Thai Red Bull

Red bull must be one of the most popular drinks worldwide. But few people know that Red Bull actually comes from Thailand. The Thai name for this energy drink is "Krating Daeng" where "Krating" means bull and "Daeng" means red.
Nowadays you find Krating Daeng in sold in cans or in small bottles, resembling medicine flasks. It is used mainly by drivers and labour force to keep awake and work long hours.
When you enter a Thai convenience store, you would find a separate fridge with all kinds of brown bottles, energy drinks, with such names as Lipo, Shark, M-150 and Carabao.

The drink was developed in the '70 in Thailand and it was the Austrian businessman Dietrich Mateschitz who commercialised the drink worldwide. It is said he visited Thailand in 1982 and drank a Krating Daeng to recover from his jet lag. He adapted the formula and worked with Thai partner Chaleo Yoovidhya to launch it in Europe. Red Bull was founded in 1987 and it was a huge success, Chaleo Yoovidhya would be the richest person in Thailand now!

Krating Daeng differs from Red Bull as it is thicker, bubble free, contains more caffeine and is much cheaper (10 baht).

Belgian chocolate mooncake

Tomorrow is the Chinese festival of Mid-Autumn festival. Traditionally people from Chinese origin will watch the full moon and will remember the legend of Houyi and Chang'e while eating mooncakes. These mooncakes have become favourite family and business gifts months before the full moon of the festival. So it's not unusual to see different companies create their own mooncake, packed in a nice box. So do the Belgian chocolate companies Leonidas and Godiva. Clever marketing move!



Kopi Luwak - expensive coffee

Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world. The Kopi Luwak is mainly produced in the Indonesian archipelago. A cup of Kopi Luwak can be sold for around $50 around the world.
A special animal called the Asian Palm Civet is needed to obtain this pricey coffee. This is animal gives the strange name to this coffee. Kopi is the Indonesia name for coffee and Luwak is the local name of the Asian Palm Civet.

So what is so special about this coffee? First of all the process to collect the beans is quite extraordinary.
The coffee beans, which are cultivated on fields, get eaten by the Luwak. The fruit pulp gets digested by the Luwak, but the seeds pass by the stomach and are defecated. Inside the Luwak's stomach and intestine the seeds get some time to ferment and give the special taste to the coffee. The dung of this animal is collected. The seeds are washed and sun dried. After this process the seeds are slightly roasted as to keep their special taste.

So how does it taste? A bit difficult to describe. As i tried this coffee, I felt it didn't taste bitter as most coffees do. It had a mild and even fruity taste.
But damn it's expensive for a cup!

Buddhist bread

In this post I want to report about a special bakery in Ratchaburi, Thailand.
This bakery is specialised in making a very horrific looking kind of bread! No this is not one of those cheeky Thai horror movies.
The whole concept of this "human flesh'' bread can be found in the Buddhist teachings.
The lesson would be something like: "Everything you eat, is just to keep you alive." & "What you see is not the real world."

Enjoy your meal!

Pink eggs

Strolling on a local market in Asia you might find some strange and exotic things. One of them would be the Pink eggs.
No they don't come from pink chickens. They are specially know by Chinese who see those eggs as a delicatessen, they are more expensive then normal eggs.



Pink for an egg is of course a strange colour, but you really should buy one open it. You will be surprised that the egg is black inside!
These eggs are know as "Century eggs", "hundred-year eggs" or even "thousand-year eggs".
Before there were any fridges the Chinese developed and refined a way to preserve eggs. These eggs can be kept several weeks and even a few months, depending on the quality of the preservation process. Eggs are coated with a paste of clay, tea, quicklime, salt and wood ashes.
The eggs are then put in a jar, filled with rice chaff. 3 months are needed for the mud like coat to harden into the crust and at that time eggs are ready for consumption, mmmm tasty!\



Some say the eggs are preserved in horse urine. This is a myth but can be understood. The eggs have a strong ammonia smell, because the PH level of the eggs have slightly changed through the fermentation process. So this give them a smell similar to horse urine.

Many Chinese restaurants offer these eggs in different plate combinations. They are seen as delicatessen and Chinese just love them!
Personally it is not my favourite kind of egg, but I tried it many times. The eggs tastes like and egg but got a rather strong after taste.

Enjoy!