The Thai Pirate - Thai Blog and Travel Stories

Thai delicacy - Frog Meat

I was recently tricked into eating some Thai frog meat. Sitting around with some Thai friends, all tucking into the various nosh around the table, when one strange dish caught my eye... It looked similar to the fried pork and garlic with black pepper which I love.

'What's that one' I enquiry at a pal across the table

'Chicken', he says flatly.

Hmm. Looks funny. I'm a couple of beers down by now, so hey ho, inhibitions are out the window. I grab a big spoonful with a bit of rice and sauce and into the hatch. As I'm chewing my pal kindly pipes up - '...tastes LIKE chicken'.

Great.

Anyway, frog meat is not my cuppa. Only the Frenchies eat frogs in my world... But I'm secretly glad I was tricked into trying Thai frog meat; I would never have gone near the stuff otherwise.. Its always one of those dishes I quickly flick past in the menu on my way to safer, more familiar fare; a mental block on my part that stops me from actually trying to enjoy it.

I mean, cow, pig.... frog? Whats the difference, really?

Especially when it's been deep fried and served with tonnes of garlic...

Garden food for Por

Got an unusual phone call during the evening from Por requesting food from the garden.

Turns out that Pors humble upbringing meant that as a kid he would often eat food from the garden. He still likes eating this kind of thin 'tree root' that grows beside some of the trees here. Basically, if you can find a fresh root, they are perfectly good for eating.

The green and yellow inside proves that the root is good. If the root crumbles easily then its rotten through, no good.

All you need to do is simply wash and slice (you can boil). I gave them a good wash, cos I've seen the dogs round that tree fairly often.... :D

Yes, my father in law is a strange guy. He loves his 'tree root chews'. I can't argue, he is in good health, plus his mother is approaching 90, and is fit as a flea.

Food at the Thai Mall

First time you come across a Thai food court in one of the big Bangkok malls is always memorable. Usually within these food courts there are thousands of people sitting, chatting, queueing (Thai version) and scoffing. The food courts are usually organised within a bowl type concept; dozens of different types of food stalls situated on the outskirts, with hundreds of hungry Thais located in the centre, sitting and eating.

My first experience I was given a wad of food tokens (you have to exchange before you eat) and left to wander the outskirts alone and hungry, without a clue.

Various pictures and smells give the inexperienced some clue, but you may find that lots of the food looks slightly alien. That's what happened to me, and that's when I clumsily stumbled across the Korean food stalls.

The dish above is a simple pork, noodle and cabbage dish called yakisoba, although often sold at Korean food stalls it is originally from China and now regularly eaten by the Japanese. The best thing about the yakisoba is the yakisoba sauce the vendors pour over the mixture during cooking, it's delicious (kinda like a Japanese Worcestershire sauce). 

The Korean food stall is always a safe bet for me, being that lots of the dishes are straightforward and based around rice, noodles, veg and pork (we won't mention dog meat here).

The rice dishes are similar in that they are very simple, and really tasty.

If you find yourself in a Thai food court and you don't know what to go for, check out the Korean food stalls. Since my first experience I have become a firm addict.

TEE Coffee Shop Thai Food Speciality - Goy Diel Nam

I have not spent too much time lately down the TEE coffee shop due to other commitments, but it really is a lovely place. The Thai Summer climate really helps everything to grow like wildfire, and the good weather also proves good for weekend trade.

We have had a film crew down recently, filming a little snippet for a popular Thai cookery programme on Channel 5 (full post soon). So it was all hands on deck giving the place a good once over.

During the clean up, I took the chance to have a good tuck into my favourite Thai dish of late, known locally as 'goy diel nam', basically a spicy pork (white) noodle soup with bean sprouts and a little coriander.

You'll need more than one bowl.

East meets West at the Dinner Table

Here we have a typical dinner at the Pornchai house: 2 x bowls of rice, bowl fish curry, bowl red pork curry, bowl green chicken curry, pork bolognaise, bowl of pasta spaghetti, 2 x sticky sweet rice (for afters) and a bottle of ketchup.

Despite my efforts, the Thai's will only really eat the spag bog from my vast list of Western culinary achievements. I think they like the fact they can easily hotten it up (or disguise it) with some liberally sprinkled chilli powder. Pasta is like the Western version of the noodle, I guess, so they go down well also.

There it is, East and West fusion cooking in practice; but to tell you the truth, green and red curry over spag bog doesn't really 'fuse' too well. Chuck a couple of Leo's on top and your digestive tract is having a real party.