Thais rate rat 'better than chicken'

Thailand's roadside fast-food vendors are enjoying booming sales of the country's latest fave dish - rat. According to the Beeb, rat has long been on the menu in Thailand's poorer north, but is now widely available for discerning gourmets countrywide. Customers can get their rat uncooked, or poached, fried, grilled or baked, …

[John B]

I ate rat in Krabi

I was in one of the food markets in Krabi no more than three months ago and I found a stall selling chicken satay for just over half the price of the other stalls. 'Bargain' I thought, as I was tucking in, only to discover that the meat was a lot darker and had a stronger flavour than usual. As I walked back near the stall, the guy behind the grill was smiling quite broadly at me, no doubt thinking of the profit margin he was making from getting the meat for free off the streets.

It was pretty tasty though. I went back and ordered another :)

[Niall]

Yum

Free range rat, with loads of ketchup I'm off to Gimlets.

My coat's the short one with the chainmail lining.

[Danny]

But does it come

'onna stick?

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't seem to be a problem for "John Spartan"

Eating rat wasn't a problem for John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone's character in Demolition Man), was it now?

I'll get me coat...

[Damian Gabriel Moran]

I am not amanfrommars

but...

Intergalactic proton-powered electrical tentacled advertising driods!

yes that seems removed enough from the subject matter (where is he anyway, i've not seen a post for a while?)

by the way I have eaten rat and it is okay

[Chris Collins]

Corn fed

If they're country rats, bred on rice rather than dogshit and fag butts I'd imagine they were ok. Sadly I only ate cane beetles and fried ants when I was there. And something that looked like a dried horse's foreskin that was supposedly a fish.

[Anonymous Coward]

CMOT Dibbler says

ketchup extra!

[Kla]

Never seen in Bangkok

I should try some.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Danny

No, but I think it does come .. "inna bun"

[Tawakalna]

Chicken McNuggets..

..are *remarkably* similar to rat; as is Kentucky Fried Crow.

but the IT angle is?

[Trevor Watt]

Rat-o-van

Anyone?

[thomasthetanker]

Disc us

I'm sure Terry Pratchett is smiling down on all the Cutmeownthroat Diblah wannabe's

[Peter]

Good idea too

With the excellent press reports of rat being eaten in Thailand, and bearing in mind all those foodies eating grey squirrel... This needs to be better advertised and I hope these foods will shortly be seen commonly in Sainsburys et al. Could help solve some of the pest problems in this country. Oh and there are those crayfish things - they need to be eaten too.

P.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Disc us

Smiling down? From Beaconsfield?

[Nick L]

@thomasthetanker

He aten't ded yet, and is still compus mentis, so isn't smiling down... Merely glancing/grimacing sideways and thinking back to the old AFP days, and noting how standards are slipping

[Vaidotas Zemlys]

Discworld

These comments sure bring a tear to the eye of ardent Pratchett fan.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: CMOT Dibbler

"But the ketchup costs almost as much as the rat!"

"Have you ever tried rat without ketchup?"

:-)

[Brian Hall]

IT's Obvious!

Tawakalna;

IT Angle http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/it_angle_32.png

It's a metaphor for the marketing of the $100 laptop. http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/linux_32.png

Linux

[Yves Kurisaki]

Loved it!

I have eaten rat in Belgium many years ago. Tourists came from all over Europe to eat it and the reason why was that it's absolutely delicious.. that and the fact the Belgians know how to make a stew. It tastes like a mix of chicken and rabbit btw.

[Anonymous Coward]

Discworld - no

There was Rat-On-A-Stick being sold in a street scene in Terry Gilliams 1977 Film Jabbawocky. The first Discworld book was not published until 1983.

[Sam]

Obligatory Python

"'Ere, is that rat tart?"

"Yes"

(Pause)

"DisGUSTing!"

[Neil Connor]

...Coming to a High Street near you...

Rat-U-Like..

The Rat Hut...

Kentucky Fried Rat...

...and McDonalds...

Mines the badly stiched furry one... (Might as well annoy PETA along with the Vegi Tree Huggers...)

[Anonymous Coward]

UK Government on the ball for a change?

Obviously the UK gov have been aware of this for sometime as steps were put in place with local councils to ensure better rat breeding environments.

There are already 1.4 rats reserved per person according to the latest figures.

The local paper reported that a councillor nearly tripped over a rat on the main road, which encouraged the council to drop the pest control service.

So in the near future when the majority of us will no longer be able to afford transport, homes, food, local taxes etc, we can be thankful that we all have an abundant supply of food and it is entirely down to Mrs Thatcher, Mr Major, Mr Bliar and friends.

[Anonymous Coward]

At last...

..this bizarre icon is explained.

[Hate2Register]

Ratatouille Action Taskforce (RAT) official response.

For an easy Ratatouille recipe.. British rat meat is tastier and healthier than Bangkok Rat. Buy British for all your rat meat needs. With fewer fleas, more meat (due to dna and hormone enhancement), our supa-rats are bred organically and free-range, sustainably, in loving supportive "rat friendly" community farms.

On the other hand, should you choose inferior rat-meat, then beware our rat-rights storm-troopers who will scour the world looking for badly-brought-up rats to free, thereby protecting our worldwide hegemonic rat empire.

This statement from the Ratatouille Action Taskforce (RAT)

[Robert Pyle]

Tastes like squirrel

Grew up in Texas - we called squirrels "tree rats". Mighty tasty! It's dark meat, and a young one or two fried up for breakfast with a little cream gravy is just pure heaven!

[Colonel Panic]

Fried it all tastes the same

A well-known brand of fried chicken had one of its outlets in a small English university town closed by the council a few years ago for selling fried rat.. so if the punters couldn't tell the difference, it must taste like chicken

[Anonymous Coward]

Cane Rat

Apparently cane rats [plumped up, tender and juicy on sugarcane] were a delicacy at certain snooty restaurants in Durban, South Africa. Much better than dogs or squirrels I'm told, and less prone to Newcastles disease.

[Anonymous Coward]

Womp Rats

So that's why Luke Skywalker used to bull's-eye womp rats in his T-sixteen back home.....

[Paul Murray]

When abroad

When abroad, never eat meat unless it is *piping* hot. Grilled rat from a street vendor is safer than goop in the hot food bar at the hotel, that has been sitting at incubation temerature for hours.

And I'm sure that grain-fed rat is delicious.

[Joerg Stimm]

Tasty, and with pictures

They are quite tasty actually, if anybody wonders how they look like, see here:

http://tropicalramblings.blogspot.com/2008/01/rice-field-rats-la-isaan-style.html

[Anonymous Coward]

Dual usage

Seeing as Heather Mills wants us to drink rats milk. How long before we see rats replacing cows all together.

At least it's not space weavil and lettuce.

[Anonymous Coward]

how the hell do you milk a rat?

how the hell do you milk a rat?

[Ishkandar]

Re. how the hell do you milk a rat?

With great care and attention to their sharp teeth !!