Thailandâ€™s Unusual Rural Cuisine (Part 1)

November 5, 2011

Recently peckish, I trawled the Secrets web board in the hope of finding some juicy gastronomic pointers, and I wasn’t disappointed when I discovered two threads about, er, eating rats. Not the nasty ones I hasten to add, but rice-fed ones from rural ricefields.

It is a common staple in rural Thailand, although the sound of it to foreigners is off-putting.

I am indebted to Duncan Stearn for the photos, which he took up-country a couple of years ago.

Step one, give the bodies a nice wash to get rid of dust and grit

The threads were: “What’s for Breakfast?”, and “Rats - would you eat one!”

Now these rats aren’t your common or garden city rats, but are instead ones that live in the rice fields eating Thailand's finest rice.

Sinclair1969 said My girlfriend loves to eat these wild rats, they are different from the city rats in that they have been living in a clean environment. They are for sale along the main roads in many parts of Thailand and are a favorite among many villagers.

Merv believes the dearest meat in Thailand is Rice Rat. "Why" I asked, and the answer is quite simple really "they are very difficult to catch" I thought they tasted a bit gamey and very chewy.

Pumpuynarak told us: Wifey and I visited her mum in the village on Friday. As we were about to leave there was considerable excitement from the neighbours, whose son had caught a rat. This rat was a fxxking monster. It must have been 18 inches long, minus the tail, that's in part what all the excitement was about. I am told by wifey they rarely catch them that size.

Within minutes it had been skinned and was divvied up amongst them and wifey had her share. So off we go, back home with the rat.

No sooner had we got in the door than wifey is cutting it up and chopping it into small pieces, the remainder went into the fridge.

Now the cooking commenced. After about 20 mins of frying wifey is tucking into this rat with the biggest smile on her face I have ever seen.

I have to say that the cooking smells permeating from the kitchen were quite nice, but there's no way I could eat the thing.

Step two, remove the fur and lay the bodies out in the sun

Brownie shuddered: a rat with an 18 inch body?? Feck catching it. I'd have run a mile.

Secrettom was cool on the great taste of rat: Treated like a rabbit by the Thais , they are field rats and I accidentally ate some a few years ago; greasy foul sh*te.

Comsic36 helpfully weighed in with: I work in a rat/mouse lab and we have a freezer full of 800 rats cut up in various pieces. What is your wife's address, I can feed the village for a year.

Hilly helpfully set out what looked like a delicious recipe for rat (in post 10, of the "Rats – Would you eat one" thread for adventurous readers – let us know how it turns out!), commenting:

Serve ground rat meat on an oval dish with livers and heart on the top. Circle with garnish of basil leaves and halves of lime. Serve with white rice. The flavor will be hot and tangy with a mild crunchy chew to it. It is not to be considered the main dish, but a nice hot and spicy accent to other prepared dishes.

Step three, cook them over the open fire (fighting off the local cats)

Eddibabyyeah said: During a trip around LOS last year myself & the missus came across lots of sellers at the side of the road selling BBQ’d rats. She stopped and bought one. The thing smelled bloody awful. I did have a small bite of it and it was full of bones and tasted nothing like rabbit.

Heymarky said he’d eaten one in Bangkok unknowingly many moons ago. Tasted like pork only sweeter.

Bottleymike said I have eaten barbequed rat up country. It tasted OK, and probably a lot healthier than the steroids fed pork, or the farmed fish that are fed on chicken crap. The rats live in the rice fields and feed off the rice, so are relatively speaking free range, so why not eat them.

LionKing weighed in with a late night Pattaya tale in a street behind South Pattaya Market, for anyone tempted after a night out: half way up there are some stalls selling skinned rats and dozens of other things dead and alive.