You can protect your food by putting it in the refrigerator. If an ant does get past the seal it will die in the cold. You can use sealing plastic containers, but the seal better be perfect and a temperature change better not pop the lid, like when you take one out of the refrigerator, or closed it in the cool of night. Ziploc bags are unreliable. The ants seem to chew through them much of the time. Some product bags may work. The basic rule is, if you cannot open it yourself without tools, they ants may not be able to get into it either. It is hard to rely on even this rule, however.

The answer seemed to be to put everything into the refrigerator. That is really inconvenient. It’s not possible when Sue is here stocking up in Korat every two weeks. The ant invasion solutions on the internet involve chemicals, sealing everything adequately, being able to seal off your house better than I can here, and maybe an assumption that the ants are not quite so ready or numerous as they are here.

All I needed to do was ask a Thai. I bought six small bowls for the six legs on my cheap aluminum kitchen cabinet. The legs sit in the bowls which are filled with water. The fifty cent blue pipe is needed to fill the back center bowl. It should take more than a month for the water to evaporate, and we can move everything into the refrigerator when we leave for the U.S.

I tested it by leaving the knife out on the counter top after spreading jam on toast. It was there for 24 hours and I did see one ant. It was not eating jam. It must have been looking for a way back to the nest. I theorize it fell from the ceiling. Now if they could learn to do that, and then go to the cabinet bottom and fall to the floor when they want to get off, I could be in trouble. They’ll have to evolve more before they can do that.

So now I have a big cabinet I can store any kind of food in or on. I’ll try to keep the doors closed in case something larger wants to munch, but I have seen no signs of anything like that yet.

What everything is thrown into is called a croc, like a big wooden pestle and mortar. They pound everything pretty well; put it all in a bag, rubber band the neck and you are ready to go.

Some of the ingredients, especially the bpara, can be an acquired tast. We get ours “vegetarian”, leaving out bpara, shrimp, MSG, most of the sugar and most of the peppers. It’s pretty hard for the lady to leave out all the peppers, so I let her put in two. This is Som Tam, and it’s supposed to be spicy. This places it at about level four of a typical Thai restaurant in America that has five levels of spiciness. If you ordered it spicy here it would be off the scale of an American Thai restaurant by a factor of three of four, so be careful. If you want to eat spicy like some Thais, break into it gradually.

If you leave out the bpara and shrimp, have them wash the croc or your Som Tam will taste fishy. As the picture shows, my restaurant has two crocs, with the one on the right fish free.

What made me think to write this post was that I brought home some Som Tam yesterday, and when it was time for lunch today Sue asked me to go get some more. We really do like it, and Sue in addition likes the low calorie aspect.

View Nang Rong Som Tam in a larger map

So where is the best Som Tam? This is one thing on which everyone here has an opinion, even me. Some Som Tam places are definitely better than others. After the Som Tam lady whose shop was in front of my house left to take care of her mother I was getting it from a place down at the other end of the block, but it just was not as good there. Finally the lady living to one side of me and a guy across the street both informed me of their favorite place. I tried it and agree it is the best. It is on 348, the north/south highway through Nang Rong.

For me it was good, maybe in the top half of restaurants in this town, but not great. The first time it was chicken in a yellow curry sauce, zucchini, bell peppers, a bit of onion, carrots and pineapple chunks. The chicken was good, but not really different from chicken at other restaurants. The sauce was OK but I have certainly had better. Bland?

The second time it was Mongolian beef. I have had better at some U.S. Chinese restaurants but the closest is a five hour drive from here. I’d rate it as very good for here and was told it was a popular dish. The glaze on the beef was good.

There was three times as much meat, twice what I could eat, compared to in Nang Rong. As a leftover the glaze soaks in or changes and the Mongolian beef loses a lot. Split this dish with someone.

They have five levels of spiciness. If you eat medium spicy in Isaan go for five and you should at least notice it.

The big overall thing was the rice. I was coarser, like rice at any normal American restaurant, like rice I grew up on in the U.S. I don’t like it. Maybe most here do? In Isaan they use Jasmine or the like that cooks up softer, a little more “melt in your mouth.”  Add said the owner preferred to save money by using U.S. rice. Notice the chicken dish also saves by using green bell peppers rather than the more expensive, colorful and slightly tastier yellow and red. This restaurant leans toward the upscale (the décor is best I’ve seen in this area of nearly 100,000) so I expected a bit better.

 For me the rice made all the difference. I don’t think he saves much. I get Thai Jasmine rice in a 25 pound bag inexpensively at Costco. My wife as well as Add use it when in the US. Does living in Thailand make one become a rice bigot?

Will this make a difference to most diners here? I don’t think so. They should give it a try. I spent a month in various parts of China and in general (there were a couple of shining exceptions) I like Chinese food in the U.S. better than that in China. I also like pizza here better than that in Italy. But when it comes to Thai food, I’ll stick with Thailand.

In case you were wondering, Sue and I arrive back in Thailand October 7. We would not miss the dry season.

Well, that is no longer completely true, but maybe not completely false either. A new Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise opened there around the end of the dry season (March) this year. It is located within the Tewikit mall which is out on highway 24. Tewikit is a small department/discount/grocery store, part of a small chain whose two main stores are in Buriram city. KFC’s are located in each of those, so I guess Nang Rong was the next biggest store and the next place to try. It is really half a KFC with only about half their offerings available. The front counter area seems very small, hardly there. There was one employee that I could see and I don’t believe there were any customers present when I checked it out.  

Are the other chains watching, ready to move in should the KFC prove successful? I wouldn’t mind a Pizza Company or a Dairy Queen here. They sell food that I cannot get without traveling to Buriram city or to Korat. I sometimes eat at KFC when in Bangkok or other cities, but in Nang Rong I know places to go for good chicken. The very best chicken I’ve had in the area is barbequed at a roadside place across from the Chalearm Pragaid regional hospital just a few miles east of Nang Rong. With their low overhead the cost is about a sixth of KFC and the view is great. I was standing with my back to a lake when I took the picture.

Some of the more knowledgeable Thais in the area give a low probability for success for this new KFC venture, and I think the franchisers of the fast food places in Thailand are quick to close down outlets that don’t meet their sale minimums.

We won’t change that website entry just yet.