New Petchburi Pete Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 My wife's younger sister and husband were over for dinner last night ... market food of course from the market on soi KaoTalo ... some tasty stuff! They were speaking in Lao (Isaan dialect) as usual. I asked my wife what they were discussing. She then told me that her sister was boasting about how her husband had caught 6 rats the day before they left the village in Chaiyaphum. My mother-in-law cleaned them and prepared a rat feast. I guess they had Tom Yam rat, larb rat, barbequed rat, etc. This was the first time I had ever heard of rat being eaten in Isaan. I asked my wife if I had ever been served rat up there before. She assured me that I never had the pleasure; but, promised me that I would really enjoy it if I had the chance to indulge. Has anyone had the pleasure of consuming this Isaan delicacy? If so, any comment as to which is the best way to cook it? Also, I'm curious to know just how widespread the eating of rats is in LOS. I know it's quite common in Brazil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrX Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 The girl I know says she eats; snake, dog, rat,mouse gecko, ants, ants eggs,..cat cannot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 Hi, Rats seem to be fairly common. Have seen the in-laws eat them quite often. The common way of eating them seems to be to skin / clean them, cut of the heads & tails and then ground anything that is left (yes, including the bones). Tried it once, but due to the amount of chillies added to the mix all I tasted was bone & chili. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 i always thought that rat eating is very common in the kamen parts of Isaan (Buri Ram, Surin, Sisaket); now for rat eating girls from this part of the gourmet world, OH would be the expert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene1944 Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 Had it once in Suphan Buri in a jungle restaurant. The rats had been caught that morning in a rice field and BBQ'd (or so we were told). Friend of mine had his two young kids with him and the kids thought they were delicious. Not too bad if you didn't look at the tail while eating the meat. Kind of tastes like chicken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
changnoi Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 Had some recently in Vietnam. Grilled. Lots of small bones make bite sized pieces difficult to chew. I can confirm that chicken tastes like rat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Wife's Khmer. Eating rat is not common where she's from (Surin). They *do* eat little field mice sometimes. I think there's a lot of confusion about this because the distinction between "rat" and "mouse" is not as strong in Thai as it is in English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 yep, both have the same word in Thai! what is the word for mouse/rat in Khmer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 I remember a post I did on the old board (Delphi) where I saw this rat terrior (A breed in Australia and here too I think) running around. Come morning I 6 rats laid neatly on the back steps. Great dog of yours catching those rats last night I tell my father in law. DOG - that was me catcching them, want some breakfast? I passed! DOG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted March 11, 2005 Report Share Posted March 11, 2005 I never saw rat in the markets in the north or in central Thailand until the late 1970s, when the Thai govmt came up with the bright idea to encourage people to eat field rats as a means to cut down on the numbers. (Numbers of rats, not people ...) Just before that the gomt had been paying a bounty on rat tails. Then some genius decided to promote rat au van for the whole country. It does not seem to have caught on except in Isaan. But Isaan folks have always eaten almost anything. I wouldn't be surprised if they were eating rats before that. I never saw the bug vendors in the '70s or early '80s either. Toasted roaches, scorpions, maggots etc seem to be an Isaan "delicacy" that has been brought to Bangkok in the last 15 years or so. Yuck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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