Beyond green papaya salad and barbecued chicken, the dish perhaps most redolent of Isan is the spicy meat salad written variously as Laab,  Larb or Laap. It is fresh, zingy, healthy and as Thai food goes, really very simple to concoct.  Eaten with raw vegetables, sticky rice and perhaps a "som tam", it makes a quick and appetizing meal.  Chicken, pork, venison or duck may be substituted for the beef.

If you order eggs for breakfast in Isan, you might like to be a little more specific. The eggs of the red ant (or "Khai mot daeng")  are a local delicacy and can be eaten in a number of ways - raw in salads, cooked in a soup, or added as a flavouring to a Thai style omelette.

Ants may often seem to appear when you least wish to encounter them, but sourcing their larvae is an entirely different challenge (unless you cheat and pick them up at the local market.) Being sociable creatures with a mind for safety, they like to build their nests on the branches of trees, masterfully exploiting pliable leaves and gluing and weaving  these together with a silken secretion  to make a protective and camouflaged home.

Much akin to foraging for honey, when you go ant egg hunting with the Thai villagers at Gecko Villa, you must first identify a suitable nest, use a knife to clip the branch or a bamboo pole to dislodge the nest, and then shake away the understandably angry ants. Unfolding the leaves, you will discover what appears to be a miniature honeycomb filled with the white larvae. If you then place this in a bucket of water, the natural reaction of the ants to clump together will separate most of the ants from the eggs (although the ants have not died but are simply playing possum) and leave you with what could pass for a miniature cassoulet.

Ant eggs are nutrionally valuable and have a gentle flavour. The sourness sometimes associated with the ingredient is often attributed to the occasional ant that many cooks like to leave in the dish, imparting crunch and depth, with the acidity of the formic acid tasting like a mild lime.

Flavouring an oil with garlic, chilies and lemongrass before adding the eggs and green onions, kaffir lime leaves and a dash of fish sauce makes a great accompaniment to a cold beer. For the more squeamish, the contents may be wrapped in a Good King Henry leaf to make a more alluring package.

The tradition of hunting for ants eggs has even given birth to the exotic Isan dance, "Serng Yae Kai Mot Daeng" or Ant Egg Gathering Dance, choreographed around hunters searching for, and harvesting, this Isaan delicacy.