My fookin' rant of the day!

[bankao dreamer]

Sorry Charley but I like the stuff honest. I get a craving for it if I don't eat it for a few days

[billy the kid]

arry

sorry arry meant DJ Pat.

there was a ? on the post.

jayus folk write a lot o stuff and then one post and they're told to fuck off.

[malcy]

Cooking the fish would kill it.

But only if done correctly. That's another problem. Who knows how long to cook the shit to ensure the flukes are killed?

Doesn't really matter because the kunts refuse to cook the shit anyway !

[DJ Pat]

All fast food kills you. Pizza, burgers, kfc blah balh. PROCESSED - NO GOOD.

I'd still rather eat a freshly killed BBQ'ed frog

The protein in that would still be better than the fast food crap that many Thais think is 'trendy' western fare

[kmart]

I think that purported foodstuff that gets the "3 Strikes," in that it:-

a; Looks like shit
b; Smells like shit
c; Tastes like shit

Should not be allowed in the home.

This is usually not a problem as although you've shelled out on a lovely, modern European kitchen, the daft bint is cooking on a scabby little clay pot next to the doorstep outside.

[DJ Pat]

Luckily never had a Thai GF who would squat bashing somtam in a wooden pot thing like some Isarn peasant. She stood at the kitchen counter bashing it up instead while I popped out to buy the sticky rice

[cyrille]

Luckily never had a Thai GF who would squat bashing somtam in a wooden pot thing like some peasant.

It's called a mortar.

She stood at the kitchen counter bashing it up instead

Ah yes, so much more refined.

[DJ Pat]

^In an expensive proper stone pestle & mortar not one bought at some cheapo market

[Sailing into trouble]

Six million people in Isaan affected with liver cancer due to that shit.

You have to be kidding surely?

I can't handle the smell of the fish sauce, The Mrs stinks for 2 days. On the boat it is overpowering, since in the small cabins when she breaths it out, god I wonder what I was thinking. Says it cheers her up to eat the stuff laced with a pound of hot Chilli peppers and a field of Garlic. I start gaging at the smell. Her eyes water and nose runs and she thinks it is the best thing since.........

I intend to open a "savoury pie shop" in Thailand. She can make I will be the quality control officer! She can have her Thai Restaurant down wind!

[MeMock]

Driving home from town the other day I stopped off at my sister in laws shop to drop of some stock that I had picked up for her. She was a little busy as parked out the front was this vehicle.



It takes a lot to get my SIL excited so I was interested in what it was that the man was selling to make her grin like a shot fox. I ventured closer to take a look but it was the smell that hit me before I could even see what was in the containers.

To everyone’s amusement I backed up very quickly as the smell that was attacking my nose is seriously one of the worst things in the world that man has ever created. Why they bothered with Mustard gas in the war is beyond me when this lethal concoction was readily available in North Eastern Thailand.

It is called Pla ra (ปลาร้า). It is basically a fermented fish sauce and is so popular in the North East of Thailand that it almost forms its own currency!

It is made by pickling fish. There are a few varieties in it but the main ingredient is the Snake head fish. Once the fish is caught, cleaned and cut up into small pieces it is thrown into a big jar along with salt and rice bran before being covered with a wooden lid. There it lies for between three months and a year, slowly but surely fermenting itself into the it’s pernicious final product.

So why make such a vile product? Well apparently it is meant to taste really good! It is mainly used in what would have to be the most popular dish in the North East. Som Tum (ส้มตำ). Som Tum is a spicy salad usually made from shredded green papaya. Just amongst my family here in the village it would be eaten on average once a day, every day.



So this man with the stink bomb on wheels travels all around the area selling his own special concoction of hell and the locals can’t get enough of it!

I took a big breath and entered back into ground zero just to take the following two photos for you the reader.





He was a delight to talk to and really made me laugh when we had the following conversation. I have embellished it ever so slightly as I wish my Thai language skills were that good, but the aren’t. The final line is exactly what was said though.

Stinky Fish Man: “Why did you back away like a man who has just seen a ghost?”

Ignorant Foreigner: “Because what ever it is you are selling stinks like all my nightmares rolled into one”

Stinky Fish Man: “But this is Pla ra (ปลาร้า), the most famous ingredient in Thailand. With out it, Thailand would simply stop.”

Ignorant Foreigner: “That may be the case but it is an assault on my senses. I don’t know how anyone can make it, smell it, let alone eat it.”

Stinky Fish Man: “You eat cheese don’t you?”

Chalk up a point to the Stinky Fish Man as he does have a point!


What is that smell? Pla Ra (

[DJ Pat]

I agree, you would never believe that pickled crap was made for human consumption.

My own home concotion of fish sauce, red hot chillies, garlic cloves, lime juice & dash of vinegar sits in a jar in my cupboard for adding to fried rice, canned fish in tomato sauce (think yum pla kapong) etc

Yesterday I had to change the chilli and garlic and add fresh lime. The stench from the old ingredients was so foul that I had wrap it in four bags before I unleashed it into the garbage. I kept the fish sauce in it to keep that taste concoction, and added a few dashes of fresh nam pla.

Whenever I have sensitive paperwork to dispose of (bank statements etc etc) I tear up the paper, tip in some fish sauce, hoover dust and cat litter tray dust, then shake it about. Whoever wants to snoop on my private life will get the shock of their lives.

[MeMock]

Six million people in Isaan affected with liver cancer due to that shit.

I only just realised that you used my photo.

[cyrille]

Six million people in Isaan affected with liver cancer due to that shit.

You have to be kidding surely?

Yeah, not quite true to say 6 million people have liver cancer, but 6 million people do have opisthorchiasis, which can frequently lead to cancer of the bile duct or liver.

A pretty stunning figure, really.

There are two types of liver cancer -- hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma. HCC begins in the hepatocytes, the main type of liver cell. "It is the most common form of liver cancer that is found in the world, except in Thailand, especially in the Northeast," explained Dr Thiravut Khuhaprema, chairman of the National Cancer Institute Foundation.

The other type, cholangiocarcinoma, starts in the small tubes in the liver called bile ducts, so it can be called bile duct cancer, he said, adding that this cancer is mainly caused by opisthorchiasis, a parasitic disease associated with eating raw or under-cooked freshwater fish, and nitrosamines, a chemical compound used in food preservation.

In the northeastern part of Thailand, nearly six million people are infected with opisthorchiasis. The figure makes Thailand the country with the highest number of cholangiocarcinoma patients in the world. There are 80 such patients per 100,000 population in Thailand compared to one per 100,000 in the West.

Liver cancer ranks as the No.7 cause of death in Thailand with two patients dying from the disease every hour. There are 23,000 new cases each year and 87% of them are in an advanced stage.

Raw fish & cancer in Thailand | Bangkok Post: learning

[ftpjtm]

Ok, THAT makes me nervous! I showed it to my wife, who says she always boils her pla ra before eating it (stay out of the kitchen on pla ra boiling day!)

Actually, after 23 years together I must admit that I don’t mind the smell so much anymore, and I love Thai Style Som Tum. I can eat it with the pla ra too, except it's nearly impossible to get someone to make it with pla ra but with the amount of chilli I can handle.


[QUOTE=cyrille;2711583]

Six million people in Isaan affected with liver cancer due to that shit.

You have to be kidding surely?

Yeah, not quite true to say 6 million people have liver cancer, but 6 million people do have opisthorchiasis, which can frequently lead to cancer of the bile duct or liver.

A pretty stunning figure, really.

There are two types of liver cancer -- hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocarcinoma. HCC begins in the hepatocytes, the main type of liver cell. "It is the most common form of liver cancer that is found in the world, except in Thailand, especially in the Northeast," explained Dr Thiravut Khuhaprema, chairman of the National Cancer Institute Foundation.

The other type, cholangiocarcinoma, starts in the small tubes in the liver called bile ducts, so it can be called bile duct cancer, he said, adding that this cancer is mainly caused by opisthorchiasis, a parasitic disease associated with eating raw or under-cooked freshwater fish, and nitrosamines, a chemical compound used in food preservation.

In the northeastern part of Thailand, nearly six million people are infected with opisthorchiasis. The figure makes Thailand the country with the highest number of cholangiocarcinoma patients in the world. There are 80 such patients per 100,000 population in Thailand compared to one per 100,000 in the West.

Liver cancer ranks as the No.7 cause of death in Thailand with two patients dying from the disease every hour. There are 23,000 new cases each year and 87% of them are in an advanced stage. [/quot

[Fluke]

My wife's not from Issarn but she has to eat that fookin' shite, somtam...Stinks the fookin' hou ou! (some of you will get that last one.)
Reminds me of the 'cockney koonts' and their jellied eels.
Brain dead Thai's and fookin' Cockneys!

Pearly Kings and Queens, not much unlike the koonts here.

Fook'arf!

Do get with the times, nowadays cockneys will be eating Halah Chicken Balti , its been a while since cockneys ate jellied ells

[wasabi]

Why do people stop at the entrance exit to a supermarket. To chat to a friend coming in or out.
Supermarket entrances are blocked already with bargains,without trying to walk past fat arses blocking the least available space already available.

[Neep]

Whenever I have sensitive paperwork to dispose of (bank statements etc etc) I tear up the paper, tip in some fish sauce, hoover dust and cat litter tray dust, then shake it about. Whoever wants to snoop on my private life will get the shock of their lives.

Why go to the trouble when you could just burn them?

[wasabi]

No mention of Isaan booze consumption affecting their livers.

[neemo]

Somtum is rather tasteless without a good helping of Plara.

[BaitongBoy]

Wokked grasshoppers, yes...Liquid shit served in a plastic bag, no...

[wasabi]

My fookin Isaan trendy look

[glennb6]

sigh... many days ago in what seems like a different life in falangland, the mrs would seem to wait for a day cold enough that we didn't want to open the windows lest we freeze. on those days she would boil the pa-la for whatever **** she was going to put it on. Nothing like being trapped inside with that. Odd that she was never offended by parmesan cheese.