A pair of twins in northeastern Thailand were adding the last ingredient, fermented fish, to the somtam, or papaya salad, they were cooking for lunch when they encountered an extra ingredient not in the recipe: a dead snake.
Bemused, 27-year-old Teerawoot Kararam and Teerawat Kararam paraded the snake around, according to several reports, for their neighbors in a temple courtyard in the Nong Hong district of Buriram province, a locale famous for people’s keen interest in dead things found in their food.
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The day began like any other, the siblings said, with them helping their parents dry rice in the temple’s courtyard up until they started preparing lunch. They were fishing out a spoonful of the fermented fish with a ladle when the twins noticed something long in the mix.
When they looked more closely, they realized it was a small expired serpent, the breed of which they had no clue.
Teerawat said the entire family started feeling nauseous and immediately stopped preparing the somtam. The family decided to leave papaya salad off their lunch menu because they couldn’t just couldn’t even knowing it had been marinating in dead snake.
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The twins said they bought the bag of fermented fish from their regular vendor but admitted it was not the first time they discovered an extra ingredient inside.
“We’ve discovered an earthworm in this vendor’s fermented fish before, but we kept buying from them because they make really good fermented fish,” Teerawat said.
“But I still havent learned my lesson. I’ll keep on going back to this vendor but I’ll just tell them to be more mindful about cleanliness,” he added.
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