Aren't disgusting odors Nature's way of saying, "Don't eat me"?

Thais have a strange affinity for food that they admit smells horrible but, they claim, tastes delicious. The most well known of the foods is the so-called “King of Fruit” the durian, a large fruit with a hard, spiky outer casing protecting its yellowish, fleshy fruit. The fruit is so pungent that you can smell the dirty-socks-soaked-in-vomit odor before opening its thick shell. Durians smell so bad that in Singapore they have been banned from public transportation. I hardly think it matters though, I’ve been on buses that drive past durian stands and I still get a strong whiff of the fruit. Most Thais don’t dispute its stench but some claim it is an “acquired smell.” But I’ve never been able to “acquire” it, and since my nose sits just above my mouth, I just can’t imagine eating it.

Even worse than durians is the wretched cooking ingredient only found in Isaan: blaa-la. It’s similar to fish sauce; the black, salty, fishy-smelling liquid used often in Asian cuisine. As bad as some people believe fish sauce to be, it (like Durians) is an acquired taste and around here it takes the place of salt. If you are already disgusted by fish sauce, then you’d never be able to stomach blaa-la.

Blaa-la is homemade fish sauce that sits and ferments outside in a 5-gallon bucket or, like in this picture, in open tubs. Compared to blaa-la, fish sauce has a nice, sweet smell and a mild, salty flavor. Just one look at the stuff and it’s obvious it isn’t for the weak-stomached. The chunks in each of the different blaa-las is hacked fish bits, usually the heads and any other un-wanted pieces.

This stuff is so pungent that cooks can ruin an entire meal, or perhaps an entire dinner with a single ladleful. Thais in Isaan offer this food to me at every meal, no matter how many times I have turned it down. They use the same encouragement insisting it is delicious and offering a taste but I’ve finally found a (cheesy) comeback that works. I say that I don’t kiss smelly women and I don’t eat smelly food. Albeit it be cheesy, it works and I don’t have a drop of blaa-la anywhere near my dinner plate.