Food

I am hanging off the back of the line car staring up at the great blue sky and watching the bamboo leafs flutter, green, overhead. The car is very full. There are several families inside and a few people transporting big bags of goods to the market in Umphiem. And there is one big white girl hanging off the back with a big grin on her face and the cool breeze in her hair.

One of the bags of green mangoes gets jostled from its precarious perch as we rumble uphill in a cloud of exhaust. One rope holds it to the truck and it drags behind us as I try to motion to someone closer to pay attention and do something. By the time the closest man is aware of the problem, the plastic bag has a hole in it and green mangoes are tumbling out of the bag, rolling end over end down the hill and into the sunshine…

Green mangoes are almost more popular than ripened ones. You peel the mango and slice it up. You mix dried chilies with sugar and fish sauce, which in itself is quite the, um, flavorful, concoction. Then you dip the green mangoes into the sauce and eat. North Americans just don't have a taste sensation that is at all comparable. So sour it makes your eyes water, so spicy it makes your nose run, yet at the same time sweet and tasty. Strangely addictive.

There is one stall in the market that always fascinates me. There are tubs with fish that look like eels, still alive, squirming around in shallow, dirty water. There are small turtles doing turtle things amidst the market bustle with dead fish heads in their plastic containers (are turtles carnivores?) And there are bundles or fat frogs; still alive, jerking and tied in bunches. These must be special frogs because anyone who wanted the regular kind only has to sit out on a road at night. Biking outside of town in the dark, you have to drive slowly to avoid squashing the dark hunks slowly hopping across the road. In the morning, almost every road, including my own, is littered with the dead, flattened bodies of these nighttime creatures. Or perhaps they are toads. I can't claim to know the difference.

Frogs are good for several dishes. My favorite, however, is frog chili. For those of you who want to try this one at home, it is a fairly simple recipe, one that is sure to endear you with the neighbors and dinner guests:

Once the frogs have been prepared, (admittedly, I'm not sure how this is done. Do you have to remove the insides, or are they good to eat? Peel the skin off like potatoes?) Put the meat into a small pot of boiling water. (For extra flavor, add a bullion cube or use chicken stock.) Proceed to boil the crap out of that frog. In fact, the frog should be boiled to the point where its body has been reduced to a paste. This makes an excellent base for a chili, and it's full of protein too! (And who knows what else?) From this point on, your options are endless: boiled chilies, chili powder, fried chilies? Tomato and garlic frog chili? Fish paste and dried fish chili? I'll leave the additional ingredients up to your discretion.
Friday morning in the office, I am sipping Lipton's Yellow Label Tea and eating a store made loaf of banana bread. It's been a rough week on my stomach so I'm taking a break. Hmmmm…. I wonder why?