Well, you can never have too many photos of scorpions so here you go!
Nice scorpion
แมงป่อง (maeng bpong)
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Hi, I'm Joe, your typical cyber traveler and world tourist currently based in Thailand.
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Scorpions (again)
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Grilled chicken gizzards
Grilled chicken gizzards
This is a skewer of grilled chicken gizzards (sitting on top a bag of hot dogs, of course). Called gun gai yang [กึ๋นไก่ย่าง] in Thai, gizzards are a secondary stomach used by some animals to grind up food. They are actually quite a popular food throughout the world. I am actually very surprised this is the first time I have ever encountered them in Thailand. I found them to be quite chewy and, as expected, have a taste similar to other interior chicken parts I’ve eaten. They aren’t something that wets my palate, but perhaps if they were prepared a bit more elegantly…
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Happy 4th of July!
Our supplies
This year for the 4th of July we all went over to a friend’s house for a nice BBQ. It was great! We had all sorts of our favorite foods including hot dogs and hamburgers, macaroni salad, potato salad, corn, potatoes, and even kielbasi and sauerkraut. I brought pork and chicken kebabs in two different kinds of marinade. One was just BBQ sauce and the other was some middle eastern lemon and mint mixture. We were all surprised at how great they were. I love trying all these exotic foods, but I also love the foods I grew up with. Let’s just keep it at: I love food!
The grill
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Three edible insects…cooked
Ready to eat
Well, it didn’t take long to prepare those. Throw them into the wok with a bit of soy sauce and there you go. So now I have this stir-fried assortment of bugs sitting in front of me. I won’t be digging in too much, though. I just had a sample of each and that is enough for me. They all taste pretty much the same and not bad at all, but I’ve blogged and tasted many bugs in the past. Although maybe the perfect analogy just came to mind: soggy potato chips. That is exactly what the texture and taste is like so if you can handle that, you can definitely handle a serving of grasshoppers, water beetles, and crickets. Just close your eyes first…
closeup!
Another angle!
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Three edible insects
What a surprise!
I came home just the other day to discover that someone had purchased a bag of treats. Maybe I should be more specific and say a bag of Thai treats…AKA bugs. Yep, I encountered a variety bag of bugs including grasshoppers (dtakadaen [ตั๊กแตน]), water beetles (malaeng dtapdtao [แมลงตับเต่า]), and mole crickets (malaeng sawn[แมลงซอน]). I have tried many bugs in my time here in Thailand, but of these three I had only encountered the grasshoppers before. All these bugs were freshly killed and ready to be fried up. Stay tuned for an update.
Three different kinds
water beetle (แมลงตับเต่า)
mole cricket (แมลงซอน)
grasshopper (ตั๊กแตน)
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Incredible India
Well, here’s a few memories from my trip to India. Now I have been to India before–it was almost exactly five years ago. After my previous two weeks in Mumbai and Goa, I moved on to Thailand and there was such a contrast that I had pretty much decided I had no need to ever go back to India again. First of all, I found India to be very dirty. Everything was old and broken. And the Indians…well, I’ll just say they have their own way of doing things. It was actually quite dissappointing because I was so excited about going to India in the first place.
Anyway, despite having thought I was done with India, sure enough I found myself in Mumbai again five years later. Unfortunately, it hasn’t changed at all. It is just as dirty, grungy, and old as it was the first time. Slums everywhere, people sleeping all over the streets (a huge amount of the population is unemployed and homeless-I think more than 50%), tons of pollution, and really not much to do at all.
At least I was there for a reason: a friends wedding. In this regard I defintely got to experience a part of India I never would have otherwise. Staying at the Royal Mumbai Yacht Club was certainly an experience. And it was nice having some old friends around, too. Even so, I think it’s pretty safe to say that none of us really enjoyed India.
Anyway, on to the photos:
India 2009 (the album has a few mistakes that I am working on fixing)
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Obligatory trash plate
Yum!
Alright, you knew it was going to happen. It happens every year. So here it is: the obligatory trash plate post. Boy, my mouth is watering just looking at these. I should start selling these in Thailand. At least give my friends who have never heard of such a thing witness the magic within. I wonder if it could catch on?
Beautiful!
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Travel photos
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Chocolate covered seaweed for Valentine’s Day
chocolate covered seaweed
I was at Chatujak Market around Valentine’s Day this year where I encountered some Thai TV stars and their crew promoting these chocolate covered seaweed treats. It’s a very odd combination and reminds me of something the people that eat peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches might enjoy. Seaweed is very popular in Thailand even though it is definitely not a traditional food here. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the popularity of Japanese and Korean food, music, fashion, and games with middle to higher class teenagers. If it Japanese or Korean culture, they will force themselves to like it and fit in with the current fad. When I did taste it, it was more or less exactly as expected. Something along the lines of crispy, salty chocolate. I won’t plan on buying these as a Valentine’s Day gift anytime soon.
Posted in food, southeast asia, thailand Tagged caption, chocolate, dessert, food, music fashion, odd combination, seafood, thailand, valentine s day Leave a comment
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Duck tongues
duck tongues
I wasn’t even fully aware that birds really had tongues, but sure enough here we have a plate full of grilled duck tongues (ลิ้นเป็ดย่าง [lin bped yaang]). Duck tongues aren’t terribly common, but if you go somewhere with an extensive menu you might run into them. They are considered a drinking snack and we ordered these at a Tawandaeng, a massive “German” beer garden place that features a variety of performances throughout the evening. Of course it was necessary to order the duck tongues when I saw them on the menu. They weren’t too bad, mostly tasting like fried stuff. Despite calling them grilled, as has been the case with many other Thai foods, I am almost positive they were actually deep-fried. I am not 100% sure, though, because I have never eaten a duck tongue before and it had a strange meaty and chewy texture with a few crunchy bits mixed in. I should have asked, but I was too awed by the oddness of the dish while I was working on the beer tower.
ลิ้นเป็ดย่าง
Posted in food, southeast asia, thailand Tagged chewy texture, crunchy bits, food, meat, thailand Leave a comment
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