Aharn Isaans - the food of the region

First you need good, fresh ingredients.
Markets are not like Western supermarkets, (although Thailand has many of those too), they are a social gathering with the distraction of a little shopping as the pictures above show.

The delicious Tom Yam Khoong - just beware of the hot red bits at the top.

Shredding the green papaya for "Som Tam"

Food dishes are also shared across borders - but I am forever in trouble for using the Lao name (Pla non) for a particular fish when I should be using the Thai name. That's OK for the bi-lingual people, but I really don't know the Thai name. Honestly! Incidentally it is very good - perhaps I should learn the real name. It has a taste similar to mackerel, but far less oily. I have always eaten it grilled over charcoal with a stick of lemongrass inside.

Isaans has many regional dishes - and also shares some dishes with southern Thailand. Most meals are eaten with sticky rice, (glutinous rice), which is rolled into a ball and then flattened so that food may be picked up in the same way as the Indian Nan bread is used.

A ball of sticky rice may be dipped into a fearsomely hot sauce made from dried fish, dried chilies and lime juice. Excellent taste .... but so, so hot!

So far from the sea it is amazing just how much fish is eaten in the region, mostly I believe fresh-water fish, but huge prawns (khoong) are also to be found very easily in the shops and markets.

Cooked in a sour and spicy sauce with mushrooms, galingale, lemongrass, mushrooms and bergamot leaf (bai makhroud) the prawns make the famous 'Tom Yam Khoong'. The flavour of bergamot is better in this lovely soup than in Earl Grey Tea or the popular 'Bergasol' sun tan lotion.

To complement the Tom Yam Khoong there is a papaya and chillie salad called "Som Tam". Green papaya is shredded and then crushed with chillies, dried anchovy, lime juice, cherry tomato and fish sauce (narm pla). Sometimes small soft-shelled crabs may be added to make the fearsome "Som Tam Lao". Wonderful flavour but you DO need an asbestos palate to eat it.

Salt is seldom used in Thai cooking - all the salt content comes from the fish sauce. (Or a stock cube or two!). However coarse salt is used when eating crispy strips of freshly picked green mango or the golf-ball sized baby breadfruit.

Isaans has some of the best fruit and vegetables that I have ever eaten.

My breakfast generally starts with a LARGE glass of freshly liquidised fruit juice.

During the day I regularly drink a mix of pineapple and orange juice. Tastes good to me, but is very effective at repelling the voracious isaans mosquitos. An excellent drink with many vitamins and no need for toxins (or mosquito bites) on my skin.

You never need to worry about food hygiene in Isaans, even the food from hawkers is safe for the Western stomach except the excessive "phrik" (chilli) of course. On my first (2 week) visit to Isaans I took 3 boxes of Immodium with me, and took the 3 boxes home with me unopened.