What is Food?

Recently I saw a video about Asian food on facebook.  It was about how Asian food is much different from some other types of food.  One of the strange lines in it, though, mentioned that they don’t eat dog, that the most exotic they eat is frog.

Post.

And I’m thinking that maybe they’re only part Asian.  Because I’ve seen way more “exotic” kinds of food here.

Including frog.

I'm thinking the frogs aren't happy about being food

AND including dog.

One time we were having a meeting.  Those in charge had ordered grilled chicken, sticky rice and papaya salad for lunch.  That is actually one of my favorite meals.  Some of the guests, however, were wanting something a little less mundane.  So someone was going around asking if anyone wanted to contribute for some special food, i.e., dog.

I stuck with the chicken.

If there was a key to what constitutes food among the Khmu and the other tribal groups, it would probably look something like this:

1a	Was never once living	Generally not food-except things like salt, MSG, etc
1b	Is or was alive at some point	Potential Food (go to 2)
2a	Is generally considered poisonous	Mostly not food (except possibly in small amounts as medicine)
2b	Is not generally considered poisonous	Go to 3
3a	Never moved on its own (i.e. plant products)	Probably food
3b	Does now or once moved on its own	Go to 4
4a	Is/was human	not food
4b	Is/was not human	Probably food

The one exception I can think of to this is domestic cat: I have not heard of the Khmu people eating cat (though when we lived in Haiti, some people would almost drool over our well-fed kitty.)

It’s interesting, though, that even my Khmu friends can be a bit picky.  One time I was sitting with some friends and they were discussing the merits of different kinds of wild food.  One fellow was saying that Lampang was a great place because they could get monkeys there—and monkeys brains were wonderful!

However, further on in the conversation, the person who was raving about monkey brains said, in all earnestness, “but the Chinese eat really strange food.”

Me: potentially dangerous wild animal
My Khmu friends: food

What’s the difference between a rat and a rabbit?

Since a rabbit and a rat are both rodents, one might say that the difference between them is that one has short ears and a long tail, the other has long ears and a short tail.  Since I used to raise rabbits for meat, I guess it should not be surprising that I have no problem considering rats to be food as well.

Here in northern Thailand, there are not a lot of wild animals left.  There are however certain species of rat that live in the forests.  I’ve eaten this kind of rat and it tastes okay, except they’re small and it’s hard to get the meat off the bones.

Forest Rat: Where's the meat?

So I was telling my friends once that when we lived in Chachoengsao, at certain times of the year one could buy rice rats.  They would sell this grilled from roadside stands.  The rats were big and they tasted okay, though the meat was a bit pricey.  But my friends here stated unequivocally that the rice rat meat was not as good as forest rat.

Rice Rat: Lot's of meat on this, but not as good as forest rat

Snake Hunting

A missionary friend of mine tells of an occasion when he was driving down the road with some Khmu friends and a snake started to cross the road.  One of the Khmu guys told my friend to hit the snake—so he did.  Then they stopped the car and went out to gather up dinner.

Snake got too close to the fisherman's boat.  Within minutes it was being turned into lunch.

Of course, it may be that you would rather just use the snake for flavoring.  At the Golden Triangle and other places, there are many vendors selling liquor imbued with snake and other creatures, which is supposed to impart certain forms of prowess to the drinker.

Do you want your liquor with scorpion, cobra, or both?

What bugs you?

All kinds of insects can be had to eat in Thailand.  With insects, texture is more an issue than actual flavor.  For example, deep fried caterpillars and grubs taste similar too and look almost like small French fries.  But the legs of grasshoppers get easily stuck in the teeth.

Bamboo worms: good if fried crisp

Bite the Hand That Eats You

Here in Thailand there is a species of ant that builds it's nest in trees, using leaves to make the nests.  These ants inflict a painful bite.  However, their eggs are a valued source of food.  So to harvest the nests and get the eggs, they put a net on a long pole so hopefully they can get the nest loose before the ants get to biting.  The eggs look like rice, but they are soft.

Ants on nest in pummelo tree

Nets for harvest ant nests

Ant eggs for sale in the market