Category Archives: thailand

Even beautiful flowers are edible

Here’s another interesting one. These are literally deep-fried flowers (dawk mai tawt [ดอกไม้ทอด]). Apparently these are a Hmong specialty and these particular ones were found on the island of Koh Kret. Koh Kret is basically in the middle of the Chao Phraya River as it runs through Northern Bangkok. As you can see from the […]

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Undeveloped chicken eggs

The title of this post may be a bit deceiving.  Unhatched wouldn’t work because no egg is hatched. ‘Egg that hasn’t come out of the chicken yet’ doesn’t quite sound right.  Unborn wouldn’t work…or would it? Anyway, This is certainly one of the stranger dishes I’ve tried in my time over here. The taste is […]

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Toads – another filler meat

I had a post somewhere along the lines talking about eels.  Well toads are another ‘filler’ meat.  I say filler because I’m not aware of anyone actually eating the toads for the meat.  It’s more just a protein to put into a dish that will mask the taste of the toad meat.  An example, yet […]

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Those ugly Thai pumpkins

Here’s a shot a small vegetable stand in a market around here.  There’s a variety of vegetables including winter melons, mushrooms, cabbage, and, most notably, pumpkins.  Thai pumpkins, called fak tawng [ฟักทอง], are used in a lot of dishes ranging from main entrees to desserts.  They remind me a lot of acorn or butternut squash […]

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Scorpions and water cockroaches

Here’s two nice snacks for you. We got the bugs, then we got my sandwich. The sandwich was good, but I don’t think you care about that. Of course the more interesting aspect is those rather large insects. The scorpions (maeng bpawng [แมงป่อง]) are interesting, but I’ve written about those before . Those other bugs […]

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Eels

Eels (bplaa lai [ปลาไหล]) are a common food in rural Thailand.  Don’t get these eels confused with your unagi sushi, though.  These eels are tiny like garden snakes and not nearly as meaty as the Japanese version. They are cut like a steak (as opposed to a fillet), although each ‘steak’ would be one bite […]

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Delicious, edible, coagulated….blood!

Here’s a bin with some coagulated blood chunks [luad – เลือด].  Apparently cow blood is too dark and smells while chicken blood gets a bit tough, so they aren’t used much.  What we have here is pig blood.  And it tastes like…blood!  If you’ve ever got a cut in your mouth you’ll know what I […]

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The variety plate

Here’s a nice selection of insects. I’ll give some common thoughts and opinions that many foreigners have when they try these. On the plate we have (clockwise from 12:00, although they are a bit mixed up): ants mixed with lemongrass and chilis (miang mot daeng [เมี่ยงมดแดง]) – Tastes like chilis and lemongrass. bamboo worms (only […]

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Fried bird – Thai style

Look at these tasty fried birds. I’m not sure what kind of bird they are, perhaps pigeons or something like that. In Thai its simply called fried bird (nok tawt [นกทอด]). I’m not sure what the appeal is with these either. There’s barely any meat on them and its mostly just crunchy bones and miscellaneous […]

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A platter of bugs

Here’s a tasty bar snack that goes great with beer. While it may look intimidating at first, most of these items are actually quite tasty. In the bowl we have ants (miang mot daeng [เมี่ยงมดแดง]). I talk about miang mod daeng , although as is the norm, there is no coconut in this mixture. In […]

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