Thread: Thai frog dishes

Thai Food Frogs

Thai Food Frogs Photo credit: RCThai.net

Thai Food Frogs. While the frog is not an uncommon dish even by western standards especially in French cooking, it is considered a delicacy in Thailand. The frog or known as “Kob” กบ in Thai has many functions and one of it as a source of fat-less protein. These frogs are found in rice fields or in the jungles under damp conditions and are of the bullfrog variety so they are fairly huge about the size of a grown adult’s palm with fingers extended. The bigger they are, the more meat and the tastier. These frogs are now cultivated as the demand for them has grown and most villagers make a lucrative living from breeding these frogs for consumption.
Thai Food Frogs Frogs for cooking

Originating from the Northern provinces of Thailand such as Chiang Mai, frog dishes are a staple of the Northern cuisine. Prepared in a variety of ways from curries, grilled to deep fried frogs, each dish is as appetizing as the next. In fact, you would not even know it was frog until you are told as the meat is fat-less, tender and definitely better than even chicken. Ranging from spicy to non-spicy dishes, the frog meat dish can be found either in a typical Thai restaurant, a food court that sells a variety of home cooked economy rice dishes or from a street food stall.
Thai Food Frogs livingthroughlenses.com

Frogs became a staple in the Thai diet in the north as most of the people in the early days were agriculture based and frogs were plentiful in the rice fields and in the wild. Meat was scarce as to have meat on the table was expensive and beyond the income of the average farmer household. Frogs were a good source of protein, low in fat and high in protein value. Therefore the frog leaped out of the rice fields into the frying pans of Thai cuisine!
Thai Food Frogs Credit: cookingthebooks.typepad.com

In Western cooking, only the frog legs are eaten but in Thai cuisine, most parts of the frog are consumed. The sought after part is the liver and skin. The skin is believed to be good for the collagen while the liver is the tastiest bit of the frog. Some restaurants or street stalls will skin the frogs before cooking while others cook it with the meat and skin attached. The curried spicy frog and the deep fried frog comes highly recommended. Eating deep fried frog marinated with Thai spices is a savory dish with sticky rice or steamed fragrant white jasmine rice.
Thai Food Frogs Yum Kob dish

You can also buy sizable frogs from a wet market but you will probably have to clean it yourself which can be rather messy. This was home cooked Thai/Mon style frog dish using 4 large frogs bought from the local wet market. The 4 frogs costing around THB120 making them about THB30 each. After discarding the heads and innards the frogs were cleaned and quartered. Lemongrass, kefir lime leaves, galangal, ginger, shallots, mint leaves, chili, prawn paste, pounded fresh chili paste, lime juice, chicken stock, fish sauce, fresh coconut milk, salt and pepper were prepared for the cooking.

Thai Food Frogs Condiments for Yum Kob

What turned out in the end was a wonderfully mouth-watering authentic home cooked Thai frog dish known as “Yum Kob” ยำกบ. The frog meat was tender and absorbed the flavors of the herbs and spices beautifully. Eaten with steamed white Jasmine Rice, it seemed 4 frogs were just not enough! If you are adventurous and would like to try a frog dish, you can get them in Chiang Mai or even in Bangkok. Ask a restaurant or street food stall that sells a variety of dishes if they have “Kob” on the menu!

This is a toad. Good luck in eating that.

There's a small village somewhere between Bangkok and Ayutthaya that's famous for yam kob; I was taken there by some Thai friends many moons ago and treated to the delicacy together with a few shots of the local moonshine.

I've not been in much of a rush to return for another serving...

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

This is a toad. Good luck in eating that.

Yeah, I suspect the creatures eaten in Thailand are actually toads. They fit the description you've posted.
Not to be confused with the cane toad, of course. I don't see zombies or people getting high on these "frogs"

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...29dd0c85cbc914


(And the zombie reference was to the rumoured use of the cane toad secretion in poisoning victims to make them into zombies.)

^
Seems even Thais, who have been eating them for years, die from eating the wrong ones.

BEWARE OF POISONOUS TOADS
Dr Nipon Pattanakijruang, chief of the Nan public health office, said two poisons - bufotenine and bufotoxin - are usually found in glands under the skin of a toad, and in its eggs, intestines and blood.
These poisons cannot be neutralised by heat.

People who eat toad meat or their eggs and become sick should be made to vomit and rushed to the hospital as soon as possible, he said.

The poisons normally protect the toads from predators, which learn to leave them alone.
Grilled frog, a different animal but often of similar appearance, is a common snack in parts of Thailand.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1073553/two-die-after-eating-grilled-toad

OK. The eaten ones must be frogs. But they do have brown bumpy skin. And it appears dry.

Thais love their frogs.

Thai woman fined $10,000 for illegally importing dried frogs into Singapore

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapo...into-singapore

Originally Posted by Maanaam

Yeah, I suspect the creatures eaten in Thailand are actually toads.

Your suspicions would be wrong.
Imagine that.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Your suspicions would be wrong.
Imagine that.

Originally Posted by Maanaam

OK. The eaten ones must be frogs.

Yep, a suspicion only, that I immediately accepted was misplaced.
Imagine that!
FOJ. I'm one of the few people on this board that admits and concedes when wrong.

Leave the poor croaking critters alone, ffs. They eat mozzies and other flying pestilences, and I doubt they're 'farmed' for consuming.?

Originally Posted by kmart

I doubt they're 'farmed' for consuming.?

These are farmed and sold in Makro.

I licked a Froggy once at a hop in Brittany ,formidable

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

These are farmed and sold in Makro.

Ok, cheers. Those are big buggers.. Thai indigenous species?

Frog is one of those things that I just can't bring myself to eat for some reason or another even though it probably tastes OK or even good (in certain dishes).

Duck's another also. Even the idea of that makes me a little queasy.

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Duck's another also

Foie gras is OK though?

Nope.

^ homo

It's only gay if you enjoy it, you liver-eating muthafucka.

I hate all offal, including liver, haggis and blood products like black pudding.

Duck eggs don't appeal to me either but you haven't lived until you've tried Peking Duck or Hoisin duck pancakes

Yeah I really dunno what my deal is with duck but I've just never been able to bring myself to try it.

I used to quite often go to a Chinese restaurant here that had Peking duck and the pancakes and everybody else would order them but I never did.

^ it tastes like chicken, a big crispy fatty chicken

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

Yeah I really dunno what my deal is with duck

Possibly flashbacks of a duck attacking the worm between your legs as a child?