Lazy Lanta and a Close Call with a Bean

After a brief cool spell, the weather has returned to the hot and sticky phase that we experienced when arriving in early December.

Long-tailed boat and 'Bride of Frankenstein' hills

The sky is once again as blue as the sea is green, rather than both a nondescript grey colour. The veil of cloud over the so-called 'Bride of Frankenstein' hills - supposedly resembling a supine outline of the monster's mate - has been lifted. The cloud no longer lies low over the peaks of the national park.

National Park hills over Lanta pole houses

K took breakfast duty this morning with the store-cupboard challenge of using up a can of Carnation evaporated milk erroneously purchased thinking that it was condensed milk.

The result was a rich rice soup, much like chok, but with the added creaminess of the milk. We adorned it with bean sprouts and peanuts for crunch. Delicious.

As this is our last week on Ko Lanta before we move along the coast into Malaysian waters, we spent some time admiring the view from the deck, watching the light shift over the rocks. It is also our last day with the cat that moved her kittens into our house, as they will be adopted tomorrow by the neighbours.

In the evening, I reprised the mushroom tofu red curry we had on Christmas Eve, as it was just too tasty not to try it again. Also, I had neglected to add some festive 'nuts' that we had bought on the market.

Jering beans - caveat consumptor

Thinking they looked a lot like a kind of chestnut, possibly a water chestnut, they seemed an appropriately festive addition to the dish. Preparation instructions from the stallholder involved shelling, peeling and cooking in a curry. So far, so simple, but even after slicing into small pieces, it still took an age for the 'chestnut' to cook. A cursory web search revealed nothing about the mysterious pods. When done, it had the texture of an undercooked waxy potato and an unusual (but not unpleasant) taste.

After speaking to someone about our discovery, I learned that this was no nut, rather a kind of bean. She called them 'stinky beans', as their effects on people ingesting them were supposed to be malodorous, but despite this she enjoyed their "truffle-like" taste. She also said that in Myanmar they are fried and eaten as a beer snack.

After much searching, I found out that these are jering beans or djenkol beans, known as luk nieng (ลูกเนียง) in Thai. One website gives the following disturbing account of its supposed effects: "It has a disagreeable odor, causes bad breath, body odor smelling of urine, and sometimes gout, urinary obstruction, severe pain and acute kidney failure, mainly in men." Oh good. Well, I can report no ill effects, not even malodorousness (no more than usual, anyway). However, I might hesitate a little in future when picking up unfamiliar ingredients. Who knew being vegetarian was so fraught with peril.