Culture Clash
Found these in the shops today, must be in season as they are everywhere. Never seen them before and labeled Manow Ho in the supermarket, a bit if research revealed them to be Mariam Plum – more here.
About the size of a grape, these were sour in flavour, somewhat toned down by the sweet chilli paste dip.
The selection of foods in Thai markets can be baffling to westerners; and that’s only the stuff they see in mainstream markets. Move out of the big cities and the selection becomes even more strange. This is a market on the highway between Chiang Mai and Lampang; at the moment (May) it has some jungle produce that is very seasonal – in particular mushrooms – but also some strange (to me) vegetables and fruits.
Some of these vegetables actually do fight back – I think this is the first time I have ever been warned to be careful about eating a vegetable… the spiky one below – the trick is to snap off the young fronds and eat those with other veg. The flavours are beyond what I can describe, but I can honestly say I have never tasted anything like it.
- Thai Market – spiky veg, just eat the young fronds
- Thai Market – pork scratchings, I recognise these
- Thai Market – jungle veg
- Thai Market – bugs. The one on the left is added to chilli to make a piquant dip
- Thai Market – bags of frogs, live ones
- Thai Market – bags of beetles, live ones
- Thai Market – Mushrooms and jungle veg, preselected trays
- Thai Market – fruit?
- Thai Market – fresh vegetables
- Thai Market – tom yam seasoning pre package
- Thai Market – bags of fish, live ones
- Thai Market – dried mushrooms
In the UK we see the ‘Man in the moon’ – a face on the surface of the moon, in Thailand they see a rabbit; you may never look at the moon the same way again – what has been seen can not be unseen…
The different view is helped by the slightly different angle of view in each country.
Apologies for my drawing abilities…