By admin | November 8, 2007
The beautiful before image
The tasty mess afterwards
Here we have two images of khao yam. This is a popular Southern Thai dish run in to surprisingly infrequently in Bangkok. On the chance that I do find it it is usually premade, but in this case everything was in its own separate packet waiting to get mixed.
Khao yam [ข้าวยำ] appropriately translates as rice salad. And although the ingredients may be a bit odd for Western tastes, I can certainly see why it would be called a salad. Basically the dish is a mixture of rice (in this case a couple different colored kinds) with some herbs, vegetables, and seasonings. I think the specific vegetables used varies with the location of the dish’s preparation, but some of the more standard items are toasted coconut, green mango strips, budu (a type of fish sauce), lime, red chili flakes, sliced long beans, and lemongrass.  There was also some pomelo and bean sprouts in this version.  I believe sometimes ground sesame is included as well.
Once you get all the ingredients open you can mix everything up and start eating. To be honest I don’t really enjoy the earthy, herbal taste of this dish as some of the tastes can be too contrasting for me. It is quite an interesting dish and I continue to try it regularly because of this. I look at the intriguing mixture of stuff and somewhat forget what I thought about it last time so I decide to give it another try. Well, it’s certainly better than some of the other items you can see on this blog!
By admin | November 2, 2007
Jicama root
Jicama’s (มันà¹à¸à¸§ [mangaew] in thai) aren’t too common around Bangkok, but once in a while they come to the market. If you’ve never had jicama before, it’s a pretty bland root. I believe they are much more common in South America. Similar to a potato in texture, although more watery and a little sweeter. The one’s I’ve had were eaten raw-just cut off the skin and eat.
By admin | October 25, 2007
dtom saep haeng
Here we have another Isaan favorite, dtom haeng (or the longer version: dtom haeng kruang nai wua [ต้มà¹à¸«à¹‰à¸‡à¹€à¸„รื่à¸à¸‡à¹ƒà¸™à¸§à¸±à¸§]). In this case we have beef insides, although pork can also be used. It can also be served as a soup. Actually, it is usually just simmering in a giant pot and even you want the soup version they’ll just give you some of the broth as well. Either way, the meat is generally tender (for innards) with a sour, ‘tom yummy’ taste. Anyway, just by looking at it you can get a pretty good idea of what it is. We have intestines, stomach, liver, lungs, and meat. I’m surprised they leave the kidney out considering that is also commonly eaten. My personal favorite part is the tiny pieces of real meat you occasionally get, followed by the lungs. For some reason I like the lungs although I vaguely remember reading that they are unhealthy and possibly even dangerous to eat.
Lung piece closeup
ต้มà¹à¸«à¹‰à¸‡
By admin | October 13, 2007
A simple dish
This here is a simple Isaan dish of cooked fish (aw bplaa [เà¸à¸²à¸°à¸›à¸¥à¸²]). You just eat each of those fish in one bite, bones, brain and all. The bones are pretty small so they’re not too sharp or crunchy, but this is really borderline. If the fish were just a tiny bit bigger I don’t think you’d be able to eat them whole. In fact, in my personal opinion these fish are way too big to be eating whole. Just tastes like fish.
By admin | October 13, 2007
Tiny bugger
These tiny bugs, called gudjii [à¸à¸¸à¹Šà¸”จี่] up in Isaan are another unique snack. These bugs are actually members of the dung beetle family. In other words, they are bugs that live almost exclusively on animal poop. And many types don’t just eat the poop, but actually play with it by rolling it into little balls. I wonder if that’s what makes them so tasty?
I found these insects quite entertaining as we caught them. They fly really slowly towards the lights in the house, then get blinded and fall to the floor. Often times they land on their back where they have a seriously difficult time getting back on their feet. While they’re laying there we can just snatch them up and throw them in a little cup of water. They can’t climb up the smooth sides and the water doesn’t let them use their wings.
Once you have enough of them, just throw them in the wok for a quick stir fry, maybe add a few spices and some fish sauce, and there you go. They really do taste pretty good and you can just pop them in your mouth. I also find it interesting that I have never seen these for sale anywhere. I guess they’re just not as profitable as the maengdaa and mod daeng.
I also found a Thai site with a few more pictures and information on dung beetles: malaeng.com .
Tasty little critters
Stuck in the bowl
Ready to eat
By admin | October 4, 2007
The pleasant serving dish
This here is a common Isaan dish called dtom saep [ต้มà¹à¸‹à¸š]. It is a sourish soup, somewhat like tom yam with the main difference in the meat department. Tom yam is generally served with chicken or shrimp as the meat whereas dtom saep is always (as far as I know) with pork or beef. And of course it’s not the pork and beef you would see in a typical western meal. Nope, this meal consists mainly of the parts we would usually throw out: intestines, stomach, liver, and lungs are some of the more common pieces. Occasionally you are rewarded with a real piece of meat. With that said, I do find this soup to be quite tasty and regularly order it when I go out for Isaan. You can also order the dry (haeng [à¹à¸«à¸‡]) version which I will save for a separate post.
In this particular case we ordered a big portion that came in a nice sized serving bowl with a charcoal flame in the middle to keep it hot. Â These bowls are frequently used in restaurants, but I’m not really sure why since the soups are always piping hot in the first place. Â I always find it a bit of a nuissance since then it forces me to wait longer for the food to cool down.
Another item that made this order somewhat unique is that we managed to get a bunch of vertebrae in the soup. These bones take up a huge amount of space and there is very, very little meat on them, but I guess they add to the flavor of the soup. Â It definitely makes for an interesting experience. Â Spinal cord soup, anyone?
Some leftover vertebrae
By admin | August 26, 2007
A simple dessert
This is a really simple Chinese dessert. These are traditionally given as an offering during Chinese religious holidays and they are very abundant during those times. Some regular food stalls might even shut down their normal service and specialize in these for a few days prior to a significant day. After they are down with the offering, though, there are usually lots of them left over. I decided to try a few and, with my generalized opinion of Chinese food, found them to be very bland. They are very, very thick and jelly like with just a little bit of flavor and sweetness. Â I found very little difference in taste between the different colors and size. Â If I had to guess, I would say they are mostly just rice flour with some sort of gelatin thrown in. Nothing special taste-wise, but very important religiously.
By admin | August 20, 2007
A trio of custard apples
Wow, there sure are a lot of strange fruits in this world! This one might not be one of the strangest, but it is yet another delicious one. They are called custard apples or sugar apples (น้à¸à¸¢à¸«à¸™à¹ˆà¸² [noinaa] for the standard size, น้à¸à¸¢à¹‚หน่ง [noinong] for the large size like this one). They are very sweet with a soft pear-like texture. The only problem is that the small ones tend to have lots of little seeds. The larger ones are easier to eat and have much more of the tasty flesh.
A large custard apple
By admin | August 14, 2007
Oyster feast
This was a nice, large plate of oysters served on the beach of Koh Chang. The local oysters are almost always pre-extracted and rarely served in the shell. That’s good, I suppose, since then they can fit much more meat on the plate! next to the oysters is the plate of accompinments: sliced fresh garlic, fresh chilies, fried shallots, lime, a bitter green vegetable, and some chili sauce. Throw a few of these in with each bite of oysters and you’ll be packing quite a wallop! You can read more about Thai oysters at another post of mine.
Oysters on ice
By admin | August 10, 2007
Bag of nuts
Here’s some more of those jabok nuts that I’ve talked about before. You should go read strange nuts with a story to learn more about them.
Inside the bag
