Food and Drink

An Asian Turfgrass Company team celebrated a recent college graduation at a riverside restaurant on the outskirts of Bangkok, feasting on large prawns — a local staple where the head is considered the best part, best enjoyed with a spicy dipping sauce.

A recipe and personal account of making a spicy Thai-style green mango salad with dried fish, shrimp, peanuts, chili peppers, and shrimp sauce — ingredients the author found intensely flavorful enough to induce visible sweating.

Lime-chili “SHOCK” Lay’s potato chips from Thailand deliver an overwhelming flavor unlike anything else in the snack aisle, while sweet mango with coconut milk sticky rice proves so irresistibly good that eating two full mangos’ worth in one sitting leads to an involuntary food coma.

Available in Thailand this summer, the Mango Tango ice cream bar delivers an intense mango flavor similar to Japan’s popular Mango Crunky bar, but without the chocolate coating.

A turf agronomist describes his actual daily diet while working in Sam Khok, Thailand, which consists of rice, vegetables, muesli, peanuts, and fruit — clarifying that the rats commonly seen in local rice paddy fields serve only as an appetite suppressant by sight and smell, not as actual food.

Roadside vendors near Korat and Khao Yai National Park in Thailand sell grilled rice field rats for 200 baht per kilogram, with regional preparation differences from Ayutthaya-style rats — including removed heads and tails — meaning buyers get more meat per baht, alongside tender baby rats also available for purchase.

Exploring the culinary culture of Sam Khok, Thailand, a writer investigates the weekend roadside market for grilled rat, finding it priced at 180–200 baht per kilogram—four times the cost of chicken—and humorously frames it as the centerpiece of a tongue-in-cheek “Sam Khok Diet” complete with whisky pairing suggestions.

A blogger living in Thailand describes the abundance of roadside food vendors near his home, focusing on a curious weekend-only specialty: grilled rat sold every few kilometers, priced at around 160 baht per kilogram — more expensive than pork or chicken — which raises questions about vendor schedules, leftover inventory, and the best sauce pairings.

A solo Thanksgiving celebration in Thailand featured a festive meal of vegetables, fried rice, salad, and omelette—a notable upgrade from the author’s typical diet of fruit and peanuts, complete with dressing up for the occasion.

Raw goat meat (yagi sashimi) and horse meat (uma) are traditional Okinawan delicacies with distinct flavors — the goat is notably chewy and strongly “goaty,” while horse is milder, both typically served with dipping sauce.