We came back from KK yesterday after staying at the Rachawadee Resort near the airport for one night. We had stuff to do on Saturday (power steering line replacement) and early Sunday morning (dentist for mommy/Mina) as well, so it made sense to stay in Khon Kaen instead of coming back since the price for accommodations is cheaper than gasoline (the non-ethanol-adulterated version of which is known in Thailand as “benzine” from the German “Benzin”, not to be confused with “benzene“). Besides, we had always wanted to see the resort — it was nice with a good pool, and photos will be forthcoming pending discovery of our digicam’s charger.
Anyway, here are some shots from the way home from Khon Kaen on the same route we took, although about a month earlier, when I was playing with an old 70-200 slide zoom.
The Jesus is strong in this one. Actually, we have a Japanese Jehovah’s Witness teaching at our Thai university, so maybe raughing Jesus Fish isn’t so rare here.KHON KAEN backwards is NEAK NOHK, which sounds like a Cambodean border town where “Auntie” Tina Turner reigns supreme in post-apocalyptic Soka Gakkaian glory.A fish farm. There are several along this stretch, but this one has the best signage.This buffalo head sign can be seen along highways in this region, but infrequently. It indicates sale of seed pods shaped like a buffalo’s head containing dry, flavorless seeds that must be an acquired taste, although I’ve never found anyone who says they actually like them. Possibly the most unpopular natural food item to sell in Thailand.
These guys are from one of the ethnic villages in Surin where the government has granted them license to keep elephants. As elephants can eat hundreds of kilos of food every day and because there are simply too many to perform at the “elephant village” tourist attractions, many elephants are taken to towns across Thailand, especially the northeast, to walk the roads and beg for money for “food” – the handlers sell 3 baht bags of sugarcane or bananas for 20 baht to people along the way (people sitting outside of restaurants or pubs are popular targets). This practice has become so lucrative that we often hear of the villages renting elephants out for big sums of money, hopefully to people that know how to keep them safe and healthy.
The small elephant shown above looked hungry and thirsty, and Max was happy to oblige.
I can’t remember where this was, but damn they had nice silverware. The food must have been below the memorable line of greatness, but I’d go there again just to borrow some spoons.
Nirvana: Achieved. (@ Nong Khai, a couple forgotten streets down from the unremarkable riverside marketplace, across from a nondescript temple in a truly magical noodle shop)
Note: The words “Thai” and “Jungle” were included as descriptors in the title and are probably not part of their real name (which eludes my lazy Googling at this point in time). Rather, I found them for sale at a roadside market stall surrounded by dense Thai jungle in a town called Koi Mek, in Kalasin province, on my way home from Nong Khai a couple months ago.
They were about 60 baht (less than $2) a piece, and the old lady who sold them to me said they were caught that morning. I took the birds and chased Max and Mina around with them, then gave them to our nanny to have her older sister cook at home. The next day, she brought a Thai basil stir fry prepared in my least favorite way – chopped in small pieces, bones and all – which was still mighty tasty if not entirely edible.
Behold the mighty Gac (Momordica cochinchinensis).Click photos for larger version.
This majestic fruit is perhaps my favorite in the entire kingdom of Thailand:
Not just because it’s reminiscent of a freshly-used morning star worthy of Chuck Norris, Jack Bauer, or even Double Hanuman.
Not only because it’s rare in most of Thailand, and normally eaten while still pale yellow, making perfectly ripe bright red ones basically unavailable at nearby markets.
In fact, the main reason I love this obscure fruit is its Thai name: It is romanized as “fak kao,” or, “fak khao,” but the truth of the matter is that it’s pronounced more or less as “FUCK COW.”
I shit you not.
The first time I saw one of these bad boys was on a tour of a fruit orchard in Chonburi during our epic 2007 Road Trip. The tour guide spotted a bright red globe in the bushes and said it was a FUCK COW. I laughed and made sure to research it further, but it was a long time before I saw one again. Once in a while, I saw locals in Sarakham carrying around these anemic-looking ones that were a waxy pale yellow, but it never occurred to me they were the same fruit. One day I asked a friend who had a couple what they were and she said FUCK COW. Suddenly excited to have been united with my favorite fruit (that was my favorite based on name alone, I’d still never tried one), I asked all about them: Where do they grow? Aren’t they usually red? Are they yummy?
But nobody knew about them, really. The general consensus was that you cooked the flesh in a pot of rice, and that it didn’t really taste like much… It was like the world was conspiring against my ever actually sampling FUCK COW.
Then, two weeks ago, one of Nam’s teachers brought some from her parent’s home in Ubon, and I had two healthy specimens on my kitchen counter – the fruit I had waited to taste for five whole years was going under my knife. I took a couple hurried photos on the floor and cut one open. Against Nam’s advice, I dug out a flesh-encapsulated seed and tried it raw – Ahhhhh…. It was, um, OK I guess. Slightly tart, with no real remarkable flavor. Like a very bland passion fruit with a hint of copper, perhaps. Talk about anticlimax.
We also tried it cooked in a pot of rice. It turned the rice bright orange, but basically tasted unremarkable. Not bad, just not remarkable at all. the kids were disappointed since the color of the rice hinted at least at a fruity taste, but no…. All bang, no bite.
So why is this still my favorite fruit, you might ask. Two words: FUCK. COW.
