IGNORE THE FOWL SMELL
DUCK HAS A SPECIAL PLACE IN THAI CUISINE
Thailand has an old saying, “hate the animal but eat its eggs, hate eels but drink the broth”, which means one may dislike something, yet still want the benefits of it. Some people feel squeamish over the eel’s appearance. But once cooked into a hot and spicy soup like tom klong or tom yum, they cannot resist drinking the delicious broth. Likewise, many people do not like ducks but love eating duck eggs.
These days ducks have a primary place the Thai culinary repertoire. Many delicious dishes are made from duck and duck eggs, like ped phalo (stewed duck with Chinese five-spices), ped yang (roasted duck), kuay tio ped (noodles with duck), ped toon manao dong (stewed duck with pickled lime) and lab ped (hot and spicy duck salad). But in the past, ducks were scarcely used in Thai cooking. It came last after pork, beef, chicken and fish. Moreover, people in the northern region believed ducks were not good for health and eating duck would bring about family rifts. Until today, there is no authentic northern dish that uses duck meat as a main ingredient. And duck farms are almost non-existent in the North.
During the time when the Central Region was still an agricultural-based society, the communities were located along waterways. The circumstances looked suitable for raising ducks, but duck farming was rather scattered. Duck pens were erected partly on canal banks and partly over the water. On the ground ducks were fed with rice grain and rice bran. The poultry also ate natural food such as snails, baby fish and morning glory in the water. Farmers earned money from selling eggs and spent ducks after they stopped laying eggs.
Despite the low investment of maintaining a backyard duck farm, many people were deterred by the unbearable smell of duck manure. Also, very few local dishes used duck meat in the recipe due to its foul smell.
Curry paste in general uses normal ingredients including dry chilli, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime rind, shallot, garlics and shrimp paste. But the paste for making green curry duck and red curry duck requires an addition of extra herbs, namely coriander seeds, mint and nutmeg, to obscure the unpleasant smell of duck meat.
Deep fried duck meat is used with red curry duck with pineapple while aromatic roasted duck is added in gaeng phet ped yang with gooseberry to mask the foul smell.
Although duck and duck meat is used in few Thai dishes, it is a completely different story for duck eggs. Duck eggs are Thai people’s favourite. In the past, fried eggs had to be duck eggs only. The egg was fried in a very hot oil until the white edge turns yellow-brown and crispy while the yolk is still liquid. It is then eaten with nam pla phrik (sliced chillies in fish sauce) and rice.
Duck eggs are an important ingredient in making traditional Thai desserts like thong yip, foy thong and med khanoon. When mixed with flour, the mixture become viscous and elastic, which is essential for making foy thong. When flowed through a small cone into a boiling syrup, the mixture forms long threads and is less likely to tear. Significantly, the bright orange, almost red, egg yolk makes the sweet look golden, glossy and beautiful. The remaining egg whites can be used for making sangkhaya and khanom mor gaeng.
Different chefs may have different ways in making fried rice. But the one common ingredient they use is duck egg. The egg is beaten until well mixed and placed in the very hot wok before adding rice and tossing it to make sure the egg coats every grain of rice. Duck eggs are chosen for their sticky quality and bright orange colour to enhance the appearance of food. Hen egg is below par in this matter.
Thai dishes such as kai luk koei (sonin-law’s eggs), kai kem (salted egg), kai phalo and boiled eggs accompanying red pork with rice dish are exclusively duck eggs. Eggs from free-range ducks are better quality compared to those produced by closed-system farms. Free-range ducks are called ped lai thung in Thai (literally means ducks roam freely in rice fields). This is because at the early stage of rice plantation, rice seedlings are usually plagued by cherry snails. If out of control, the pest will destroy a great deal of rice plants. Farmers have an effective way to get rid of the paddy pests by letting the ducks roam freely. The birds will eat the snails, which in turn enriches the quality of the eggs. The freerange eggs may be covered with dirt and manure but remain in high demand.
Presently, people are no longer pushed back by the foul smell of duck. Duck meat as well as duck eggs are cleverly prepared to obtain the best possible taste and scent. Ped yang, ped phalo and ped toon have become favourite dishes among Thai people. The saying hate the animal but eat its eggs is no longer valid.
THE SAYING HATE THE ANIMAL BUT EAT ITS EGGS IS NO LONGER VALID