Thai food buzz?
 

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?

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?

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.

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

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

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

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

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

"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

That's fascinating, Brew.

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

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.:)

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.

:)

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

TR

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.