The Mae Hong Son loop is an amazing trip on a bike- I did it in the rainy season, and had an awesome time even though I got soaked every day. Your photos of the food look great- makes me want to head up north and do that trip again. -X

Jam-ez
I never suggested that I was certain of anything. I never mentioned morality. I never spoke of an “oppressed” minority or the downtrodden. These were all of your interpretations of what I initially said. I didn’t write the post in question to say anything about vegetarian food. I only brought up the point to question the way people talk about vegetarians and vegetarianism. I thought a passing reference of Anthony Bourdain would help make that connection. Maybe I failed in that attempt.

Perhaps I did pick apart one small point of what I considered to be a good post, about good food, and a great part of the country. It is in fact worth seeing by motorcycle and by bicycle as well. Sorry for sharing.

Also: I hope I spelled everything correctly.

Austin

The comments were “tiresome” because you are so humourless and sensitive on behalf of this supposedly oppressed minority that you picked up one throw-away, jocular line in a light hearted blog and analysed it to death.

They were “blather” because of the above and because you said nothing meaningful or interesting about vegetarian food. Plus, one of your main points was “many local food specialties are based upon pork, chicken, etc” – wow, really?

Do I disagree? I don’t care much either way, I just want the 45 seconds it took me to read your comments back.

And you rode a bicycle? Not only do you defend the downtrodden, but man you’re hardcore too!

In Malaysia, ‘the flowers are cut into short pieces, blanched …and eaten as ulam with some sambal…The young leaves are cooked as a vegetable with coconut milk or with tamarind and anchovies.’ (Samy et al., Herbs of Malaysia)
The local name is ‘geti’ or ‘turi’. They’re also eaten in the Philippines, where they’re called ‘katuray’.

Without getting into the middle of the whole veg squabble, I’d like to say yes, you’re right, that tofu is an excellent carrier of meat flavors — but that if you don’t also applaud its deliciousness on its own, then you probably haven’t eaten really good-quality, fresh tofu.