More Stuff on a Stick

One of my most favorite meals in Northern Thailand is one we can easily replicate at home. Grilled sausages, slices of fresh ginger, fresh hot chilis, raw cabbage and slices of cold cucumber. Of course, eating it here means jabbing it all with a bamboo stick from a little plastic bag, as it is one of the loveliest street foods.

Northern Thai sausages are a blend of pork, spices and sticky rice. They are a bit more chewy and less meaty than a New York sausage, but that recommends them.

And, the chilis range from hot to downright incendiary. If you get "mouse dropping" chilis, watch out. These are tiny and hotter than hot. I had them a week ago, and given my long absense from Thailand, chomped them down without hesitation. Coughing fit. Tears. Smiles. It was great.

If you come to the house this summer for a barbecue, expect sticks and sausages... but, I'll give you a plate. I promise. (No worries. I've never seen "mouse dropping" chilis in the U.S.).

Leaves and Sticks

A Western friend told me once that the Thai word for "container" is leaf. Banana leaves, specifically. Banana plants grow here like weeds. If one starts in your garden, your Thai neighbor will likely as not advise you to pull it out. Once a stand of bananas gets started, it can really take hold.

But, in terms of a disposable container, the banana leaf is sublime. An immediately renewable, natural resource. Perfect for holding, steaming, or roasting your food of choice.


The Little Man's first encounter with banana leaf containers was a big hit. Thai desserts all made with sticky rice, coconut, palm sugar, and a little peanut. What's not to like? Though he was offered a bamboo stick to eat it with, he protested preferring a spoon.


Mummy, however, loves eating food with sticks. Pounded fish cake with kaffir lime leaf dipped in sweetened rice vinegar with fresh cucumber and chilis. Oh, boy.

Spot the Potential Lawsuit 8

Loyal reader, you will of course remember the "Spot the Potential Lawsuit" game. In Thailand, it's just too freakin' easy. Open eyes. Look left. Spot two or three. Look right. Repeat. Since I never tire of this game, I offer you three quick shots in the category "cauldrons of boiling oil (or water)."


On Sunday evening, I and every other ambulatory human in Chiang Mai went to "Thanon Khun Dtern," literally "Street People Walk." The Walking Street is the best reason to live in Chiang Mai. Each Sunday beginning at 5pm, 2.5 km of city streets are closed to vehicular traffic and vendors and food purveyors line the sidewalks. This means Sunday dinner is always eaten on bamboo sticks and from banana leaf dishes (more on that soon).


It also means gallons and gallons of boiling palm oil and water sit just inches from the finger tips and skirt hems of passers-by. And, the Little Man doesn't get it. Thai kids grow up with these open hazards and mostly steer clear. My Little Man is not so savvy, so he rides safely in his little stroller a good meter or more from this potential lawsuit, happily jabbing his bamboo stick into gobs and gobs of sticky, sweet "khanom Thai" (Thai dessert).

Spot the Potential Lawsuit 7

Oh, a blog is a hungry beast. It snarls and hisses at you in the most nasty way if you do not feed it, and feed it often. Before this little guy leaps off the screen and bites the hand that feeds it, I offer you this.

Yes, another Spot the Potential Lawsuit. This one, the cauldron-of-boiling-oil variety seen daily on every block in the city. Oh, Thai people do love a good dose of anything deep-fried in palm oil. Yes, palm oil. A completely un-dietarily-reconstructed culinary culture, for sure. And, the deep frying (as with all cooking) is done outdoors, usually right on the curb inches away from passing pedestrians and baby strollers. But, we cheerfully take the risk because the reward is sweet.

Deep fried "sugar banana" and taro (totally skippable, if you ask me). Oh, those bananas. But, not often. Really. They'll kill yah, even if the cauldron of boiling oil doesn't tip over on you.

Mackerel!

Mackerel.... I don't think so!

Yes, Thai people eat bugs. And, from what I can gather (without actually eating bugs), they are generally fried and seasoned, and delicious. I've seen only one item on the bug cart bigger than this little number, and that is the glossy, black scorpion. (I wish I were kidding.) Deep fried silk worms (think popcorn in worm form) are quite common, but these cronchers (or should I say "crunchers") are not a daily snack. More of a special occasion bug. I hasten to add that my family are not bug eaters, and no one has ever offered me one in a setting where I could not politely decline.

The last time I politely declined was at the neighborhood photo shop. I was picking up our Christmas prints last year, and on the counter for general consumption were a beautiful plate of fresh pineapple and a big bowl of grasshoppers, along with a little side plate for the legs - apparently they stick between the teeth in a terribly unpleasant way.

I had to wait a bit for the prints, as the grasshopper-eating staff were going through my photos one-by-one, passing them around, and chatting amongst themselves. What intrigued them most about our I-might-have-preferred private holiday celebration were a few photos Amnat took of the food. These included a bowl of mashed potatoes (documentary style aerial view) and a dish of stuffing (ditto). Our first Christmas album also includes a roast chicken and a bowl of steamed broccoli.



Thai people LOVE food, and though they prefer their own cuisine (adamantly), they are very curious about what other people eat. As a Westerner, I am often asked, "Can you eat Thai food?" It's a bit of machismo, Asian style. I take it to mean, "Can you take the heat?"

So, while I'm wandering around taking shots of (and shots at) boiled eggs on a stick and "mackerel," my husband is doing the same with my food, in his quiet and respectful Thai way.

Boiled Eggs on a Stick

If you read my recent post "Pancakes on a Stick," you will certainly still be mulling over the thought of boiled eggs on a stick. As luck would have it, on Sunday Amnat and I ran into a boiled-eggs-on-a-stick lady sitting on the sidewalk not far from the house. Boiled eggs on a stick, like many Thai street foods, are sold by peddlers who carry, push, or drive stuff around. You know they are coming, because they have a honky horn and they honk their way down your street.



I've discovered that if you say, in Thai, that you have a website, people WANT their picture taken. The boiled-eggs-on-a-stick lady hopped up from her little plastic stool to shoulder the load and make a proper presentation. She carries two baskets from a bamboo bow with a charcoal burner in one basket to keep the eggs hot. Yes, hot charcoals walking down the street in 90 degree weather. Unfortunately, a few words spoken with convincing accent sets people to thinking you actually speak their language. She told me an awful lot about the eggs, but I only caught about every seventh word.



The eggs were still warm when she put them in a bag for me, but Amnat wouldn't let me eat them. He's quite fussy about food, as he's had a lot of bad food over the years. When I asked why we couldn't eat them, he just said - salty. I've learned to trust his judgment. Thai people eat from a very long list of unpalatable things. And, strong flavors are what drives Thai cuisine. If he says it's salty, it's SALTY.



From what I could piece together from Amnat and the boiled-eggs-on-a-stick lady, the eggs are boiled, then brined and then skewered and heated over the charcoal fire. Seems like you'd need a beer with them for sure, but there was no ice chest in that second basket.

Pancakes on a Stick

Thai people love to eat food on sticks. I've had watermelon on a stick, and fish balls, Fanta and Coke popsicles, porks balls, hot dogs (deep fried.... oi), boiled quail eggs (in the shell), and I've even seen fetal chickens - in the shell - barbecued - and put on a stick. Didn't try that one, needless to say. But, this week at the local street market I saw a new take on stick cuisine. Pancakes on a stick.

Because they are Thai pancakes, they are beautiful and fun and anything but dull. These pancakes come with cartoons, of course, but the secret to this cart's success is the jelly swirl embedded in the cake. The pancake-on-a-stick lady squeezes on the jelly swirl then overlays more cake batter from a squeezy bottle to hide it. All this, AND you can have it with jellyfish decoration!

Nearby, the competition offers fish waffles with various fillings. The griddle is just the coolest, and if it weren't cast iron, I'd ship one home. The fish-waffle guy uses little hooks to flip open the hot waffle maker, and the sound is hypnotic, as is the smell. He offers about seven filling flavors all (kind of) fruity and very artificial tasting. The brown one is chocolate. There's a lot of brown-flavored stuff here, no real chocolate to speak of. But, none of the fish waffles actually tastes like fish.


You laugh. Two weeks ago I brought home from the little neighborhood baker some "chocolate chip" cookies. They had curious looking chips, but everything is a little askew here anyway. First bite seemed a little fishy, but I'm a tad sensitive about people sneaking me fishy shit all the time, so I munched on thinking I was just sleep deprived and delusional. Second bite, the chips were definitely chewy and brownish. Dried shrimp, no kidding.

You gotta' watch these Thai people all the time....