islandhippy

P: Blogging from Thailand, where I'm attending the Bangkok International Book Fair by day and drinking lobster blood by night. Last night I was invited to eat at Somboon Seafood restaurant in Bangkok's Chinatown by the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand. The restaurant is apparently a favourite of former Japanese PM Koizumi, when he's in Thailand. He obviously knows his seafood as the food was superb. We ate steamed fish in soya bean sauce, prawns larger than I have ever seen, tom yam soup with more prawns, deep-fried shrimp balls, stir-fried kangkong, stir-fried asparagus, oyster omelette, curry crab (Koizumi's fave) and a huge (and I mean really huge) lobster. The lobster was served on ice and the raw flesh was displayed on either side of it. We were offered two ways of eating it: raw, sashimi-style with wasabe; or we could dip the pieces of crustacean in a bubbling noodle soup and eat them cooked. Both styles were delicious. One of the Thai publishers then challenged me to drink the lobster blood -- er, do lobsters have blood? -- and naturally I agreed, thinking it would be mixed with alcohol. The chef removed the lobster carcass and somehow extracted the blood, carved it with a knife (pretty viscous stuff) and poured it into brandy glasses. Instead of mixing it with brandy, however, he added Sprite! Lobster blood is one thing but drinking a non-alcoholic drink after a full day of meetings just isn't right. I downed the bloody Sprite in one gulp and asked for a second glass of blood alone, just to take away the taste of the sweet Sprite. A wonderful meal, do check this place out when you're next in Bangkok. Lobster blood is optional.

There was a request from Jörg in Edinburgh for a pic of the unfortunate lobster ...