Grub's Up

There was a little surprise in store for us today as we toured The Golden Triangle. We stopped off at Mae Salong, a 1300m mountain, home to the Koumintang (The Nationalists), who were the ruling party of China for 21 years. The Koumintang settled here after fleeing the Communist Revolution of 1949.

Since 1949 they have been cultivating opium, however, in the last 20 years or so the Thai government has been actively working with them to introduce crop programmes to replace opium. Driving through this area today, we could see lush mountains with crops of corn and tea plantations, and no sign of any popppy fields.

We stopped off at The 101 Tea Plantation and had a wander around, starting with a walk amongst the shrubs of oolong tea and then the factory where all the leaves are dryed, sorted and processed.

Next stop, one of the many tea shops. An old Chinese lady is waiting to perform a tea ritual and, of course, sell us some tea. After we tasted each tea the old lady offered a selection of sun-dried candied fruits to cleanse our palate, there was ginger, palm, longan, prunes and my favourite - bursting with flavour - cherry tomato. We tried green tea, oolong, ginseng, jasmine and sticky rice tea.

The tea is served in in a tiny bowl with a tall cup inside. The tall cup inside has a dual purpose. It holds the tea, keeping it hot until you are ready to start the process - when its time, you release the tea by lifting the tall cup, the tea fills the bowl, then you sniff the aroma that remains in the tall cup and then roll the cup in your hands to warm them (great in winter, not so great in summer) and drink your tea.

Our tea lady decided the fruit wasn't enough to cleanse our palates and perhaps we needed something a little more - savoury, like......grubs... yes you read it - bamboo grubs. So right in front of us the old lady lights the stove, heats a small frying pan and dry-roasts some bamboo grubs with a little salt and pepper.



I have been promising that Adam would be my taster for the more adventurous foods and here was an golden oppurtunity. So I dared him. Kudos to him, he popped one straight in his mouth, crunched away and then another and another with a big smile on his face. It looked so easy I decided to have a taste and it was easy. They were crunchy and salty with no distinct flavour and in fact the texture reminded me of the dregs at the bottom of your popcorn that get stuck between your teeth.



Our guide explained they are enjoyed here as a tasty snack that compliments the tea and that Bamboo grubs are also used in a special version of Nam Prik.

Nam Prik is a northern chilli sauce/dip that can be made solely with vegetables like aubergine, or with the addition of meat, ground pork or bamboo grubs. Nam Prik is usually served with a plate of raw, crisp vegetables and pork crackling to dip.

In the grub version, the bamboo grubs are boiled first and then pounded in a mortar and pestle with the chillies to make a paste.

Well, I'm all grubbed out today but if I come across some Bamboo Grub Nam Prik I will be wriggling to try some.