Bamboo salad

This here is an Isaan dish called supnawmai [ซุบหน่อไม้]. It is basically a bamboo salad in a similar vein as somtom. I really enjoy this dish and for a little while was going on a binge ordering ever day. It is nice and sour from the pickled bamboo that forms it’s base, but it’s got a lot of other tastes as well. I especially like the texture of the stringy, shredded bamboo alongside the crunchy, roasted bits of rice thrown in the mix. Many other bamboo dishes have a firmer, stiffer texture to them. This meal is often served in typical Isaan fashion with some grilled chicken and sticky rice. And to top things off, bamboo is supposedly very healthy for you!

Similar posts:

1. Banana blossom salad This was an interesting salad that tasted better than I...
2. Khao yam – the before and after Here we have two images of khao yam. This is...
3. Fresh frog meat Frog meat (gop [กบ]) is served in quite a few...

Unpeeled pak grachet (water mimosa)

This is an interesting, leafy vegetable that is common around Thailand but I’ve never seen elsewhere. In English it is called water mimosa (sometimes water minosa), and in that it is called pak grachet [ผักกระเฉ] or pak runawn [ผักรู้นอน]. The pak grachet name seems to be much more common. It is one of what I consider the three common leafy vegetables of thailand, the others being morning glory (pak boong [ผักบุ้ง]) and kale/chinese broccoli (pak kana [ผักคะน้้า]).

Anyway, this vegetable is aquatic and grows along ponds or near rice paddies. It basically floats on the tops of the water with long stems that can reach to the bottom. It is fairly tedious to prepare. In the first picture you can see how it looks when freshly picked or purchased at the market-covered with a white, foam-like skin which needs to be peeled of and then the gra chet can be broken into pieces. The skin is quite thick so it probably loses half its weight by the time you finish peeling. Afterwards, it can be eaten raw with chili dips, but I believe it is more common to simply stir-fry it with some chilis and garlic. It ends up being a crispy, crunchy, tasty meal.

Water mimosa after peeling

Closeup of the pak grachet

Similar posts:

1. A dinner of weeds I call this a dinner of weeds because essentially that’s...
2. Ant egg soup This was a really tasty home cooked meal. Seriously. Gaeng...
3. Dragonfruit Dragonfruit, also called pitaya, and known as แก้วมังกร [gaewmanggon] has...

Santol

Slice and bashed santol fruit

Here’s a strange fruit, called gratawn [กระท้อน], but known as santol in English. A bit large, about the size of a grapefruit with the same thickness of skin, but definitely not a citrus fruit. The taste is very strange; a combination of sour, bitter, and sweet. The texture is also odd, like a thick slime.
Perhaps the weirdest part, though, is that you need to beat the fruit before you eat it. Whether it’s hit with a bottle or smacked on the floor, there is no question that it must be beat up first. I have not been able to discern exactly why, but I think it has to do with some combination of mixing up the juices inside and softening up the flesh.
Anyway, once it has been bashed around a bit it’s ready for opening. After cutting into slices you can eat it, usually pausing to dip it into a sugar and chili pepper mixture. A very strange flavor, but somehow I like it still.

Similar posts:

1. Dragonfruit Dragonfruit, also called pitaya, and known as แก้วมังกร [gaewmanggon] has...
2. Rambutans – a common fruit Pictured below are rambutans, a very common fruit in this...
3. Salak fruit Here we have สละ [sala], another common fruit in this...

Bag full of ants

While sounding weird, this dish is amazingly simple: ants mixed with coconut. In Thai called miang mod daeng sai maphrao [เมี่ยงมดแดงใส่มะพร้าว] which literally means ‘mixed ants with coconut’. From what I hear, they collect the ants by knocking their nest out of a tree into a basket. Then they have to quickly (these ones bite) take the basket with a wet cloth and somehow get the ants into a bucket full of water. Yeah, I’m missing some details here, but in the end the ants die by drowning. Finally, they are stir-fried with the coconut and you have yourself a nice tasty snack! I don’t find them to have much flavor, but they’re not bad. Definitely one of the better insects I’ve tried.

Hanging off the spoon

Big spoonful

Similar posts:

1. More insects Here we have (again!) some: ...
2. A platter of bugs Here’s a tasty bar snack that goes great with beer....
3. Three edible insects…cooked Well, it didn’t take long to prepare those. Throw them...

The fruit

This one was a hard one to find any information on. I knew it was a palm fruit, but apparently there isn’t much information on the internet about these. In Thai its called luk dtan [ลูกตาล] and I finally tracked down a possible English name: sugar palm, toddy palm, or borassus flabellifer. I would consider it a rare fruit since I haven’t seen it often around here although it is very cheap.

Anyway, the fruit itself is quite jelly-like after you get the soft shell off. You have to cut the shell off with a knife; it doesn’t peel. As for taste, its not bad but pretty bland. Slightly sweet, but nothing else. I guess it’s cheap and not readily available for a reason. Another interesting fruit to try.

Sugar palm fruits

Sugar palm fruit

Similar posts:

1. Salak fruit Here we have สละ [sala], another common fruit in this...
2. Mafai fruit Another fruit I’ve never seen anywhere else before.  I’m not...
3. Rambutans – a common fruit Pictured below are rambutans, a very common fruit in this...

Bag full o' oysters

Here we have a freshly purchased bag of oysters (hoi nang rom [หอยนางรม]). Oysters are plentiful and cheap in Thailand, although not as good as those from abroad. I find the Thai ones to be quite large and somewhat sweet. They are very cheap, though. That bag there cost about $1.

No matter where your order the oysters around here, they are always served the same way: on a bed of ice with the following accompinaments.

• Crispy fried shallots
• A green, bitter vegetable known as gratin [กระถิน]. I don’t know of any common English name, but leuceana leucocephala might be its scientific name
• A thick sweet chili sauce called prik pao [น้ำพริกเผา]
• Freshly sliced chilis and garlic
• Sometimes another type of sauce which is the typical spicy-sour seafood sauce that comes with anything from the ocean
• Some lime wedges

All in all, a nice tasty dish.

Similar posts:

1. Oysters served Thai style This was a nice, large plate of oysters served on...
2. Cha-om Omelet (ไข่เจียวชอม) I recently posted about the gaeng som where I mentioned...
3. Mushroom dip Thai cuisine is notorious for including chili dips containing just...

Looks delicious

This is an exquisite Thai dessert. Jackfruit stuffed with sweet sticky rice and covered in sweetened coconut cream (khao niaw kanun [ข้าวเหนียวขนุน]). The different jackfruit pieces also have different flavors of sticky rice in them (notice the colors?) but I’m not sure what they are. There’s not much else to say about this one except that the flavors work excellent and I wish I had more. Yum!

Similar posts:

1. Jackfruit A quick photo of some jackfruit chunks already extracted from...
2. Jackfruit vendor Here’s another jackfruit street operation.  this one’s from Vietnam and...
3. Jackfruits for sale To go along with the post on durians, here’s a...

Pumpkin pie

This here is one of my favorite Thai desserts. I call it pumpkin pie, although technically the filling is a custard. Thai’s call it fak tawng sangkayaa [ฝักทอง สังขยา]. The cool part, as you can see, is that it is actually cooked in the pumpkin itself! This works out great for me because I always loved the traditional Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, but only the filling. I would always leave the crust behind. now I don’t have to worry about any crust since the crust is essentially a filling as well.

Yeah, I know Thai pumpkins aren’t as pretty as Western ones. Despite that ugliness (I know I’ve talked about that somewhere around here before), they are much more tasty. Especially when made into a sweet dessert like this.

After a little bite

Similar posts:

1. Those ugly Thai pumpkins Here’s a shot a small vegetable stand in a market...
2. Thai style drink You can’t admire all the interesting food on this side...
3. Oysters served Thai style This was a nice, large plate of oysters served on...

Happy Pigs

On the rural road between Korat and Buriram there are a few strange attractions. This is a shot of some giant pig statues. They sure look happy holding their bottle of beer. They are part of a larger group of statues used to advertise for a place that sells whole pork legs commonly used to make the dish khao kaa muu (stewed pork leg). Despite the marketing effort, the place always seems to be empty.

Similar posts:

1. Pork hell Ahh, one of my most favorite bar snacks.  At my...
2. Khao yam – the before and after Here we have two images of khao yam. This is...
3. Spinal cord soup This here is a common Isaan dish called dtom saep...

Oops...forgot the photo

Sorry about the photo. I guess I was hungry. This is my leftover yam bplaa salid [ยำปลา่สลิด], which basically translates as a sun-dried fish salad. There’s nothing too interesting about the salad, just your typical yam (Thai style sour and spicy). The fish is what’s interesting. Basically, this is deep-fried pieces of fish, bones and all, that is now as crispy as a potato chip. As a result, you eat the whole thing, bones and all. Occasionally I get poked in the mouth by some of the larger bones and it hurts! I guess Thais are just accustomed to eating these types of things. A nice tasty dish, but man do I miss my nice sized pieces of boneless fish from back home. It’s rare to get a large piece of fish with no bones around here unless you’re willing to pay the hefty markup.

Similar posts:

1. Khao yam – the before and after Here we have two images of khao yam. This is...
2. Mini fish This here is a simple Isaan dish of cooked fish...
3. Fresh frog meat Frog meat (gop [กบ]) is served in quite a few...