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Wow. The Scud is looking very handsome ne! I've sometime transplanted food can be better than what you'd really get. Interesting to see something non Japanease. Did you get a chance to try yoshoku? I just finished watching Jyoou no lunch (j-drama) so I'm really craving some of those dishes.

There are lots of offal dishes in Thailand. Or there are dishes that use offal as part of the dish. Mostly these dishes are found in regional cuisine like isaan, southern, or northern dishes, especially isaan. The restaurants found in the States mostly cater to Americans so you won't find those dishes here. They mainly serve dishes from the central region of Thailand and these are often higher end dishes. Offal in Thailand was a more poorer regional fare. If you know the owners or chefs of a particalar restaurant is from a different region then you may be able to order some dishes of offal that aren't on the menu. Though if you can't speak Thai I don't know if they would actually do it for you. If you are looking for a few dishes look for laap that uses offal or gwua thew rua (boat noodles literally). The boat noodles were always my favorite as the good places would squirt fresh blood in the broth at the last moment and contain lovely pieces of offal. Hmm.. yum.

That just means you'll have to do another one in the future! Great fun.

Wow!!! I'm so impressed with how much came out of that tiny kitchen. It all looks delicious! I want to lick my screen. I agree with Agra that the lamb looked the best. Is it possible to get any recipes for the dishes at your aunt's? I'd love to try to make them here. Thanks for such a great blog!

Well, the boy and his horde are still on Naruto Shippuden (young ninjas doing odd things with their hands by themselves....don't think about it too much) The boy says.......D Gray Man, Bleach, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann That's not English, is it? ← domo arigato gozaimasu

OT Question: What is the popular anime people are watching right now? I'm also a big fan of anime but haven't watched anything an awhile cause I've been too stuck on jdrama.

I don't mind being touched by a waiter I might know. I do not like being touched by a complete stranger. I know it's meant as a friendly gesture and I know it means absolutely nothing but please don't. I also have fibromyalgia and being touched can hurt! Not to mention what the pats, punches, and other shenanigans waiters can and do do. So to all you waiters out there. OUCH!

Isn't chawanmushi normally served as part of the meal? I've never had it as dessert before. Was it sweet?

Wait! You are not going to tell us about your cotton candy eating technique?

Oy Vey. This thread is going in circles. I don't think a forum discussing food needs to be concerned with other people's health. If you want to pat yourselves on the back about healthy eating or show info on it then start a thread. There is nothing stating you can't. If you don't want to participate in a thread that you consider unhealthy then don't. Simple as that. The people here are not my keeper, they are not my doctor, they don't pay my medical bills, and in the end have no say in what I choose to eat or don't eat. In the years I've been here I have come to appreciate all the knowledge that is available here. I've tried many recipes that are around whether they are healthy or not healthy. If I choose to eat pork belly everyday while trying to determine how to get it perfect that is my choice and is no ones concern but my own. To FG, Chris, and other who run this forum: Thank you. Keep up the hard work!

OMG! That looks lovely Klary. Yum! I definately want to try that. Now I just have to find a dutch translater.

OK I nominate that Amy needs to try the fish sauce and butter! (Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in elementary school?). Hrm. I'll have to go look for that. Not sure if my korean/chinese/japanese market carries it. They do have a darker type of miso but I always thought that was for something else like nasu dengaku? Thanks

FISH SAUCE and BUTTER???!!!??

Oooo I have a potato craving what kind of miso do you use? I only have misoshiro (I think that's what its called, the white kind). I'm beginning to think dairy use is a cultural misconception. Hrm... I can't think of a Thai dish with butter though. Rona? Can you think of one?

Hi, I was reading Amy's (smallword) blog and I noticed she uses butter and soy sauce as a flavoring in broiled seafood dishes. Is this a common technique in Japan? Amy used it when making scallops. What else could I use this on? I'm really intrigue since so me they seem like two seperate worlds coming together. Most asian cuisines I know of do not use dairy so I wondered if this was something new. Thanks

Hi Hiroyuki I can read a hiragana and a bit of a katagana and very little kanji (took japanese in high school) and what does the sticker on the corner say? All I can read is nihon no osusume? Thanks

That's one of the back stomachs I think. Sounds like the stuff Bourdain was eating in Beijing. Not sure how you make that stuff. Looked good when he was eating it though. God I need tripe. It's been way too long!

This has been a great blog. Thank you so much for doing it. Your regular blog is now part of my line up of must reads! Everything looked great and made me really hungry. I'm looking forward to trying out some of the things you made. I can totally relate to feeling like you just want to live and missing home. I felt that way after 5 years in Thailand and I had family there! I have a weird question: Do you and your husband speak Japanese to each other or English? My Dad used to speak English to me and I would reply in Thai to him when we lived in Bangkok. It was switched when we lived in the States. It's a great way to keep up your language. BTW tell you husband he is cute and shouldn't mind a picture being posted. Thanks again for all the hard work.

Haaaaaiiiii Ikimashou!!!!!!!!!! (Yes, Let's go!!!)

It used to be considered ill-mannered to clean one's plate (too piggish?), and proper to leave a bit of food, even if only one bite. This could come in handy if there was something on your plate you didn't like: you could leave a goodly portion of it and it would be taken as good manners. That custom must have been dropped a long time ago, I'd forgotten all about it. ← I think in many Asian cultures you should leave something. It shows the host that they have provided enough food and you are satisfied. Sometimes if you clean your plate they will continue to put food on your plate for you! I've seen some people who come from the "clean your plate" culture get in big trouble because of that sometimes unknown cultural practice. They kept eating and the host kept on feeding! Hahaha! I think hospitality is very linked to face in Asian cultures and you lose face if someone thinks you are er... the Thai word is kee ngok and for the life of me I cant think of the english equivalent. Maybe stingy? Our family always seemed to have enough food to feed an army. EVERY night. I wonder if thats why we generally had leftovers for breakfast... hrm. I always felt sorry for our cook cause she had to get up at some obscene hour to make food for alms for the monks, our breakfasts, and then go to the market for that nights dinner. Often before 7am.

Oh fun. I love the Japan forum so this will be a treat! Good luck blogging. Looking forward to seeing all the nummy food. Do you ever get together with Kristen? I would like to see some dishes featuring wonderful spring ingredients.

Er... how do you eat asian food? ← Just like everyone else, I don't mind mixing it all together. I think I do it because there was never a common thread between each item at dinner. It was a matter of slogging through the meal. Baked potato, microwaved vegetable, then chicken, pork or roast beef. Irish American cooking isn't all that exciting, well there was the great "no more stew" uprising of 1969 but that's another story. ← Ok. For some reason I had an image you getting a big plate of rice or bowl or rice and eating all of that and THEN going to eat curry or whatever else there was or vice versa. Most asian food is meant to be eaten with rice so that kinda boggled my mind a bit. I do have a few food neuroses I would like to confess to. First I do not like my rice to get muddy. That probably needs explaining. An example would be curry stalls in Thailand that generally will give you a plate of rice with curry and whatever slopped on to the rice. To me that means the rice gets too wet and the flavor get mixed up and "muddied". I prefer to eat family style where the curry and other dishes are in the middle of the table and take spoon full of one item at a time. I think the rice is more pristine in a way? I hope this make sense. Strangely I do not have this problem with western food and actually prefer the get a fork full of something and add another item to the end of it. Am I wierd? The second one I can think of is that I generally like the same thing for lunch for a period of time. I eat a lot of different types of things and even when I have a choice of mulitple items I'm most happy with a simple dish. I just like that dish for lunch again and again (not as in leftover but just the same dish made again). When I was living in Thailand it was common for me to go on a khao mun gai phase or a noodle phase or a somtum phase. Here in the States I can happily (for my mouth prolly not my health) eat McD's filet-o-fish for a week straight. (Luckily this craving doesn't hit very often!) Once I get off my phase I'm pretty anti whatever it was that I was eating for awhile. Anyone else have this problem? Oddly it's only for lunch. I get really really bored if I have the same dinner over and over again. On a neuroses (maybe?) of someone else. I had an ex-boyfriend who would only eat chicken fried rice no matter which asian restaurant we went to. He would NEVER try anything else. That relationship lasted way too long....

As a Thai person, how do you feel about carrots in Thai food, in general? I sometimes see it in som tam and similar dishes, but used sparingly or as a garnish of sorts. I did once see carrots in a stew-like dish at the Siam Center food court, but only once. My dad claimed that most Thai people didn't care for carrots--I think he once said they smelled like feet! The worst insult! I like carrots, by the way. Just not in my Thai curries! ← I just realized that. I really can't think of a dish with carrots either. Maybe a veggie stirfry? Strange. I like carrots too. Never, ever, in my Thai curry though.

YES! Curry is not meant to be a stir fry of veggies + protein with a curry sauce. *shudder* just wrong.

I have always been partial to the filet-o-fish unless there was a toy that I wanted with the happy meal then it was chicken nuggets meal when I was a kid. Now 90% of the time I go to McDs I get the filet o fish. Everywhere I've gone it's always been the freshest tasting.