SLUGS ON TOAST

One of the adventures of foreign travel is the delight of tasting new and different foods. While they may not always be savoryand are often an affront to our Western palatefoods in S.E. Asia run the full gamut: They range from an enormous variety of greens and other vegetables, to noodle dishes, to meats and poultryprepared in a seemingly-endless number of waysto grilled fresh fish and shellfish, to dozens of exotic fruits and sweets for dessert.

And some of the most tasty dishes are the ones you don’t want to know about. If your mind were fed the ingredients, your stomach would probably turn. But the recognition, always available to the curious eye and palate, that difference is interestingnot bad or wrongis worth taking a risky bite.

Thailand is world-famous for its delicious curries, soups and noodle dishes. On almost any main street in Bangkok, dozens of cooks are standing over sizzling wokssupported by make-shift tablesstir-frying or deep-frying one dish or another; others are grilling chicken or fish; still others are baking pancakes filled with a variety of delectable ingredients, including pork or strawberries, or even pork AND strawberries. Some sidewalk chefs specialize in tofu, others in stuffed dumplings. The combination of tantalizing aromas is dizzying.

Bangkok is a gigantic outdoor restaurant. There is food wherever you turn. A hawker is offering an exotic fruit juice: “Here…you like? You just try…you like. Just try.”

As with many cultures, the Thais eat just about everything one can imagine and also quite a few things one cannotlike the “syrup” formed when a piece of bamboo lies on the forest floor and collects water (for an indeterminate amount of time). A Thai will shake the bamboo, and, from the sound it makes, he knows if the “syrup” is ready. The special liquid will be mixed with a main dish ingredient, as a sauce; the result will be treasured by all. Another delicacy is ants’ eggs, collected from trees in a basket/net tool made of bamboo. The Thais love fried ants, as do many other cultures.

On a recent trip to the region, I was once again twisted around and tricked by my own cultural belief system. Though I’d traveled to S.E. Asia at least 15 times, I was often amazed at how my mind still played the same tricks. I had been “born” to cringe (and even itch) at the notion of eating ants, when in fact, they are quite tasty. I had been programmed by Western society to love the smell of a

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