Going Off Thai Food

[manarak]

...

Do you eat shrimp in Thai restaurants? Do you really think that they properly clean and devein all of them? They take the shell off, leave the tail and head and cook them without any further cleaning.

That's true and that is not good.

Eat 'em all. Let god sort it out

I'm OK with the heads and shells but the sheit, it's just lazy cooking not to remove it, and generally Thai cooks in Thailand do not. I'm sorry, that's objectively wrong to serve feces on a plate.

Anybody living near the sea in the whole world would laugh about that.

We had meals where everybody would get about 200 shrimps to eat, LOL

Removing feces of each shrimp? That comment can only come from a city-dweller or a tenderfoot!

[Jingthing]

I'm talking about in a restaurant. It's bad form to serve cooked animals with visible feces. Sure no food is totally clean but those strips of brown are removable and better cooks do remove them.

[rixalex]

If the eating establishment is questionable, best thing to do is avoid chicken, as that tends to include bone and gristle, and pass on the minced pork too, as that can be dubious.

Just a case of knowing how to navigate yourself around the dodgy stuff. Once you manage that, it is delicious, and certainly so much better than the European corrupted version of Thai food.

[manarak]

I'm talking about in a restaurant. It's bad form to serve cooked animals with visible feces. Sure no food is totally clean but those strips of brown are removable and better cooks do remove them.

Only on the very big shrimps, ah... langoustines

The others are just cooked with the shell on - wait, even the langoustines are mostly cooked with the shell on, except when they are grilled or panned for some sauce dish (because grilled shell tastes horrible)

Edited January 23, 2013 by manarak

[rixalex]

We had meals where everybody would get about 200 shrimps to eat, LOL

Fruit of the sea.

[Jingthing]

So you go to a middle level Thai restaurant and order a dish with shrimp and there are like 5 shrimp on the plate for 200 baht with some veg. All of the shrimp are sporting feces which you have to pick out yourself or just eat it. Sorry, that's a lazy restaurant.

[GarryP]

But if it is cooked properly, surely you are not going to suffer any ill effects from eating s$$t. Not that I would knowingly eat it.

[rixalex]

But if it is cooked properly, surely you are not going to suffer any ill effects from eating s$$t. Not that I would knowingly eat it.

Difficult to unknowingly eat it. Kinda hard to miss really.

[GarryP]

But if it is cooked properly, surely you are not going to suffer any ill effects from eating s$$t. Not that I would knowingly eat it.

Difficult to unknowingly eat it. Kinda hard to miss really.

Not really, a multitude of shellfish contain the stuff if not washed properly. Now if they are steamed it may not be hard to miss but if cooked in a curry etc. you wouldn't know.

[cooked]

Really small baby shrimps, raw, eaten with sea salt. ... And obviously none of you have eaten that good old Isaan favourite, cow shit soup. (Sold in the plastic bag with brown stuff in it, as opposed to the green stuff (bile)). Then we have placenta, which was the only time I actally refused to try something

[wayned]

Lived in "cajun" country in the US for many years. Go into the local seafood restaurant. The tablecloth was used newspaper and you ordered shrimp, crabs and crawfish by the pound. Cooked them in cajun spices and dumped them in a pile in the middle of the table. If you wanted to "clean" them it was up to you but never saw anyone doing it. Crawfish are deliciuos. "Eat the tail and suck the head" Eating them is an art! JT didn't you ever eat crawdads? Did you clean them?

[Jingthing]

Lived in "cajun" country in the US for many years. Go into the local seafood restaurant. The tablecloth was used newspaper and you ordered shrimp, crabs and crawfish by the pound. Cooked them in cajun spices and dumped them in a pile in the middle of the table. If you wanted to "clean" them it was up to you but never saw anyone doing it. Crawfish are deliciuos. "Eat the tail and suck the head" Eating them is an art! JT didn't you ever eat crawdads? Did you clean them?

Here's a dish I love. De-veined but not shelled. You eat the shell but not the sheit. Just how I like it!

http://chinesefood.a...ltpepshrimp.htm

Edited January 23, 2013 by Jingthing

[eeeya]

Lived in "cajun" country in the US for many years. Go into the local seafood restaurant. The tablecloth was used newspaper and you ordered shrimp, crabs and crawfish by the pound. Cooked them in cajun spices and dumped them in a pile in the middle of the table. If you wanted to "clean" them it was up to you but never saw anyone doing it. Crawfish are deliciuos. "Eat the tail and suck the head" Eating them is an art! JT didn't you ever eat crawdads? Did you clean them?

Wish i could try this. Seen it on tv. Looks awesome, like a seafood pig out

[wayned]

Lived in "cajun" country in the US for many years. Go into the local seafood restaurant. The tablecloth was used newspaper and you ordered shrimp, crabs and crawfish by the pound. Cooked them in cajun spices and dumped them in a pile in the middle of the table. If you wanted to "clean" them it was up to you but never saw anyone doing it. Crawfish are deliciuos. "Eat the tail and suck the head" Eating them is an art! JT didn't you ever eat crawdads? Did you clean them?

Wish i could try this. Seen it on tv. Looks awesome, like a seafood pig out

It actually is a pig out and if you are eating with a group of "experts" you can end up on the short end and still hungry. Only utensils on the tables are mallets, to crack the crabs, and oyster knives. Oysters are usually available by the dozen, unshucked, and if you don't know what you are doing with the oyster knife you could go home with a bloody stub instead of a hand. JT, how do you clean the sheit out of an oyster? The better places offer you plastic bibs but its best to go native and just wear old clothes. Eating chilli crabs in singapore is about the same, mash the crab and it's all over everybody!

[eeeya]

I recon everyones a little too paranoid.

How do you clean the sh!t line out of a dried mini prawn in som tum?

[NeverSure]

We have a wonderful Thai restaurant about 5 minutes from me. It has been owned and operated by Thai natives for about 20 years. They have learned that the fat and bone aren't so welcome, and use quality meat. The downside is that the meals average just under $US10.

Speaking of Khao Man Gai, I make it into a burger. I buy the sauce from the Thai restaurant in a pint jar. I mix it generously into lean ground beef and mix cilantro into the mayo. Thais would think I'm crazy, which I probably am, but now it's quick very tasty. I make up a batch, freeze the extra patties after cooking, and I'm 2 minutes in the microwave from a good tasting meal.

With rice on the side with a little of the sauce, I'm missing only the chicken, hahaha.

Yum.

Not quite sure how you make khao man gai out of ground beef since GAI is chicken. Must wave the magic wand!

If you look again please, you'll see that I said "I'm missing only the chicken, hahaha." My magic wand just had a tune up.

[poanoi]

Yeah, i hate it when i have to start working with the food before i can eat,

a stew with shrimps with the shells still on is a good example.

Suffice to say i dont eat food if i have to work first

[jamhar]

Lived in "cajun" country in the US for many years. Go into the local seafood restaurant. The tablecloth was used newspaper and you ordered shrimp, crabs and crawfish by the pound. Cooked them in cajun spices and dumped them in a pile in the middle of the table. If you wanted to "clean" them it was up to you but never saw anyone doing it. Crawfish are deliciuos. "Eat the tail and suck the head" Eating them is an art! JT didn't you ever eat crawdads? Did you clean them?

the fact you used the term "crawdads" warms my heart.

from tx to maryland, no one i know de-veins a shrimp boil (if you know what that is). I find that about 1/2 of the chinese dishes in the US with shirmp are de-veined. either way its going in my mouth If you ever eaten a deep fried shrimp head, you've eaten just as bad or worse.

Shoot, i'm hungry again!

But I cant do the "chicken feet" thang. its just not my style I guess.

[bobo42]

Totally agree, most street food is total crap. However I can sympathize with the shopkeepers somewhat - as we all know the price of meat (and pretty much everything) is always going up, yet their customers still demand a meal for the usual 20-25b. So I can see why everything is so watered-down and stretched to the limit these days.

For myself, I think my wife must regret the day she learned to cook. I'm totally spoiled on quality food now, and I can barely tolerate it when we have to eat-out. I wish there was more demand for high quality food here, but you have to really look and hunt for the good (also higher priced) places. You can still find them, they're just hard to come by.

[ricklev]

There is a world of vegetarian Thai food out there! Not a bit of offal in it!