Posted on 08/17/2017 5:06:28 AM PDT by vannrox
Mrs. Somboon has been selling grilled field rats for about 7 years.
...
Free Range. How long before Whole Foods sells them.
Rat. The other, other white meat.
Then there are those who don’t give them away.
Everyone I know who has been to Thailand loved it. What was your experience?
Rat tart!
After a dozen or more icy San Miguel’s in one of Magsaysay Street’s finest air-conditioned establishments, the monkey meat on a stick was mighty delicious consumed on the long walk across the Olongapo River to the gate to the base.
First of all...it was the early 80's.Thailand may well have changed...for the better...since then.Basically,it was hot,dusty,poor and very "Asian" (meaning foreign).I'm not certain but I think it was my first experience with Asia (Japan,Hong Kong,Singapore,etc came much later).Actually,I now recall that it was just after my *very* first experience with Asia,India...which I hated (I was on a special Pan Am "Around the World" fare).It was my first exposure to Third World poverty and I was absolutely shocked,stunned and deeply unsettled by it.
So I guess my dislike for Thailand might have been a residual of my frightening stay in India.
My first friend who was in Thailand was there during the Vietnam unpleasantness (Harold Conover, if you’re out there please check in). He absolutely adored the place, loved the people, loved the food, learned the language, etc.
He introduced me to Thai food, and taught me a little Thai, making me something of a rarity, someone who speaks some Thai (with a good accent), but has never been to Thailand...
Perhaps in the 13 months he was there, he was able to see past the economic poverty? He also didn’t have any earlier experiences to sour him on travel and discordant cultures, and came to it as a clean slate.
Now that I think about it mostly the Americans I know who who were there spent more that a few days or weeks, whether on deployment, or studying, or setting up or running a factory.
:-)
I was much luckier than your friend in that the Army,in its infinite wisdom,never ordered me to SE Asia (joined in 1969).I did travel there about 10 years ago because I felt a need to pay tribute,in my own quiet way,to our guys who did go there and did suffer there.
As an R&R spot it's easy to see how Thailand and the Phillipines would seem like paradise compared to what they just left.
However,I'll freely admit that my less than flattering assessment of the country could be entirely out of line....entirely unfair.Since my visit there I've done a good deal of traveling (First *and* Third World) and have come to recognize that a culture that works so well for us might not be the best one for other people.
Beat me to it. Even the poor won’t eat trash rats because you’ll get so sick from them. But field rats are grain fed and free roaming and not only taste much better but also a lot less risk of getting ill!
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