Do Any Farang Eat Plaa Rah

[Aries74]

Do any farang eat plaa rah ? I do not know what to call in English. It's fish.

Kind of like rotten fish, smell very very bad, they keep it in a small pottery jar.

If you have a Thai spouse, you might know what I'm talking about.

[Who, me ?]

YES and I LOVE it !!!!!!

[chiang mai]

Only when wearing a nose plug and only after much alcohol, apart from that it's lovely.

[KhunDennis]

Not this Falang !!!! My wife and her friends love it though, maybe you have to be brought up on it. She gets a pot of soup going, and it is really smelling good, and then goes in a big scope of the stuff. Time to head for the hills.

[RueFang]

My Thai spouse goes into convulsions just mentioning eating it! I've never tried it and by the sounds of it will be quite happy that way!

[5tash]

plaa rah ปลาร้า is fermented mudfish preserved with salt. certainly an aquired taste. i like it on top of cheese on toast with worcestershire sauce. mmmmmm. saap laai

[toptuan]

English-speaking Isaan-ites translate "plaa-ra" as "fermented fish condiment."

And, yes, I only eat it when tricked into it.

I know several native Isaan-ites who won't touch the stuff either, only because of the number it does on their digestive systems. Multiply that by 100 for my normally strong constitution--gastric explosions of liquid and gas out the "wrong end," usually in the middle of the night. Can't even crawl to the toilet in time before being overcome by the evil dead-fish spirit-demon. The condiment should be served only with adult diapers. Dreadful.

Edited March 11, 2008 by toptuan

[Captain Chaos]

English-speaking Isaan-ites translate "para" as "fermented fish condiment."

And, yes, I only eat it when tricked into it.

I know several native Isaan-ites who won't touch the stuff either, only because of the number it does on their digestive systems. Multiply that by 100 for my normally strong constitution.

No we don't - we call it by its true name - 'sweaty socks sauce'

And no, I don't touch the stuff and complain vociferously when it's fragrance gently wafts around our apartment - this is a bone of contention with Mrs CC who is a confirmed 'balaa' fan

CC

[Prakanong]

I have a lovely stain in one of my kitchen cabinets from it.

Liver flukes as well anyone?

[crowbait]

I've never tried it but all the authorities I have read, rate it as a health hazard alongside Typhoid Mary, the Titanic and Chernobyl.

[Prakanong]

I've never tried it but all the authorities I have read, rate it as a health hazard alongside Typhoid Mary, the Titanic and Chernobyl.

Hmmm lovely

http://www.epidna.com/showabstract.php?pmid=1668894

[Nignoy]

I've never tried it but all the authorities I have read, rate it as a health hazard alongside Typhoid Mary, the Titanic and Chernobyl.

Hmmm lovely

http://www.epidna.com/showabstract.php?pmid=1668894

I must admit I quite like it, its an aquired taste as far as it being a health hazard, Iwould rate it on the same scale as Ebola and the Aussie meatpie (specially for Old Croc) Nignoy

[bigchang]

love the stuff,just took a couple kilos back from thailand

bc

[chiliwasabi]

I love the stuff - Som Tam, Bamboo salad etc. just isn't the same without it. Aroy, aroy!

[Aries74]

love the stuff,just took a couple kilos back from thailand

bc

Thanks for the photo. I saw the bucket label " Winlex " isn't that buckets for Industrial Paints. I guess it could be a real hazard. Unless Winlex sell plaa rah.

Thumbs up for any farang that tried it.

[sutnyod]

Yep. Do. But only when cooked. Had too many friends dying of liver diseases.

[typhoon]

Ug...no way, but fried grass hoppers are ok.

[StateSix]

I agree with chiliwasabi - somtam ain't the same without it!

[T_Dog]

Looks like it would make a nice ice cream topping! I think I will pass. The stuff that is in Sum Tum is bad enough. Bha-rhat I think.

[BigSnake]

Heck no MAN!!

[Jockstar]

Have tried it in somtam. But prefer not too eat it. fuc_king gantin!!!

[DurianChips]

There's a dehydrated, powdered version they sell here in the US. No preservatives or MSG, just dried bplah ra. It's great stuff, particularly to add to somtam. All of the taste, none of the mess or risk of liver flukes.

[drbill]

I enjoy it in som tom although my Thai wife does not.

[Tony Clifton]

I use pla rah to break the ice in a conversation with Thais but would never dare have that stuff go through my plumbing.

[mpdkorat]

Been living here over 10 years now. I have eaten it several times, mostly I was tricked into eating it. I will never like it....

[Gary A]

My wife has tried to trick me several time by putting it in soup. I can taste it the first bite. The last time, I got a little angry. She doesn't try that anymore. I like som tom but NOT with that rotten pahlah. The first time I ever saw that at the fresh market, I couldn't understand why they wanted to have a bucket of pig shit sitting along side the food.

[crowbait]

It's quite funny, but the Romans were absolutely mad for Pla Rah...........only they called it liquamen or sometimes garum (see below - it goes on a bit but is quite interesting 'coz it pretty much duplicates the processes used in Thailand)

Liquamen and Garum

Any casual perusal of ancient Roman recipes will quickly reveal the mysterious ingredients liquamen and garum. This staple of Roman cooking is essentially a salty sauce made of decomposed fish though there is still some discussion about what liquamen and garum acutally represent.

Though the use of 'fish sauce' is synonymous with Roman cookery, it was invented by the Greeks who called it γαροσ (garos); from which the Roman name garvm derives. The Greeks may originally have invented the sauce out of a need to do something constructive with the large quantities of tiny fish they caught in their nets (fish too small to be consumed directly). Over the centuries the Greeks developed a taste for this sauce, using it both as a substitute for salt and as a flavour additive in their food. It is possible that it was made from the Mediterranean fish that the Greeks called garos. Contact between the Greek and Roman worlds (and the subsequent conquest of the Greeks by the Romans) brought garos to the attention of the Roman culinary sphere.

Unfortunately there are no historical records or writings about garum/liquamen before the first century CE. At this time the writings of Pliny the Elder infor us that garum was a liquid not unlike aged mead (honey wine) in appearance and which was often mixed with wine to drink. He tells us that it was made by mixing fish, fish intestines and salt together in sealed jars until it liquefies. Writing in the same century Martial informs us that garum was made from the blood of a still-breathing mackerel. This would seem to be little more than poetic license but it does suggest that fresh, rather than rotten, fish was used. It seems that fish sauce could be made from a single fish species or a mix of different fish. Martial tells us that mackerel garum was by far the best type. He also names muria as a fish sauce made from tuna but tells us that this was considered only of secondary quality.

As well as garum and liquamen we have now encountered muria and there was a more solid paste available as well, called allec. Undoubtedly there are differences between them. However, all result from the basic process of preserving fish with salt. Of course, we are familiar with the salting of fish today, though this is generally a rapid process of semi-drying. However, if the salt and fish mixture is left for long enough the salt draws all the water from the fish. This liquid contains sufficient sugars and proteins that fermentation can occur, a process that aids in the dissolution of the remaining solid matter. Essentially this is an anaerobic process and the fermentation process itself prevents the development of bacteris so that little or no decay or putrefaction is observed. The process is even more efficient if the blood and guts of the fish are included as these contain protease enzymes that aid in the breakdown of the fish flesh. There is also sufficient salt in the final liquid that bacteria cannot grow and the final sauce is essentially sterile. The remaining solid matter sinks to the bottom of the vessel that contains the sauce and it is this that the Romans harvested as allec.

As a process, the pickling fish in salt is dependent on a number of variables in that the ratio of salt to fish will affect the resulting sauce. Some recipes also call for the addition of different herbs and spices to the initial fish and salt mixture. Food historians have spent considerable time attempting to match the various descriptions of different kinds of fish sauce to the various names that have come down to us, without much success. It may well be that there was a standard form of fish sauce that everyone used as an addition to food and then there were several more expensive variants of this which were only used for and by the richest tables. It may well be that the main factor affecting the 'quality' of the fish sauce was its pungency, which was affected both by the species of fish used and by the ammount of blood and intestines added to the initial mixture.

Indeed, as Martial's writings have indicated and as Manilius I also suggests in his poem, the Astronomica a fish sauce could be made entirely from the blood and intestines of fish. Manilius I describes fish being brought whole onto the beach. These are cut up and the 'precious fluid' is saved and mixed with salt. This would suggest that all but the flesh of the fish was used at this stage. Indeed, he later says that two types of sauce are generated. One from the blood and intestines and the other from the fish's flesh. The latter form generates a deposit which he describes as a 'soft accompaniment to food'. This could only be allec and suggests that the fish-flavoured liquid above the allec might itself be used as a kind of fish sauce.

[Gary A]

What's preserved about it? The fish rots until it liquefies, period. According to my wife, it takes a couple of years for the best flavor.