or other asians) eating rabbit on a regular basis?
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A plate of crabs
When most people think of crabs they probably think of a very large animal that comes from the ocean. Some people might also be familiar with smaller crabs, including the soft-shelled ones. Well, I was pretty surprised when I found out that these crabs don’t even come from anywhere near the sea. They are actually very commonly found in the rice fields all over Thailand. These ones were simply hand caught by digging through the mud. There are many different preparations for them including putting them in somtom (with the infamous fermented fish, bplaa raa [ปลาร้า]). Pictured here is a simple plate of fried crabs (bpuu tawt [ปูทอด]).
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The feast
Pictured here are a bunch of river mussels (hoi malaeng puu [หอยแมลงภู่]) that I (yep, me!) and a few others actually caught ourselves. Up in Isaan (between Korat and Buriram), the Northeast area of Thailand we just swam in the river, digging them out of the mud with our bare hands. Mussels are fairly common in Thailand, but I had never caught them myself, so this was great fun, especially since we had been drinking. We just dived under the water and grabbed three or four mussels at a time. After we had gathered a big bucketful, which took no time at all since they were all over the place, it was time to prepare them.
We cleaned them and steamed them in a bamboo basket. Somebody whipped up a spicy dipping sauce, as Thai’s are experts at doing so for any occasion. Then we sat down and feasted. As tasty as they were, and as well as we cleaned and cooked them, my stomach just wasn’t used to these local foods. I got very ill within two hours, but was fine by the next morning. Besides that, this was a great experience.
Digging in
The leftovers
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Crocodile jerky
Here’s one that isn’t all too common here in Bangkok, although I did find it in a local grocery store: crocodile jerky. There’s not much to say about this one except its very tough and very tasteless. I’m sure crocodile jerky could be spiced up a lot, but this being a Chinese brand it’s not surprising that there’s little taste. Despite the huge variety of Chinese cuisines, in my opinion it seems many of the Thai-Chinese lean towards foods with very bland, even subliminal, flavors.
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French fries?
Here’s some more chicken feet for you. Deep-fried ones. Look tasty, don’t they? You can read more about chicken feet in another post.
A closer look
Fried chicken feet!
Claws and all
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Tasty Thai dessert drink
You can’t admire all the interesting food on this side of the world while ignoring the huge variety of drinks. Many of the drinks are actually desserts that are just packaged in a convenient way. Here’s one particular drink (lawd chawng [ลอดช่อง]) and I’m not sure exactly what it is, but something along the lines of a thick coconut milk liquid with lots of pink and green rice flour strings sometimes flavored with pandan or other fruits. Delicious! (but unhealthy)
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Look at them ants
This was a really tasty home cooked meal. Seriously. Gaeng pak waan sai kai mod daeng [แกงผักหวานใส่ไข่มดแดง], or in English, a vegetable soup with red ant eggs. Ant eggs are used in a couple of Isaan dishes, but they are seasonal. Another common way to serve them is in an omelet. You can click on the photos for some closeup views of the ant eggs, but it’s interesting to note how developed some of them are. You can actually make out the ant form.
As for the taste, it’s quite good. The ant eggs have a pleasant, but not very strong taste and sort of burst in your mouth, just like caviar. If you’re a sushi fan, you’ll know just what I mean. The soup is a basic soup with the local vegetable pak waan, (Melientha suavis) which literally means sweet vegetable although the vegetable is by no means sweet.
I really enjoyed this, especially since it was homemade. You can occasionally order these out at restaurants in Bangkok such as Vientiane House (not recommended) and Crok Mai Thai Lao (recommended, but you need a Thai speaker), but you’ll be lucky to have a handful of ant eggs in it. Our homemade soup was just loaded with them. Lovely!
If your curious where the ant eggs come from you can look here.
Cooking up some ant egg soup
A tasty bowl
Just a baby
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Shrimp are common and cheap in Thailand. And they have some big ones! Yum!
Big grilled shrimp on the Thai beach
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Hi, I'm Joe, your typical cyber traveler and world tourist currently based in Thailand.
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