Category: Food

Dripping Umami Bomb

Mina brought a hamburger bun stuffed with a fried duck egg over to my desk and said, “try some.” I was just waking up, so I told her I needed a minute. In that minute, the sandwich disappeared and I jokingly asked Mina why she didn’t save me any.

“Cuz it was sooo gooood.”

I fried up one of the duck eggs Nam’s sister gave us from her egg factory (she makes salted duck eggs out on her resort in the country) and threw it in a toasted burger bun with a slice of processed cheddar… UMAMI. BOMB.

It was the best, messiest, umamiest egg sandwich, ever.

Round eggplant tip

After 10 years of experimentation, I have finally figured out that medium-sized round eggplant is the best. Too small, and they are bitter. Too big, like in the photo above, and they are soft, tasteless, and the seeds are too big and numerous.

The seeds are actually an important taste component. They can be big, they can be numerous, but they can’t be both because it makes the overall texture too soft. This is something nobody ever mentioned to me.

Something really interesting – I’ve seen people have allergic reactions to only the big ones. Specific symptoms were an itchy and swelling throat.
So stay away from big round eggplant!

Fake booze in SE Asia

All this ad needs is some Billy Dee Williams.
All this ad needs is some Billy Dee Williams.

So I was talking about fake Absolut from Laos with the crew today, and it occurred to me that the last bottle of Heineken I had tasted a lot like piss, which is a trademark of the lowest levels of Thai brew (I’m looking at you, Red Horse). I wondered if people bother to adulterate/fake/fuck with tax stamps and lot markings on beer as well, and fired up the old Web Wombat (it’s an Aussie thang):

That video prompted this official response from Heineken: Tampering with Heineken® labels

Which led me to this vid:

Story here: Heineken ‘absolutely on top’ of fake beer threat after Vietnam gang bust

The two stories aren’t about the same incident, andnowI’mgettingsleepysonowittyconclusionforthispost, sorry.

What’s for Breakfast: Protein Explosion Edition

There just isn’t much variety when it comes to breakfast in Maha Sarakham. Most people eat grilled pork skewers and sticky rice or some variation of rice porridge. While delicious, these get quite boring.

If there’s time after dropping the kids off at school, we sometimes go eat lunch stuff for breakfast at one of the few places open that early, but most days we eat at home, because we make the best coffee in town (not terribly difficult).

Today, Nam fried up all the leftover meats in our fridge, including gyoza stuffing, sweet Chinese sausage, and pork floss (that Mina loves eating over rice, lol!). The eggs were also perfectly done. It all came together quite nicely.