Flavour of chicken

[solar]

A boring question perhaps, but why does chicken taste so much better in LOS than back home in UK. I can't believe that they are any less 'processed' there than they are in UK, but the flavours are incomparable.

[Old Hippie]

I agree with you! Chickens here are hughe and full of steroids and what not. If you buy an organic chicken (about 4 times the price) then it taste s different and will also have a different texture. I think the biords in LOS are not subjected to as much steroids and chemical feed, so that could be it, or I could be wrong!

[Pom_Jao_Choo]

And you know that's one of the reasons why no matter how good a Thai cook you are it's never going to taste as good as in LOS.

 

You can use all the imported spices you like, even bottled water from los and it still won't be the same.

 

I understand that their are a lot of large poultry operations in Thailand now so you will have to assume that that they are using steroids/drugs/chemicals. I mean 10 years ago visiting a hilltribe north of Chiang Mai I wathed as they fed the village cow medicine.

 

But I wonder about the free range chickens, there are a lot of those as well, people keeping them in those little baskets. I am told that not only are they allowed to be free range but their quite often fed extra coconut pulp not suited for humans.

 

If you have any appreciation for the difference between a cow thats pastured and one thats corn fed you will appreciate what this will mean.

 

But after having considered the chicken question I realized it was a little more broad than that, because if you ever tasted a raw cucumber in lOS you will have noticed that it tastes a hell of a lot better than even your moms garden raised cukes.

 

And that of course rules out the whole MSG argument.

 

 

 

I don't know if its because of the tropical sun (maybe someone else who frequents south america can coment).

 

But there certainly is a difference. Its more than your being on holidays there. Its more than the environment your in or even how very good Thai cooking is. Everything seems to taste better there even the bugs :-)))

 

 

[Guest]

Oh,Oh...you raised a question here wich is a thorn in my side for long. Its not just the chicken, but it is thaifood in general. Here in Berlin i just came across one spot where you can get some decent thaifood. Its actually not even a restaurant but a thaishop where you have to go in a room where a sign says "Privat" and you find yourself in a place with a big table where everybody sits down, plasticchairs, the kitchen is in the same room and the herbs and spices are for selfservice. The cook is a thailady way past her 60s and there is no menue to choose from and she speaks only thai. But its the only place i found where fried noodle with chicken actually taste like it does in LOS. And i tried out a lot of restaurants.

 

 

 

mupfel

[Guest]

i like KFC and have found the taste of the KFC chicken (original flavour) to be much better in the UK than in LOS

 

 

 

 

[Azmit]

Industrial food achieves miracles in terms of cost, but don't expect taste for the price !

 

For my grand-parents chicken was the typical sunday meal, something you couldn't afford every day. Now it is the cheapest meat. How do they do that, when chicken are offered at as low as 2-3 euros a kilo I don't trust them, it's not normal.

 

There are alternatives, but much more expensive. The other day I had a special local (Belgian) species of chicken, really tasty and nice texture, but clearly much more expensive than industrial crap.

 

I also try to buy bio food whenever I can, it is more expensive, but you support an agriculture based on on quality instead of only profit.

[Azmit]

[color:blue] I don't know if its because of the tropical sun (maybe someone else who frequents south america can coment). ¨color=blue>

 

 

 

Certainly sunny countries have tastier vegetables and fruits. I'm Italian living in Belgium and I really miss the taste of even a simple salad, not to mention the wonderful tomatoes.

 

I was shocked a few years ago to find in a Roman supermarket tomatoes grown in Holland, no taste, grown without earth or sun in a glass house just because it was cheaper than Italian ones !!!

 

 

 

Let's spend more and buy good food to teach'em a lesson.

[Guest]

 

 

I have a thai lady friend from Loei (just friends) who also graduated from Kaset sart with a degree in food science. The last time I dined out with her in a rural restaurant in Loei, she ordered something called fried "gai ban" (house chicken). I had never heard of it before. Anyway, she explained to me that unlike industrial processed chicken, this was truly "natural" chicken - i.e. they just killed the chickens they keep around the house and fried it up. Dude, it was leaner and smaller than "normal" chicken, but it tasted twice as better. It was the best fried chicken I'd ever had in my life!!

 

 

 

So if you go to Isann, ask for fried "house chicken"!!!!!!!

[New Petchburi Pete]

Old Hippie,

 

I know you are right if you are talking about the chicken in the villages. ... no steroids, antibiotics, etc. They are smaller than in The States; and, they taste much better to me.

[Guest]

Yes, there are "kai ban" places around Bangkok. One I've been to a few times is close to Sukhothai-Thammatirat Open University in Nonthaburi, just outside of Bangkok. It's called Nittaya, and is the second branch (don't know where the first one is), and Nittaya is some famous Thai entertainer or something like that; lots of photographs with her and local celebrities on the wall. The meat IS leaner.

 

 

 

If you want to check it out, it's out in Pak Kret District of Nonthaburi, off of Chaeng Wattaan Road, on a road that runs straight from Muang Thong Thani condos (and Impact Arena) to the university; it's in a row of shophouses between the university and the expressway.