Monday, August 25, 2008

Junk food of the week: Spicy Nuts and Sweet Fish

I went to Thailand a couple of weeks ago to hang out with my friend Laura, who is leaving China and going back home to the States, at least for now. We went up to Khao Yai National Park and spent the whole day hiking around. The park was amazing; I'll write more about it soon.


At one point we stopped at a little snack shop to wait out a rainstorm. I grabbed up these spicy nuts because the Thais really know how to make spicy nuts. See the dried lime leaf on the left? And the big, whole dried chilis on the right? Yum.

I was surprised to find some chewy strips of dried banana mixed in. A few bites later, though, I could no longer keep up this convenient lie and had to admit that they were in fact sugary dried fish. They were actually kind of good, but my brain just couldn't handle the clash of fishiness and sweetness. So I contented myself with eating the rest of the peanuts and little crunchy batter things while listening to the rain falling on the metal roof. It wasn't a bad fate at all.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand what you feel. Have you ever eat sweetened vegetables? I ate it as a delicacy from somewhere in north sumatera.

It's kinda good I guess. But I just can't shrug this feeling that this sweet, candylike, goodies is spinaches and long beans

Anonymous said...

have you ever tried lobster ice cream or any such version? my curiosity about it never quite got the better of my fear....

Unknown said...

at some point, you gonna have to do a book compilation of all these things you found here :D