Fish (Plaa Ga-Poong) We Were Served Had Very Strong Chemcial Smell

[farang000999]

Well, it was actually my wife's meal. She ate a few pieces before she noticed the smell. I smelt it and it smelt just like ammonia. She forced herself to vomit. Wondering now if you think what we were smelling was some kind of chemical used to clean or preserve the fish?

[mstribling]

Yes

[farang000999]

Really hoping that she got it all up and will be okay.

[TheLaughingMan]

THIS is why Thailand scares me so much. There's just a hundred fold more chance of the cook/food seller doing something deadly to your meal out of pure incompetence. They even sell poisonous puffer fish coloured and sold as Salmon.... anything for a buck and safety be damned.

[roamer]

Actually I think you can relax on this one. Certain fish, skate being a prime example, and others usually belonging to the shark family will more often than not have an ammonical odour to them when fresh. This comes from the urea in the fish, not normally a problem if the fish is promptly on ice. Its often dealt with by leaving it in water with lemon for a while.

[nocturn]

THIS is why Thailand scares me so much. There's just a hundred fold more chance of the cook/food seller doing something deadly to your meal out of pure incompetence. They even sell poisonous puffer fish coloured and sold as Salmon.... anything for a buck and safety be damned.

i would appreciate more info on this. not because i believe you, but i would love to know why you would even write this.

ok i found some entries on google dated 2007. nothing since.

i have eaten fugu on business in japan, and no amount of dye would make it look like salmon

Edited March 28, 2011 by nocturn

[TheLaughingMan]

THIS is why Thailand scares me so much. There's just a hundred fold more chance of the cook/food seller doing something deadly to your meal out of pure incompetence. They even sell poisonous puffer fish coloured and sold as Salmon.... anything for a buck and safety be damned.

i would appreciate more info on this. not because i believe you, but i would love to know why you would even write this.

ok i found some entries on google dated 2007. nothing since.

i have eaten fugu on business in japan, and no amount of dye would make it look like salmon

You must be a liar, liars always think other people are lying. I never lie and am always surprised when others do.... you'd think after being on the planet 35 years I'd learn my lesson but whatever. Anyway, I got to page 10 of google all referring to the same story of when they sold puffer fish AS SALMON. I'm sorry was this supposed to be a weekly occurence for you to think it was true? Mind boggling. It happened. DEAL WITH IT.

[23423981]

Some people jump into a topic that they know nothing about, just for the sake of padding the number of their posts.

Fermented skate fish smells and tastes just like ammonia, and sometimes it can burn your mouth or lips just like ammonia.

In some Asian countries, specially in Korea, it is considerd as delicacy.

[jonnyscot]

hi, I don't think it would have been a preservative as preservatives would almost certainly not have a smell unless hugely overdosed in the stuff, although I do know of a fairly rough shellfish preservative that has a strong smell and can cause serious health problems in the form it is added to the shellfish washing process and quite easy to overdose the recommended dosage that should be added to the wash water, there are not many fish preservative chemicals on the market ( although a few of the same chemical with different names) and those that are are quite expensive to purchase, I was involved in trialling a preservative about 7 or 8 years back and helped get it marketed into the UK, there were issues to overcome such as the authorities wanting to label it as as a food additive and so on, but eventually it was fairly successfully implemented into the industry, I know the same product is trying to overcome similar legistlative issues to allow it to be marketed in thailand so I would assume they would have similar restrictions here to many other countries, I agree with 23423981 re the smell of skate is similar to an ammonia type smell also similarly smelling are dogfish (a member of the shark family) which a species of the dogfish are sometimes also called Rock Salmon.

[Ricardo]

The som-tam lady, source of expertise on all matters culinary & so much else, says that the ammonia is used to wash the radioactivity off the skin of the fish, so to stick to fish-fingers.

Fish have fingers ? !

Edited March 29, 2011 by Ricardo

[nocturn]

THIS is why Thailand scares me so much. There's just a hundred fold more chance of the cook/food seller doing something deadly to your meal out of pure incompetence. They even sell poisonous puffer fish coloured and sold as Salmon.... anything for a buck and safety be damned.

i would appreciate more info on this. not because i believe you, but i would love to know why you would even write this.

ok i found some entries on google dated 2007. nothing since.

i have eaten fugu on business in japan, and no amount of dye would make it look like salmon

You must be a liar, liars always think other people are lying. I never lie and am always surprised when others do.... you'd think after being on the planet 35 years I'd learn my lesson but whatever. Anyway, I got to page 10 of google all referring to the same story of when they sold puffer fish AS SALMON. I'm sorry was this supposed to be a weekly occurence for you to think it was true? Mind boggling. It happened. DEAL WITH IT.

to quote you, "They even sell poisonous puffer fish coloured and sold as Salmon"

your choice of tense infers that it is standard practice or an ongoing occurrence. perhaps if you wish to be understood, you could take the time to write clearly.

beyond one news story circa 2007 and man references to it, there are no other references to this practice. you yourself say it was ONE story. ONE.

I do not deny that this happened. i just deny that it is common practice or that it is likely to be happening now.

have you ever seen fugu? it would be pretty difficult to pass off as salmon.

As for calling me a liar, i will ignore that. you take this far too personally. I certainly don't hear you laughing, in fact, you seem quite shrill.

Edited March 29, 2011 by nocturn

[farang000999]

She turned out okay. I also did some googling and noticed that cartilaginous fish apparently smell like ammonia, but bpla kapong is "Snapper". Good Luck.

[bunta71]

Many kinds of fish smell exactly like ammonia and usually have gone bad IMHO by then. The shark, marlin,etc. mentioned earlier can also be soaked in milk overnight to remove the blood and improve the taste.

[inmysights]

My Thai husband told me he'd bought a fish that, after not 'going off' after 5 whole days, threw it out. Thailand vendors' best friend - formaldehyde. I can smell the stench of it in my local market after the fish I'd seen the day before or even before that, had still been unsold. Oh, and ALL their revolting booze is laced with it also.

Edited March 29, 2011 by inmysights

[Crushdepth]

Very strong ammonia smell = decomposing. It was off.

[jayjayjayjay]

My Thai husband told me he'd bought a fish that, after not 'going off' after 5 whole days, threw it out. Thailand vendors' best friend - formaldehyde. I can smell the stench of it in my local market after the fish I'd seen the day before or even before that, had still been unsold. Oh, and ALL their revolting booze is laced with it also.

formaldehyde was take OFF the prohibited food preparations list in the US in 1998! Believe it or not!

[geriatrickid]

Before anyone bashes Thailand for Ammonia, please note that your good friends at Burger King and McDonalds use Ammonia laced beef byproducts as filler in their patties. Many industrial burger makers use it too. Basically, the tailings and floor droppings in slaughterhouses are collected and processed. Ammonia is added to kill off pathogens, but it doesn't usually work. Anyway, the filler is added to processed beef products.

don't believe me? Google it. here's a reputable source http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=9462076

[sunholidaysun1]

I like the smell and the taste of it , its very strong at times but its a acquired taste . When I first came here I hated the smell and the taste , now I love it. Never ever had a problem eating it other than sitting on the bog for a long time occasionally .

[Michaelaway]

Very strong ammonia smell = decomposing. It was off.

WINNER: Best reply

[Oberkommando]

I do not deny that this happened. i just deny that it is common practice or that it is likely to be happening now.

Background: Many species of marine puffer fish contained tetrodotoxin (TTX). Ingestion of these fish leads to muscle paralysis and even death in severe cases. Recently there have been about 75 tons of puffer fish meat illegally streamed into fish market of Thailand everyday. They were sold as sliced fish in the names of other fish. Many consumers take puffer fish without recognition.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=9&sqi=2&ved=0CEsQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.asiatox.org%2F6th%2520APAMT%2520pdf%2FPuffer%2520Fish%2520Poisoning%2520from%2520Illicit%2520Fish%2520Trading%2520in%2520Bangkok%2C%2520Thailand.pdf&rct=j&q=puffer%20fish%20thailand&ei=V6WZTZSPEsHtrAfSyIz-Cw&usg=AFQjCNFVYLeD9ljjeK1BdxCxQj83_96hvw&cad=rja