Strangest food you've eaten in Thailand?

[Arcadian]

Apart from being drunk or literally starving (not just hungry), why would anyone with Western tastes even try such disgusting items, unless of course you are trying to prove how integrated you are.

[STEVE G]

Apart from being drunk or literally starving (not just hungry), why would anyone with Western tastes even try such disgusting items, unless of course you are trying to prove how integrated you are.

When I'm up in my partners village they eat this sort of stuff all the time so it only seems polite to give it a try.
Actually some insects are quite tasty once you get over the idea of what you're eating and they're an excellent source of protein.

[Jaime]

Arcadian - What do you mean by Western tastes? Many of those items would be eaten in the west - particularly offal and even the intestinal content.

How do you know they are disgusting unless you try them?

[richard]

I love offal but where in the UK can you get it? Here when I go to the market I head straight for the offal stalls for tripe, liver and heart

Many of the things i have eaten remind me of my youth 60 years ago. Fresh, full of protein, no additives and the best is the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Food has to be fresh here as the temperature will quickly turn it off and most Thai village folk have never seen a fridge or a freezer

[caller]

I love offal but where in the UK can you get it?

Anywhere and everywhere, from M&S to any butchers.

I really can't compete with some of the knowledge you guys have!

Bugs taste like bugs to me and so on, but if the food at hand is immersed in a nice broth, so when at the wifes village I tend not to ask what I'm getting?

Arcadian, as others have said, at my wifes home, I'm amazed at what passes as the norm. My wife doesn't think much of the fact that here in the UK we eat lamb and feels sick at the smell of it!

[BaaBaa.]

Only had the Rat from that list, tastes like Chicken.

My GF would turn her nose up at a T-Bone, different strokes and all that.

[Jaime]

All the above plus:

Ant eggs
Turtle
Most of the cow/buffalo raw with spices and sticky rice
Barbequed fish where the fish is still twitching
Raw rat meat (sugar cane fed)

All washed down with laos kow mixed with fresh snake or buffalo blood and honey

no wonder my guts ache when I am in Isaan but the food does keep me regular

I'd forgotten about Lao Kao - definitely an extreme food item - to me, it is like paint stripper and tastes like something that you should not ingest but each to his own!

What is turtle like?

[richard]

They boil it and it is tasty and a bit like pork but as always accompanied by sticky rice and spices.

Woman are not allowed to be present at the cooking or the eating as it is supposed to make them infertile

A Thai peasant gentlemans delicacy (propoganda at its best in a Thai village. Same with beef. Thai women vary rarely eat beef. Mans privelege)

Lao Kao comes in various forms. Either bottled or the real stuff which is even more lethel. It is a large bowl of fermented rice.

If the motorbikes dont get you this will. My father-in-law died of it as many do when they can no longer work the fields and resort to gambling and booze.

[richard]

Snake blood is another experience.

First encountered it in BK many moons ago and it is illegal

In the village the snake is strung up and whilst still alive cut down the middle and skinned. The snake is still alive and they then disembowel it and drain the blood and mix it with the genital parts of the snake. Then add honey and lao kao. Supposed to be an afrodisiac but after 2 glasses you fall asleep. Sorry coma

The snake, still sort of alive is then deep fried and served with, yes you guessed it, sticky rice and spices

I could write a book. Oh sorry I forgot, I am

[Big Boy]

I love offal but where in the UK can you get it?

I guess you're talking about the stranger things such as Pig's Uterus. Mrs BB get any of the more outrageous offal at the local Oriental shops.

[STEVE G]

I love offal but where in the UK can you get it?

I guess you're talking about the stranger things such as Pig's Uterus.

I don't mind bugs, snakes, lizards and the suchlike, but I must admit I wouldn't get too excited by the idea of eating a pig's uterus.
Mind you I'm not much of a meat-eater and I don't even eat hamburgers!

[komfortablynumb]

All of my wifes cooking.
Don't worry she is not listening.

[redzonerocker]

i gotta be honest, some of the foods mentioned here have made me wince, choke & at times laugh
i'm not a great meat eater, so most of the things mentioned wouldn't be sampled by me for whatever reason & that includes the more western delights such as steak & lamb

i do though think it's good that you are all willing to try & sample the unusual (to western folk ) delights

does everything unusual (rat, frog, snake etc etc ) really taste like chicken???

[sandman67]

we were in a dark club up in Chang Mai when a mate ordered Red Jungle Curry.

Up comes a steaming pot of red curry with odd stuff floating in it. My mate starts poking the floaty bits and tucks in. I sit back and wait....

So what is it then? Monkey? Snake?

I dunno...sodding hot tho.....lets ask...tastes like chicken

Up trots the waiter

Whats this then?

Jungle Curry...

yes but what is it? Snake? Monkey?

Ah no sir..... its curried frog. Aroi Mak yes?

I smile and decline a bowl...my mate chomped down the whole lot god bless him. So I guess Frog Vindaloo would be my entry

[Khundon1975]

Can you get fresh sheep's hearts there? If I could, I would eat them till the cows come home. Then I'd eat the cows as well.

I have done the dancing prawns thing, a joke played on me by FIL, when the Jonnie Walkers had flowed enough to drown us both.

But, when in Rome, as they say.

The deep fried bugs thing, was a once only experience and that was one time too many. Yuk.


I got some funny looks when I sprinkled rock salt on a treacle tart my wife cooked there, her family, like most Thais, like sweet things and thought I was Ba Ma, until they tried it.