Strange Eats

Many parts of Asia are known for very unusual cuisine. We have tried some of it, but most things even I won't try. Frank on the other hand showed a new side of himself when he swallowed the EYEBALL of the famous Yangshuo beer fish. I just ate the fish. I did try the fried crabs fresh from the river, deep fried. Those were good. Frank has tried mud snails too, who is this guy? We had plenty of fresh squid on the beach. We skipped on the crickets, roaches and other insects. Maybe one day... Dried rats and bats anyone? Thai meals are very simple and usually have an egg on top. I love the ice coffee which is just carnation sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and sanka. Simple and delicious over ice. Carnation is huge here. Lynche is a prickly fruit with a white egg looking meat inside. Very sweet. They do desserts much better in Thailand than China. The crepes with fruit and ice cream are awesome. You can even have them with ham and corn wrapped inside, you know, if you want. Visit your local Asian store and experiment with new flavors. There is so much more to food than burgers and fries.

Mandy

“Food is an important part of a balanced diet.”
Fran Lebowitz quotes

Mango With Sticky Rice

I found an easy recipe for :

Mango with Sticky Rice
It’s mango season here in Thailand, and the best way to enjoy them is to pair the sweet fruit with sweet and salty coconut-milk sticky rice. Khao Nieow Ma-muang is a very popular dessert with both Thais and foreign visitors. Enjoy!
Directions
Soak the sticky rice for at least an hour before steaming.
Steam for 20 minutes on medium-high in a sticky rice steamer. If you don’t have a sticky rice steamer, you can try steaming in a bowl in a covered saucepan with an inch of water at the bottom of the pan. You could also try using a regular steamer, but cover the holes with cheese cloth or muslin cloth so that the rice doesn’t fall through.
While steaming, prepare the sauce for the rice. Add the 1/2 cup of coconut milk to a saucepan along with the 1 1/3 tablespoons sugar & 1/4 teaspoon salt, and stir over low heat until dissolved. Set aside.
Prepare the topping sauce as well. In another small saucepan, add the 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon salt, and stir over low heat until dissolved. Mix the tapioca starch with a little bit of water in a small bowl until a paste, then add as well. Mixing the starch beforehand will prevent any lumps from forming in the sauce. Stir until thickened, and remove from heat.
When the rice is finished, spread out in a shallow bowl and cover with 1/2 the thin sauce (the sauce you made first). Stir well and keep adding more until you reach saturation point. Depending on the rice used, it should be around 75% of the sauce. You may need to use it all. You don’t want very wet rice, it should be somewhat dry and sticky. Don’t add until it’s submerged, but keep in mind that the rice will absorb some of the liquid. I usually add until just before I see puddles of coconut milk. Stir well and cover with a towel. Let the rice absorb the coconut milk for 10-15 minutes.
Slice mango as shown and arrange on a plate. Spoon an equal amount of sticky rice next to it, and top with a few spoons of the thicker sauce. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds or fried salty mung beans.
Note:
The best mango to eat with this dish is called 'Naam Dok Maai' (flower nectar mango), which is available in South East Asia. In many Asian groceries in the West you can find a yellow-skinned mango which is skinny and pointy. This works a lot better than the round, red/orange mangoes from Mexico & the Caribbean, which are not anywhere near as yummy as the Asian mangoes.
Make sure you use sticky rice and not regular Thai rice in this dish. Sticky rice is sometimes called glutinous rice. The grains are whiter and fatter than regular rice.
Do not refrigerate the sweet sticky rice as it turns into a rock-hard mess which tastes awful. If you have to make it ahead of time, just leave it out on the counter. It'll last for a few hours no problem.
Chao Koh brand coconut milk is the best to use in this dish. If you can find it in a paper carton, it's better than a can. If you cannot find Chao Koh, do not, by any means use a brand of coconut milk that does not originate from Thailand. The local supermarket variety will ruin this dish!
I really like a slightly cold mango with slightly warm rice. It compliments the sweet & salty of the dish. Mmmm!

mandy

All Wet!

We took a snorkeling tour today. 4 islands, snorkeling, fishing, beach strolling and monkey feeding. Even the thunderstorm that passed over us didn’t dampen our spirits. I’ve seen better reefs in Turks and Caicos, these have been over worked by tourists and are not very colorful. At the second site however, people were feeding bread to the fish and they swam all over us which was awesome! I saw sea slugs for the first time. Some of them can be several feet long!
What are the odds that on a boat off an island in Thailand, that we would meet someone from our city in China? Exactly! Mr. Wang was so excited to hear us speak Chinese. His initial reaction? “Chang ge!”(Sing!). Yeah, we thought it was strange too. We declined but spent most of the trip with him and his family. For a retired, 60 year old man, he is very spry. We buried his son-in-law in the sand and jumped off the top deck of the boat together. He made sure we had his info and promised to see us again soon. I hope so!
I caught the biggest fish of the day. Now, considering only about 6 were keepers, and mine was about 10 inches long, it’s not very impressive. I think the most impressive part was the look on their faces when I pulled it in, removed the hook and re-baited with a squid head. The foreigner can fish! I taught Mr. Wang how to bait his hook and some British guy who was completely lost, how to cast his line. He never quite got it, and when I sent my sailing through the air, he put his rod down. “I give up!” It is very funny that something I have done all my life and is perfectly natural, can be so alien to other people. You should have seen the Dutch lady who turned green when I had to rip the gills out of a fish who swallowed my hook. Weird. I guess that helps explain our reaction to the Thailand New Year Festival. Being soaked in our street clothes and covered in white chalk is entirely alien to us. We were told that the best way to handle it is to slow down, let them hit you and move on. We did while on our scooters, and that allowed a man to put his chalky hands on my chest, not cool! I didn’t mind just the water so much, except when we were on the back of a truck with tarps down, holding our bags with cameras, mps players and phones, and they lifted the tarp, shot underneath, hung on to the back of the truck to dump buckets on us anyway. Note: Avoid Thailand during April 11-15! We were able to escape some by hiding out on the beach. How wonderful, that because of the protests, the Thai government has extended a three day festival until the end of the week! Stores were closed and no one made any money. Can’t have that! Will we make it unsoaked to the airport? Stay tuned…..

Mandy
“I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.”
John Masefield quotes (British poet, 1878-1967)

On A Steel Horse I Rode

Most of you are aware of the sheltered life I've led, (no offense, Mom and Dad), but did you realize I have never driven a motorcycle or a scooter? The closest I've been was a golf cart. Today, that all changed! I spent all day on a scooter and am alive to tell the story. Yes mom, I wore a helmet the whole time. I didn't hit any trees, almost though, when I confused the gas and brake hand. I didn't run into anyone, almost though, when I tried to pass a parked car and sped up instead of slowing down. I didn't fall off either, almost though, when I... well, you know. This evening I rode double behind Frank. No need to push the envelope on almosts, right? Mom, it really wasn't that bad,... almost though.

Here are some things we saw on our bike outing:

Red Shirt, Yellow Shirt

Fri.- up at 5am to catch the bus to Koh Chang, an island off the coast of Thailand. The red shirts and yellow shirts, two rival political factions had been fueding the night before. They each want their own Prime Minister in office and argue about it in the streets. They were involved in the airport being shut down a few months ago. They prefer taking their disagreements to the streets where they halt traffic with cinder blocks and rails and their own bodies. They use what they call a constitutional freedom to limit everyone else's. The red shirts stayed up all night chanting and when our bus left the station, it was soon forced to turn around and find a more indirect route down one lane streets. Other than that and the child behind us losing her breakfast in the walkway, we had a peaceful journey to a town called Trat. There we bought seats on the back of a truck to the dock where we caught the ferry to the island. Then, we bought seats on another truck which carried us to the other side of the island where we found a room. This weekend, Thailand celebrates their New Year's water festival, Songkran. Basically, everyone gets a water gun or a bucket and they soak each other. Refreshing, unless they also add mud or chalk to the water and hit foreigners as they come past. Just ask Frank! We spent a peaceful evening on the beach under the shade of a large evergreen and called it a night.

mandy