Hoi An - food

Some food and drink from around town - much of it famous traditional foods from Hoi An. Delectable! (and yes, the food at Mr. Dong was great, too)

Halong Bay - squid fishing

We went squid fishing off the back of our boat that night. We didn't catch any (it wasn't 'squid season') but it was a lot of fun!

Hua Hin - signs

More squid snacks

I should make a seperate post label to do with squid - I see them everywhere, and cartoon squid are a particularly popular logo on food in this area of the world. Here are more

Indifferent octopus

Eat me!

Octopus on a stick

Folks that know me know that I had fond memories of squid on a stick in Taiwan. My father did, too - he didn't have a chance to eat it when he was in Taiwan. So - Sam prepared him some, and I cooked it up some squid on a stick on the grill on my deck in Madison. It was the first time anyone ever ate squid on a stick within the borders of Wisconsin, USA. Yup, we're pioneers.

(how did my family like the squid? great, except I remember someone getting squirted on by an eye or an ink pack - well, they don't call them "ink fish" in Thai for nothing!)

Anyhow, I thought that squid on the stick was possibly both the most awesome and the most perfect food known to mankind. And then, lo and behold, one day walking down the streets of Bangkok I saw this - octopus on a stick. I looked, and stopped, and said in my best Thai "One!" And I pointed. My Thai isn't too great. But I got my octopus, although strangely enough they took it off the stick before serving it in a plastic bag with spicy sauce. About that - if you poke at octopus bits sitting in a saucy bag with a pointy stick, you might just end up poking a hole in the bag. I have seen many folks from Bangkok do this without problems, but mine sprung a leak right before I ate the last piece, and I had to abandon that bit to a trash can before the spicy octopus sauce got all over everything. I realized then I must master the complex skills of eating Thai street food. The Thais are masters, and I am but a novice. I thought I was not bad at eating street food, but truly, the Thais have elevated it to an art form. I am in awe.

ps the octopus was delicious

pss some of those tasty bits on the grill are actually squid body

pps I think I'll go grab some octopus on a stick

The octopus stand

Not sure exactly what's being sold here, but that looks like an octopus, so my guess is - octopus. The octopus stand, so to speak.

Dehydrated squid

We went to a noodle shop the other day that had a jar of squid on the table in front of it. Sam clarified that it was dehydrated squid that they were rehydrating. It looked like a science experiment, but tasted quite good - a consistency sort of like beef tendon (spongy).

More snacks

The fried seaweed slices are delicious. The sweet, crunchy dried fish are good, but I can't eat too many in a sitting. And the dried fish slices we already knew we liked.

Seafood market

You get some food pics for Christmas -- we went to a 'wet' market after Chatuchak market, and saw some fresh seafood. I liked how the squid had 'lost their ink'. Also - note the sheer size of that prawn - bigger than a bottle of water! The bags of dried seafood were fresh, if that makes sense - fish and seafood was being dried on site.