Thai food buzz?

[Sweetbriar]

We ate at a very nice Thai restaurant tonight and halfway thru the Pad Thai (?) it occurred to me that I had caught a buzz not unlike what I get from wine. Mind you, I don't drink much so only one glass has me singing in the car on the way home. I thought it was just me, but another lady said she felt it, too. What sort of herbs or spices would Thai food that might have that affect?

[P36]

Pad Thai normally only contains fish sauce and lime juice, and egg, shrimp, peanuts, bean sprouts and some cilantro, plus some thai chili.

I sure don't get high from my Pad Thai, what am I missing?

[Sweetbriar]

I dunno, but the dreams you have later are MUCH worse than what you get from pizza - horrible, psychotic things. Pity. It was such a lovely dinner.

[brewmonkey]

It was most likely capsicum from the chilli that was causing "the buzz" you experienced.

http://welcome-to.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/redhot.htm

[Team Sergeant]

I've never heard of such a thing! Interesting.

Maybe some of the PS.Com members that live in Thailand can help out.

(Ask for the recipe next time you're there!)

TS

[brownapple]

I've felt it (very mildly) and believe that BrewMonkey is correct (PadThai is my favorite Thai dish).

[QRQ 30]

That's never happened to me. Usually when I feel a "high" it's because of blood sugar levels. It could be excessive MSG or the cook may have dropped a glasine package into the WOK.

I've been married to a Thai for 31 years. The only reaction I ever get is sweats and hicups from the "heat".

Naturally this reminds me of a story. While living in Pattaya my wife and I stopped in a local kitchen for some Dom Yam Goong (shrimp soup). I saw the cooks peeking around the corner waiting for a reaction since they saw I was a phalang and thought they'd have a laugh. I took a sip and they had really loaded it up. Having been raised of various spicy foods, I didn't want to give them any satisfaction. I asked for some extra pepper and ate it all without a blink. This completely spoiled their little joke. It didn't take long for the sweats to start and the hicups started once outside. :D

[Sweetbriar]

"A little later you will start to experience the "chilli-buzz". Capsaicin actually is a mood-lifting chemical that can cheer you up for several hours at a time. "

Very interesting, brewmonkey. Maybe I need to have it earlier in the day.... like for breakfast! Recipes anyone? LOL

[Roycroft201]

That's fascinating, Brew.

[magician]

I had no idea.

My mouth has been on fire, debilitatingly so, but I never got "high" from eating anything over here.

Dom Yom Gung is the speciality of the old lady that cooks in our local restaurant, and her secret recipe is heavy on the lime juice. Really tasty. Spicy, but tasty as hell.

I have tried to eat it at other places, and she has really ruined me. I only like her version.

[lrd]

Originally posted by magician
I had no idea.

My mouth has been on fire, debilitatingly so, but I never got "high" from eating anything over here.

Dom Yom Gung is the speciality of the old lady that cooks in our local restaurant, and her secret recipe is heavy on the lime juice. Really tasty. Spicy, but tasty as hell.

I have tried to eat it at other places, and she has really ruined me. I only like her version. Get the recipe and share. :D

[QRQ 30]

I don't have the quantities on hand, that's my wife's department. However the ingredients are water, whole devined shrimp, little itty bitty red and/or green peppers, lime juice and lemon grass. It can be eaten hot but I usually enjoy any left over the next day after it has set in the ice box.:)

[magician]

I will ask her, but I doubt that she will write it down for me. Her livelihood depends on it.

:)

The other problem is, she uses Thai roots and spices that I do not really recognize. I think one of them is ginger, but I do not really know. She definitely uses these killer little peppers. There are always a few of them, cut up, floating around in the broth. God help you if you fuck up and eat one. I do not even like to swallow them whole. They will burn your gut, literally. I know.

Like I said, I think that her secret ingredient is lime juice. She squeezes fresh limes into the broth while she cooks it up in her wok.

The other secret ingredients are those mysterious roots and shoots and miscellaneous "greenery" that she throws in there. The broth is dark....really rich...lipsmacking tasty. I usually eat it with chopsticks, believe it or not, picking out the shrimp, mushrooms, onion, tomato, and baby corn, leaving just the inedible (included just for flavor) roots and greens. I then pick up the whole damned bowl and drink it down. My mouth burns JUST RIGHT.

I have to make a visa run to Cambodia tomorrow, but will ask her tomorrow night, after I get back.

Unless I decided to stay late in Bangkok, and go get a bath at the Bangkok Cosy. Then it will have to wait until the next day.

:)

[The Reaper]

Originally posted by magician
God help you if you fuck up and eat one. I do not even like to swallow them whole. They will burn your gut, literally. I know.
:)

That is GOOD for you. Helps keep the worms out of your gut!

TR

[magician]

Brother, I do not eat worms.

I have tried them. They suck. They are gritty. You do know that earthworms eat....dirt?

Also, this one time (in band camp), a Ranger took a healthy bite of one of those fat Ft. Lewis, WA bannana slugs.

He was retching afterwards, scraping the mucosal remnants off the roof of his mouth with a stick. It virtually exploded in his mouth.

I have a strong stomach, but man, that one got to me, just a little bit.

I also have seen a kid puke up a nice long, fat, translucent ascarid, and that one really grossed me out. It came out of his nose, and the damned thing was flopping around. I had to grab it and yank it out.

So...no worms for me. If I even suspect that I might have worms, I am guzzling metronizadole (that is the right stuff, right? I forget). Thiabendazole? Been a long time.

Worms. Ugh. Gross.

I hate fucking insects. All insects. Particularly worms, roaches, SPIDERS, and MILLIPEDES. I will go berserk if I find a millipede in my house. Seriously. I would fucking MOVE.

[Roguish Lawyer]

Originally posted by magician
I hate fucking insects.

Well, at least you tried it. :lifter ;)

[The Reaper]

Originally posted by magician
Brother, I do not eat worms.

As far as you know.

Originally posted by magician
So...no worms for me. If I even suspect that I might have worms, I am guzzling metronizadole (that is the right stuff, right? I forget). Thiabendazole? Been a long time.


I am surprised that where you live, you are not on some prophylactic Doxycycline, and some sort of vermicide already.

TR

[magician]

Hah.

My house is CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN.

My maid comes in twice a week, and she does the hard stuff. I keep it clean in between her visits.

I rarely even see a miniature ant in my house, and Al will tell you that those fuckers are in everyone's house.

I also got a cat. I am not really a "cat person," I have always had dogs, and still prefer dogs, but my cat is more like a dog than any other cat I have ever met. He knows that his job is to eat anything that fucking MOVES in my house. He has a pretty good kill rate. Mostly mosquitos that somehow slip in when someone, oh, I do not know, like the fucking MAID, leaves my balcony door open while she is cleaning.

I am also careful about what I eat here. Foodland, which is where I shop, is cleaner than any grocery store I have ever seen in the states. No shit. I wash the FUCK out of all my salad greens. I boil ALL water that does not come out of a bottle. I do NOT eat on the street, and do not eat in most restaurants unless it is obvious that they are good joints.

In fact, I just got back from Foodland. I will be having Beanie Weenies this week, salads, bacon, lettuce and tomato tortilla wraps, tuna salad, and when I want to be BAD, I will have this great corned beef from a can that Joe Duffy turned me onto. With EGGS.

Also, I do not eat at the Y. Not since I kicked my girlfriend out. No freakin' way. They just had an International AIDs conference here, right? Good enough for me. I took the hint.

And I LOVE eating at the Y.

Sacrifice. It is all about sacrifice.

;)

[brewmonkey]

Originally posted by magician
I will ask her, but I doubt that she will write it down for me. Her livelihood depends on it.

:)

The other problem is, she uses Thai roots and spices that I do not really recognize. I think one of them is ginger, but I do not really know. She definitely uses these killer little peppers. There are always a few of them, cut up, floating around in the broth. God help you if you fuck up and eat one. I do not even like to swallow them whole. They will burn your gut, literally. I know.

Like I said, I think that her secret ingredient is lime juice. She squeezes fresh limes into the broth while she cooks it up in her wok.

The other secret ingredients are those mysterious roots and shoots and miscellaneous "greenery" that she throws in there. The broth is dark....really rich...lipsmacking tasty. I usually eat it with chopsticks, believe it or not, picking out the shrimp, mushrooms, onion, tomato, and baby corn, leaving just the inedible (included just for flavor) roots and greens. I then pick up the whole damned bowl and drink it down. My mouth burns JUST RIGHT.

I have to make a visa run to Cambodia tomorrow, but will ask her tomorrow night, after I get back.

Unless I decided to stay late in Bangkok, and go get a bath at the Bangkok Cosy. Then it will have to wait until the next day.

:)

She probably also uses some Kaffir lime leaves, they are quite big in Thai cooking.

[pulque]

Originally posted by Sweetbriar
We ate at a very nice Thai restaurant tonight and halfway thru the Pad Thai (?) it occurred to me that I had caught a buzz not unlike what I get from wine. Mind you, I don't drink much so only one glass has me singing in the car on the way home. I thought it was just me, but another lady said she felt it, too. What sort of herbs or spices would Thai food that might have that affect?

Were you eating any other dishes at the time? When this has happened to me I have thought of it being the Galangal (Kha). Galangal is a brown rhizome (rooty type thing) that is used in Thai cooking (for example, in soup or curry). It has some characterized effects described as a stimulant, aphrodesiac, and mild hallucinatory.

Currently used as a medicine for stomach ailments in some countries, or so I hear.

[magician]

Well, the girl who works with the old lady who makes the killer Dom Yom Gung tried to explain to me what was in the recipe, but the language got in the way.

Here are the remains of a savory bowl. I will just post this pic, and those of you who know what the heck this stuff is, can figure it out.

Keep in mind that this stuff is just what remains. Everything edible, I ate. The edible stuff includes shrimp (obviously), onion, tomato, mushroom, and miniature corn. And lime juice. Lots of lime juice.

And those little red things? Those are killer peppers. She chops them up, and throws them in. You will get a little piece every once in awhile in a mouthful of broth, or stuck to a piece of mushroom or shrimp, and you know it when it happens. Puts my mouth on fire. In a good way.

She also eats them, raw and whole, when I dare her to do so. Freakin' incredible.

[QRQ 30]

The stalks you see in the bowl are lemongrass. It gives the soup its characteristic flavor. I see other things like bamboo and ginger but the lemongrass is the signature ingredient.;)

[magician]

Are those leaves Kaffir lime leaves, as brewmonkey speculated?

In fact...she ALSO makes this wicked good coconut chicken soup. Think I will call down to the restaurant now and have them send some up. Good idea.

:)

[Sweetbriar]

pulque, we were a large party and we were all sharing and it was all delicious. The restaraunt is owned and run by a native Thai and she is renowned for her cooking skills. I don't doubt that she makes her dishes as homemade as possible. I tend to be acutely sensitive to any herb, but not necessarily in a bad way - I can feel any influence at all but without having a hissy about it. Next time I'll pay more attention and see if I can figure out where it's coming from.... so that means I need to go back soon, right?! :D

[The Reaper]

Long shot, but MSG sensitivity?

Does the cook use it?

TR

[QRQ 30]

For those of you who like Pad Thai try spicing it up with pepper, vinegar and sugar. They usually only serve it to Thai customers but you can request condiments which uaually come in a small "lazy susan" affair. There will be fish sauce/green peppers, crushed red pepper, sugar, and a mixture of little peppers and vinegar.:p

[QRQ 30]

That's a good guess TR. Aji-No-Moto or MSG is a staple for Thais. It is rarely used in the US now. I think there is some legislation to stop its use. My wife used to use it until the Dr. got on her about her BP. It is possible that a Thai would use it but if they do in a restaurant they can get into deep shit from the FDA.

Originally posted by The Reaper
Long shot, but MSG sensitivity?

Does the cook use it?

TR

[pulque]

galangal

[pulque]

The Magician's remains

[magician]

that root sure does look like the right stuff.