Som tam, but the crab???

[drogon]

I do love som tam a lot but I never could eat the crab...hence the reason why I do ask som tam...without the crab

 

Anyone knows which kind of crab this is?

 

Also, why is it that Thai people do love their som tam with this really small insect like crab on top....

 

Thanks

 

[shygye]

A crab is not an insect unless on your groin.

 

It is the crab that has the liver fluke parasites.

[limbo]

Just ask for Som Tam Thai, that is the variation without the crab. You can add some spice by asking Som Tam Thai sai Plaa Ra.

[Flashermac]

It's a small land crab that lives in a hole in the mud around rice paddies. It's mashed to pieces raw - and maybe alive! - and as Shygye said may well contain parasites. Liver flukes are responsible for a fairly high number of deaths in Isaan, usually killing people in their 50s. Same problem with pla rah made from raw fish and raw NAEM (pickled pork). Both are safe enough if cooked, though.

 

Somtam Thai is the way to go. Then you just have to worry about any parasites left over in the mortar from the last batch of Isaan style somtam the vendor made.

 

p.s. Somtam is a popular dish in the North, though Isaan likes to claim it's their own. If that's the case, why isn't it called Tam Mahkhung, as it is in Laos?

 

 

 

 

[Torneyboy]

Order without the little critter...

[drogon]

That's waht I always do...

just perversly curious about this crab..

-> this thing scares the shit out of me.

(as much as cockroaches and their brethern...)

 

 

 

[Torneyboy]

Yeah me as well...no need for such things in the bowl..

[dddave]

Three years ago in Pattaya, a young Swede in his mid 20's visiting Thailand for the first time joined three Thai girls in a meal of Som Tam Poo. Not long after he went into convulsions. He was rushed to the hospital but it was too late and he died. The girls seemed to have been unaffected.

 

I discussed this with a friend who is a former physician. He said that dead crabs and other crustations can quickly develop neurotoxins; that is toxins that attack the central nervous system, similar to snake and spider venom. The girls who had been eating these crabs all their lives had probably developed a protective immunity but the Swedish boy was unexposed and vulnerable. A very high price to pay for trying a bit of food.

 

My friend had done volunteer work up-country and he remembered seeing people in the paddy fields gathering up dead crabs from the canals after pesticides had been applied. He has lived here for quite a while but will not eat any kind of shellfish, crab,lobster or jumbo shrimp. He will eat the small shrimp but only those boiled in soups.

[drogon]

Thanks for this story.

 

Really interesting...never had any food intoxication in LOS -> but I never ate those tiny crabs.

 

Cheers

[cheekyboy]

definitely not unless you want bad guts and pains for days together with the trots .those river crabs are from filthy rivers ,the thais can handle them but not farangs .they can lie in those glass jars for days on end stewing with bacteria .