This here is an Isaan dish called supnawmai [ซุบหน่à¸à¹„ม้]. 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 […]
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 [ผัà¸à¸à¸£à¸°à¹€à¸‰] or pak runawn [ผัà¸à¸£à¸¹à¹‰à¸™à¸à¸™]. The pak grachet name seems to be much more common. It is one of what I […]
Here’s a strange fruit, called gratawn [à¸à¸£à¸°à¸—้à¸à¸™], 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. […]
While sounding weird, this dish is amazingly simple: ants mixed with coconut. In Thai called miang mod daeng sai maphrao [เมี่ยงมดà¹à¸”งใส่มะพร้าว] 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) […]
By admin | March 16, 2008
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 [ลูà¸à¸•à¸²à¸¥] and I finally tracked down a possible English name: sugar palm, toddy palm, or borassus flabellifer. I would consider […]
Here we have a freshly purchased bag of oysters (hoi nang rom [หà¸à¸¢à¸™à¸²à¸‡à¸£à¸¡]). 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 […]
By admin | February 15, 2008
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 […]
By admin | February 15, 2008
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 [à¸à¸±à¸à¸—à¸à¸‡ 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 […]
By admin | February 9, 2008
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 […]
By admin | February 8, 2008
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 […]
