oo (อุ)

That's a bottle pot of "oo", an alcoholic treat from the Northeast of Thailand. I paid 160 baht for it...about $4.



"Susan Boyle Mother Tong Yaem" brand. Don't drink and drive. It's illegal to drink if you're under 18. Expiration date. Etc.



You've got to bust through the plaster seal before you can drink. It's a pain in the ass. It was the second time I tried the stuff, so I knew what to do...bring it down to a local eatery and let management deal with it.




Rice husks. I'll have to do some more research on the topic of "oo", as the stuff is still a mystery to me. Alcohol is a liquid, but it seems like the contents are not the least bit moist. You add water, wait 5 minutes, punch the wooden straws through the mass (difficult!), and suck.

Tasty stuff. Sweet and sour. You might compare it to sweet sake or, if you're already familiar with Thai alcohols, "sato". I'd say that it's more complex than either, however. I detected hints of cinammon and/or coconut, though I doubt any was added. Apparently, you can get "oo" in pineapple and watermelon flavors too.

It's not easy to find oo in Bangkok. This pot was acquired in roundabout fashion: a couple weeks ago a taxi driver and I found ourselves chatting on the subject of oo. He actually went out, bought a pot, and stowed it in his trunk, waiting for our next encounter. I threw in a 40 baht tip for the effort. He told me he found the stuff at an "OTOP" (one tambon/village, one product) shop in Bangkok.

Befriended taxi drivers, by the way, are awesome resources. I can't count how many times I've hopped in a taxi, told the driver to "take me to a good Thai restaurant", and had a great meal.

Yum Kai Mangda

An American friend once described a horseshoe crab as culinarily useless. Not true, as you can see. Those orange globules are the eggs of one of the critters, served up with onions, chilis, mangos, and the other sorts of ingredients you typically find in Thai "yum".

The experience is something akin to eating little nuggets of candle wax. That's not a complaint, actually, as the resulting texture is unique. As with any number of other Thai dishes, there's an element of "sanook" (fun) involved in the gustatory process. It begins when the appalling form of the "mangda" is presented on the table, continues as you endure the spices, and nears completion with those little spheres rolling about in your palate.

Now, don't start combing the nearest beach for these buggers. For one thing, there are some conservation issues. More immediate, however, is the fact that the eggs of certain species are loaded with tetrodotoxin, the same poison found in fugu, the famous Japanese pufferfish. A Mahidol University paper counts 280 cases of poisoning, including 5 deaths, between 1994 and 2006. In Thailand, the culprit is the species C. Rotundicauda, as opposed to the edible Tachypleus Gigas. The appearance of the two is quite similar.

It's a tad difficult to hunt down this dish. A couple of the aforementioned deaths were fairly recent and well-publicized, so restaurants and customers are a bit wary. You could start by avoiding the sorts of joints that have large numbers of tourists. Also, smallish eateries probably won't have the kind of customer volume that justifies purchasing fresh horseshoe crabs on a daily basis.





Did you know the mouth of a horseshoe crab lies between its legs? Another interesting factoid: the beasty is more closely related to spiders than crabs, shrimps, or lobsters.

Thai Kanom

Here's a four minute video wherein Thai teenagers are asked, "what is your favorite Thai kanom?" In case you're not aware, "kanom" would be the Thai word for "dessert". Following the response, you see the kanom in question.

Frequenters of Thai restaurants in the West are probably unaware of the huge variety of native Thai desserts. At best, you'll get coconut ice cream, fried bananas, or lychees in syrup. But in Thailand, you'll find large shops devoted entirely to these treats. A favorite location would be between Bangkok and some nearby vacation spot...don't you dare return home to your sweetheart or family empty-handed.

In all honesty, the visual usually eclipses the gustatory. Most kanom are based on coconut and sugar, and this becomes repetitive. Even the ice cream is based on coconut milk. My fave would be "mor gaeng", but that's because it reminds me of a poor man's creme caramel.

Sok Lek

sok lek


Here's a Thai dish called "Sok Lek". Actually, it would more properly be called an Isan (northeastern Thai) specialty, as urbane Bangkokians usually disavow this sort of cuisine. Basically, it's pig guts, spices, and blood, eaten raw. You can boil up the guts if you're wimpy.

Seriously, Westerners are certainly playing culinary Russian roulette when they ingest this sort of stuff. If you do, don't skimp on the spices and cheap Thai whiskey...they're your last defense against parasites.

While Sok Lek is a bit of a turn-off for city dwellers, the eating of blood isn't. Kill a pig, drain the blood into a pan, and quickly add a tad of fish sauce or vinegar to make the liquid congeal. You can dice the end product up like tofu and sell it at the market. In fact, if you ignore the red/brown color, congealed blood has a texture and bland flavor that is similar to tofu's. You'd serve it up in some spicy curry or soup to add variety to the mix.