I'Ll Eat Any Thai Food....Except This.

[arithad]

I am Thai. But I also don't like to eat it!

A fermented fish (Plarah) sometimes heard that may be many worms it that!

Many esann and North people like that. They say there is a lot of protein.

Blood mixed with pork or beef (Soklek) also the dish of esann people.

Currently, esann people move to work in many regions of Thailand,

so you can find many people eat Plarah and Soklek around Thailand.

May be there are some culture and faith behind this

Each region in Thailand has different culture which you can see through food and living.

Edited May 7, 2011 by arithad

[blue eyes]

If you have ever eaten somtom you have probably eaten this. It is pha lah please excuse my spelling of it I amnot sure how it is spelt but it is just your basic fermented fish so common here.

You would do well not to eat anything with palaar in it. It can contain parasites that can really bu%%er you up. Very sick with fevers, stomach cramps and diarrhoea and then long term carcinogenic damage your liver if left untreated. Millions in Thailand are long term infected but don't know it. Not nice - been there done that. Same same laarp plaa, if made with uncooked fish.

Here is a photo of the families home made batch.Yumy yes ?

[dellayao]

Oh, is it true? Baby duck?! How horrible!

[IMA_FARANG]

The Vietnamese (actually it is more Chinese than Vietnamese) egg with an unborn chick inside I tried once in what was then called Saigon many years ago (1967 if I remember rightly).

My Vietnamese girlfriend then cooked it for me as a "special treat". Just the smell on opening the shell made me gag, But I was young and stupid then, and she was so clearly unhappy that I didn't want to eat it; that I manfully "soldiered on" and took a bite. I can't remember much about the taste, but the TEXTURE was like putting a piece of wet fur into my mouth. I simply couldn't handle the FEEL of that in my mouth.

I've also been offered what the Chinese call "one thousand year old eggs", again with a half-grown fetus inside. Sorry, but I just can't do that.

I can eat most Thai food, but I won't eat any fermented fish or live-and-still-wiggling stuff. I will and do eat and like Sushi and FRESH raw fish...but that's a different matter than the fermented fish.

Edited May 12, 2011 by IMA_FARANG

[IanForbes]

Anything in Asia that slithers, slides, hops, jumps, runs, swims, flies, or even lies there inert gets eaten. If was once alive it is processed into a meal of some sort. Even mocroscopic shell fish and itsy-bitsy fish, shrimp or insects get eaten. Tiny shell fish and microscopic crabs get mashed up and used as a condement for cooking. Nothing surprises me when it comes to Asian cuisine. That is why I stay with one or two specific Thai meals that I find tastey and nutritious.

[FOODLOVER]

This dish can kill you as it has a liver parasite. Deaths usually occur in the rural areas where people ingest this on a regular basis. There has been quite a concern over this for some time and education has failed to curb the appetite for this lovely dish. Bon Appetite!

[richard_smith237]

I've heard it as Pla-Rah... fermented fish paste... I tried it once - It's Grim.

In a nation of wonderous food Pla-Rah balances things out.

I don't know of a Westerner who likes Pla-Rah (Although I'm sure I'm about to be proved wrong by a number of 'gone natives' on this forum).

In a similar manner I don't know of a Thai who can tollerate blue cheese !

[FOODLOVER]

I've read about a Thai country dish that contains feces. Has anyone else heard of it?

Also, I'm surprised so many people find eating blood disgusting. It's quite common in the UK in the form of black pudding. I find it quite tasty.

Yes, it tastes like shit.

[Johpa]

I don't know of a Westerner who likes Pla-Rah (Although I'm sure I'm about to be proved wrong by a number of 'gone natives' on this forum).

I have been enjoying pla raa for decades now. Yes, it is an acquired taste, but so are many local dishes ranging from fermented tofu (tao hu yii) which is of course an adopted Chinese foodstuff to the signature raw meat dish up north of laap dip. There is also laap loo which is basically a raw blood soup as well as laap plaa (raw fish) which is more commonly found in Isaan. Any type of raw meat dish comes with some health risks, especially the raw fish dish which I will not eat due to health concerns. I doubt there are health risks eating any of the fermented dishes like plaa raa as the fermentation process should kill off most bad guys in residence. But I have had a few minor tummy issues after eating laap dip. But being that it is the signature dish of the Khon Muang up north, one learns just to grin and bear these occasional episodes that require copious amounts of tea drinking the next day. The only food item that I have encountered that I did not care for and never ate again was a cooked bamboo rat (a rodent but not a rat) whose meat was just foul tasting.

Edited May 22, 2011 by Johpa

[Debothai]

I'll eat anything apart from Kai Haang Haang. That baby bird embryo in the egg. Not a frigging chance.

This is actually quite TASTY!!! I have tried it many times and it also a delicacy in the Philippines too, there it is called BALOHT.

[Debothai]

The first picture is pla-raa....It is nice when eaten along with som-tam...but I am not a great fan of it....Scandinavian have similar but more pungent fish fermentation products...These fermented fish products were devised over the ages to be able to utilise the food without a refrigerator. (because it wasn't invented then)

Few thais don't eat pla-raa, but those who don't are disgusted by it. It is however popular with most of the population....My wife loves this sh*t..

The best was when we were made to open the container for inspection at dubai airport, I warned the official, but he wanted to open it...The result was we were quicky ushered out of the terminal...

Edited May 22, 2011 by Debothai

[Debothai]

I've read about a Thai country dish that contains feces. Has anyone else heard of it?

Also, I'm surprised so many people find eating blood disgusting. It's quite common in the UK in the form of black pudding. I find it quite tasty.

this is a isan delicacy using intestines with faeces in it...Tried it once, but it didn't taste horrible, but wasn't nice either.

Edited May 22, 2011 by Debothai

[Debothai]

Have you tried DOG-PISS-EGGS? KHAI-YIO-MAH?

These are very tasty and go well with beer. They are pink dyed eggs with the whites a translucent brown and the yolks a sticky grey, they can even be found in 7-11 and Big C etc...nice!! i don't know how they are made but I think the name is not the description of the way they are made.

[wandrinstar]

Thanks for spoiling my Breakfast.

[Debothai]

Thanks for spoiling my Breakfast.

Apparently ---- they are called century eggs!!

Delicious---thais call them horse piss eggs ไข่เยี่ยวม้า [/url]. Sorry, not dog's piss...

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Century_egg

Edited May 25, 2011 by Debothai

[YaiJung]

P.S. Can anybody tell me what are my neighbours cooking everyday that smells like 5 days dead dog? I don't know how it looks, - avoid their place like plague. My wife thinks it is this salty cutlets of barracuda looking fish preserved in some kind of oil???... GOD! It's really bad!

this sounds like pla-chem or salty fish. absolutely foul and the only dish I insist is cooked outside(my gf doesn't eat pla-lah...thank god). it can stink up the house for days.

my neighbors cook this and it turns my stomach to smell it. once I ordered some french fries from a burger place in phuket and the girls had just cooked pla-chem in the deep fat fryer. had to toss the entire meal.

[Millard]

I've read about a Thai country dish that contains feces. Has anyone else heard of it?

Also, I'm surprised so many people find eating blood disgusting. It's quite common in the UK in the form of black pudding. I find it quite tasty.

this is a isan delicacy using intestines with faeces in it...Tried it once, but it didn't taste horrible, but wasn't nice either.

From a culinary standpoint, you may be the bravest person I've come across. I eat beef tongue, stomach, intestine, brain, sheep eyes, pig ear, pig feet, balut (egg with partially developed chick) and lobster guts. Though any food with feces in it, I feel ill just thinking about it.

[SantiSuk]

Not particularly disgusting but offputting.

I tucked into some Tom Yam at the MILs place tonight and thought yuk there's a fly in the soup. Then realised there were many flies in the soup. Quietly whispered to TW who semi-whispered back 'mot daeng' - there were meant to be red ants in it.

Cue the usual round of laughing at the squeamish falang around the family floor mat!

I have to admit that they did achieve the culinary purpose of adding a lemony zest to the soup but what the hell's wrong with just using those lovely lemony leaves.