Thai food commonly known outside of the kingdom is often a limited litany of accessible (but nevertheless tasty) dishes. Yet each region in Thailand has its indigenous favourites, and one of Isan's specialties is "Mam", or beef blood sausage. The central Thais refer to this as Sai Krok Luat, yet these sausages are nigh on impossible to find out of Northeast Thailand.

They are made with beef  liver and blood, mixed with a variety of herbs and spices such as lemongrass and garlic, stuffed in beef intestine. They are air dried and stay soft for approximately seven days before hardening, and may be eaten raw or fried. Not only does this process ensure a symphony of flavours - but the addition of salt or fish sauce and garlic allows the meat to be preserved. They are usually served with a spicy dipping sauce - the recipe for which you will find lurking on our Thai Isan blog.

If you travel to Thailand and are a foodie who enjoys salami or andouillette at home, keep an eye peeled for roadside stalls with a small tarpaulin roof covering strings of these tasty morsels hanging up to dry - then stop and buy a couple! Alternatively, ask us to purchase some for you and to prepare them as one of your authentic Northeastern Thai dishes at Gecko Villa.

Pepperleaf or wild betel leaves (Piper sarmentosum, as opposed to the narcotic betelnut leaf) grow all around Gecko Villa. There is no English name for these leaves,  called cha plu (ช้าพลู) in Thai, phak i lert in Isan & Lao, and la lot in Vietnamese. Whilst most villagers in Isan will use them in soups to add flavour, we like to use them in what is traditionally a Vietnamese dish. The wofting aroma of the perfumed leaves, when grilled, is unmistakably seductive.

12 oz ground beef
1  thinly sliced shallot 
1 larg garlic clove - peeled and minced
2 tbls minced lemongrass (the white part)
2 tsps sugar
1 tbl fish sauce
24  large cha plu leaves (In the West, you can substitute grape (vine) leaves)
Bamboo skewers or toothpicks soaked in water for 20 minutes and drained

Mix the beef, shallot, garlic, lemongrass, sugar and fish sauce in a bowl. 
Wash and dry the cha plu leaves.

Put about 2 teaspoons of filling in the center of each leaf, towards the stem end. Fold the stem end over the filling, fold in the sides and roll up carefully.  Ensure the filling is wholly and tightly enclosed. Stuff and roll the remaining leaves.
Skewer the rolls, brush with oil and grill over a barbecue or on a medium-high, well-oiled grill pan for around 2 minutes per side until lightly charred. Alternatively, steam the rolls briefly and then grill.

Serve with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce made with fish sauce, sugar, lime and chilies.

This dish is a favourite with children and adults alike at our Thai holiday villa

The walking catfish (Clarias batrachus or "Pla Duk Dan") is native to  Thailand and thrives in brackish water. It has commonly been called the "walking catfish" because of its confusing ability to leave water sources and walk around on dry land. It is a voracious fish, and in the US is even classified as an invasive species.

In Thailand, the fish makes an excellent and filling meal. One of our many local Thai dishes at both  Gecko Villa and Green Gecko (our sister Thai styled villa)  is called "Fish Walking through the Herb Garden" or "Pla Chon Looi Suan". Whilst we usually prefer Snakehead Fish (Pla Chon") in this dish, some also use catfish as an alternative. The catfish is scored deeply on each side and then deep fried until the skin is crispy and the flesh tender. The fish is then plated and a tangy, fresh blitz of fresh coriander, lemon grass, garlic, mint, chillies and lime is poured over the fish before serving.

Makua Puang - Solanum torvum

In the kitchen at our rural Thai house, we are often quizzed about one vegetable more than many others. Europeans may mistake them for peas, whilst some Asians assume they are unseasonally large green peppercorns.

A common ingredient in many Thai dishes, the Pea Aubergine (or Pea Egglpant) is a traditional ingredient in a Thai green curry or in Nam Phrik chilli dipping sauces. With a very slightly bitter flavour when raw, cooking these in a curry dissipates the bitterness and adds a subtle rounded flavour to the dish, whilst also enlivening it with the interesting popping texture of the baby aubergines when consumed.

In front of Green Gecko, our traditional Thai country villa, we grow our own pea aubergines. The berries of the 2-3m plant would normally turn yellow when ripe but for cooking we pluk them whilst still hard and green. Whilst we always prefer to use them fresh, those with only intermnittent access to them will be pleased to know that the pea aubergine can be frozen.

Quite why the pea aubergione should be known in some countries as the Devli's Fig or the Shoo-Shoo Bush is unclear, but consumption of the berries does seem rather limited, predominantly to Laos, Thailand, India and the Ivory Coast .

Gai Yang (grilled chicken) is popular throughout Thailand and is a native dish of Northeast Thailand, where it is often accompanied by a spicy green papaya salad (som tam) and sticky rice. The marinade helps infuse flavour into the chicken and to keep it plump and succulent when grilled on a charcoal or wood fired grill (often in bamboo pincers.)

Ingredients for the marinade:

3 cloves garlic 
3 birds eye chillies
A good pinch of rock salt
2 tsps black peppercorns
2 tbs chopped coriander root, minced

1 stalk of lemongrass, finely chopped
2 tbs fish sauce
1 cup coconut milk

1.5 kilos chicken legs / thighs

The marinade is traditionally ground in the Thai kitchen in with a pestle and mortar, although a food processor may  be used. Pound the dry ingredients to a paste, before adding the coconut milk and fish sauce. Use this to marinate the chicken pieces in a bag or bowl for around 6 hours. Then grill the chicken, using the marinade to baste/brush the chicken until cooked.

Those with a more "American" tooth can add 1-2 tsp sugar to the marinade. If you do so, we would also recommend you add 2 tsps tamarind paste to enhance the flavour even further.

Bangkokians and many foreigners like to eat Thai barbecued chicken  with a sweet chilli dipping sauce, although the time honoured  Isan accompaniment is the grilled meat dipping sauce  in our earlier blog.

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.

We cultivate many organic  papaya trees around the grounds of both Gecko Villa and Green Gecko. In Isan, we tend to regard the fruit as a vegetable - using it as a main ingredient whilst hard and green rather than as a fruit when its flesh has sweetened and softened into reds or yellows.

The papaya plant grows rapidly. Whilst the bark and stem may be used to produce rope, the fruit is best known for its wide range of uses and inherent health benefits.

Both the green fruit and the latex in the papaya tree are rich in papain, an enzyme useful in tenderizing meat (and often used in manufactured meat tenderizers.) Papain (often produced by fermenting the flesh of the papaya) is also used as a topical application to treat cuts, rashes, stings and burns. The fruit also has a relatively high amount of pectin, which can be used to make jams.

Papayas contain high levels of folates and antioxidants, including vitamins C, E and A. These help prevent the oxidation of cholesterol, and are thus believed to be valuable in preventing atherosclerosis, stokes and heart attacks. Diets high in papaya have been proven to reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 82%, as a result of their richness in lycopenes. Juice form the leaves of the tree can increase platelet counts.

Black seeds nestle in the centre of the fruit in a hollow chamber, and are generally discarded, although they are in fact edible, with a sharp, spicy taste. They may be dried and ground and then be deployed as a substitute for black pepper.

The spicy Green Papaya Salad known as Som Tam is considered the flagship dish of the Northeast - even if it has been hijacked, sweetened and dulled down in scovilles by the central Thais in their "Som Tam Thai".  The wafting aromas of Som Tam are distinctive and seductive, marrying sour, bitter, sweet and salty notes to a dish that weds crunch with softness. The "pok-pok" sound of pestle and mortar, and the aroma concocted by the rhythmic pounding and scraping of the ingredients, creates a symphony of taste that far exceeds  its individual notes - principally shredded green papaya, cherry tomatoes, long beans, chilies, garlic  and lime juice palm sugar and fish sauce (or, specifically in Isan, fermented fish or rice paddy crab.)

So venture up the Northeast of Thailand and enjoy a freshly prepared Som Tam with some sticky rice. Juicy, spicy, healthy, fresh and crunchy, it makes a perfect summer dish beside the gurgling pool.