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10 Tips for Beach-Goers
Jun 29th
Heading to the seaside is constantly ravishing. By meeting all of the correctly gear, you can gain your times of having an exceptional beach day. Just remember to have amusement and relax!
1. Certify the Weather Conditions. Before you head out, you should make sure that the climate forecast is composed to stay advantageous. Depending upon your predilections, you should not visit the beach if there is a high possibility that it will rain or be entirely cloudy.
2. Verify into Seaside Hours. While you are scheming out your day, you should also look into the working hours of the seabeach. This permits you to know how long you can stay.
3. Discover Out About Regional Restaurants. If you don’t arrange on bringing a small light meal or food with you, you need to inquire area eateries so that you recognize where you can go when you do get hungry. Many beach websites will list nearby restaurants and on-site vending stands that are available.
4. Don’t Overlook the Basic Needs. It’s simple to abandon something important when you are on the run, which is why a list comes in handy. You should write down whole thing that you purpose to take with you in order to reduce the accidentals of forgetting something. Try to remind your towels, sunscreen lotion, sunglasses, camera.
5. Carry Zip-lock Bags. In order to keep safe your private belongings, you should carry plastic bags to seal up your pocketbook, camera and wrist-watch. This will hold out unwanted sand and sea water. It also assists you find these things promptly when you require it the most.
6. Divert Yourself with Beach Sports. If you don’t like lying out all day and want to be entertained, then you should bring any variety of game. Having some sport activities can assist you kill the time. You can acquire a good tan and stay energetic.
7. Take Reading published materials. During your down time, you can read a libretto, magazine or newspaper. A beach day offers you with the opportunity to catch up on your favorite writer, popular hero or the latest world news.
8. Carry Refreshments. It is very important that you remain rightly hydrated all over the day. You should bring a few water flasks per person so that you do not run the hazard of rigid dehydration.
9. Take Aspirin with You. Numerous beachgoers grow a few headache when they are basking in the sunlight. Contemplate about carrying some ache reliever with you so that you can carry on enjoying your day without interruption.
10. Have a Backup Plan. Sometimes an emergency beach closing can come about. Try to have a backup plan for spending your spare time somewhere else if something were to shear your beach time short. You perchance able to spend a gorgeous day at another site.
Types of Acne
Jun 21st
Acne arguably one of the most tiresome aspects of teenagerdom, and even occurring in everybody in their twenties and senior, has different main causes. All start with understanding the structure of what are called sebaceous glands. Sebaceous glands are each connected to follicles, which restrain tiny, regularly very fine hair. The small canal passageways between glands and follicles provide a way for oil, called sebum, to get to the skin’s surface.
At certain periods in life, people may discharge more sebum than ordinary. Teenagers are peculiarly apt to acne because as they hit pubescence, hormones like estrogen and testosterone amp the production of sebum. This may die down for older minors, but others maintain to have increased production of sebum.
When sebum is excreted in larger quantities, it can originate acne when other related problems exist. Pores, often immediately attached to sebaceous glands can readily become obstructed with dead skin cells. As sebum flows to the clogged pores or follicles, these swell, resulting in variety of kinds of acne, mostly pustules or cysts.
A normal skin bacterium, Propionibacterium acnes, also plays a role in forming certain types of skin breakouts. Though this bacterium is current at any times on the skin, it can accumulate and enlarge in obstructed pores resulting in upper than normal portions present. When compounded with sebum, P. acnes can generate chemical compounds that nettle the skin and cause it to distend.
There are essentially four sorts of acne. Cysts are usually localized inflammations on the skin, caused by deep blockage of the sebaceous gland, and an appearance of more than regular quantities of P. acne. These are beneath the skin, but may eventually rupture. Pustules are an agglomeration of sebum, dead skin cells, and bacteria, and they may appear red or inflamed and feel exasperatedbecause of the bacteria/sebum combines. The follicle ruptures, pushing this, the peculiar “zit,” to the surface.
Whiteheads and Blackheads are caused by sebum and skin cell blockage toward the surface of pores, and regularly have tiny bacterial implication. Blackheads do not hold dirt. They merely look black because the dead skin cells pushed to the surface have oxidized and renewed color. Whiteheads regularly are clogged a little farther into the sebaceous gland, causing tiny white bumps (skin cell and sebum) to be pushed outward and become observable.
It can be said then that the principal causes of acne are:
- Appearance of sebum producing hormones
- Output of skin oil
- Dead skin cells being trapped in pores
- In some cases, ordinary bacteria on the skin
You will not get pimples or breakouts by eating chocolate or drinking soda. Anyway, you can get them from increments in sebum producing hormones, which may take place during times of tension. Women well past their teenage years may notice ordinary breakouts that happen during or right before monthly menstruation/period/menses. Further some people are genetically more prone to the circumstances than others. If your parents had acne, you’re more assumably to get it too.
High Energy Low Calorie Foods
Jun 1st
It’s very consequential to watch your calorie gains while trying to lose weight. The most general trouble anyway, is when cutting calories you typically are cutting out sources of energy. The key is to discover low calorie foods that can give you enough energy to keep active. Below are a roll of foods that are definitely that – low calorie, high energy.
Oatmeal. Oatmeal is a wonderful roots of fiber. It’s also small in fat and low in calories. Studies clarify oatmeal has prodigious cardiovascular benefits. It’s competency to diminish your unhealthy cholesterol and grow your healthy cholesterol diminishes various chances of heart disease. Try to consume organic oatmeal with low sugar for most outstanding outcomes. Use nonfat milk versus low-fat to append calcium and don’t be afraid to add mixed fruits or banana’s for added taste.
Yogurt. Yogurt is an excellent origin of calcium. Calcium is good for bone intensity and helps boost your immune system to keep you infection free. The prohibotics and bacilli in yogurt helps maintain your digestive system and enteric track. Recall to eat nonfat or low-fat yogurt for lessen calories and fat. Again, add mixed berries or banana’s for added taste and health benefits.
Spinach. Spinach has varied well-being benefits. Spinach is often referred to as the vegetable with exceptionally healing powers. It’s complete of vitamins and antioxidants and other disease fighting properties. It’s a prodigious source of fiber and vitamin C.
These three low calorie, rich energy nourishment are just a few suggestions to ponder. Fish like salmon, tuna and sardines are excellent origins of omega-3 fatty acids which have principal cardiovascular advantages. Fish is low calorie, low fat, and typically high in protein for plenty needed energy.
Tip of the day. Try to eat your vegetable and fruits in a “raw state”. When vegetables are cooked they waste a most of their nutrients. The finest way to do this is by using a high speed blender to liquefy the fruits and vegetables for easier consumption. If blended right, it usually taste great.
Google can lead you in many directions to find pumpkin pie recipes
May 11th
Thanksgiving is an esteemed time of year for various people, and there is one reason in particular for this: pumpkin pie! When autumn arrives and pumpkins are prompt, your mouth begins to water at the opinion of some fresh pie as a splendid pudding! Where can you find some simple pumpkin pie recipes to begin your baking binge?
If you have any of your granny’s or mother’s cookbooks, no doubt that is the foremost place you view. Ancestors recipes have a style of staying around for a long time for the simple reason that they flavor astonishing! Most likely, there are also numerous particular remembrances embedded in the making of those recipes that make recreating them even more pleasure.
For the modern-day recipe searcher, there is forever the Internet. Google can guide you in varied instructions and with only a word or two, you can have thousands of recipes at your fingertips. Constriction that search down is presumably a nice notion by including a special ingredient or two that you would like to use as well.
Nevertheless they have been around for a long time, they are not commonly thought of, but recipe card subscribers also have an unlimited resource. When you get your packets of cards each month, you are expected to add them to your extant assemblage. This lets you to accumulate recipes of all kinds, but you may not have all that you require in one category. So unless you have positively a spacious collection, you may need to check out other alternatives.
The food companies also like to present recipes that promote their products and numerous times will showcase those on their brands. Diverse unique recipes have been printed on labels from all things to cream cheese to pumpkin filling, and these are normally very savory! They also features recipes on their major websites as the various food seasons come and go.
Along with printed cooking recipes, you can also view recipes through VDO tuition. Renowned online VDO sites also exhibit cooking and baking instructions for several foods, and oftentimes a six or seven-minute video will give you the foundation you need to start a new recipe.
When every else fails and you have worn out your books and videos online through private resources, check out the food channel website in your zone. Famous chefs and bakers are regularly glad to participate their recipes and grow your knowledge of how to bake the excellent dessert. They also tend to contain absolutely helpful tips to refrain from ordinary mistakes and wasting perfectly good ingredients. Sometimes a small tip can mean the perfectly between a disastrous dessert and an outstanding delight!
Simple pumpkin pie recipes are not hard to find. With the progression of technology into every room of the home, especially the kitchen, it doesn’t require a lot of attempt to discover both the best recipe and instructions to adjust your party’s needs. Use your resources and surprise your visitors with your seemingly effortless talents. No question, they will be asking you for tips and then you can direct them to your “secret source” of knowledge.
Cycle tourism information
May 7th
Cyclo tourism is an avocation that merges journeying and cyclism and is experienced by the cyclo-tourist. The activity consists of discovering new sites, countrysides and locations or to visit lands and countries using the bike as a means of transportation. Cyclo tourism is not to be disconcerted with long way sporting racing events such as the Tour de France, it is first and above all a leisure activity, the extra exercise is an added bonus but not the main and only objective of cyclo-tourism. It is however a form of eco tourism.
Forms of cyclo tourism
Cyclo tourism can be characterized by the distance traveled, the duration of the trip and the nature of the equipment used.
The short tour consists of a single or a half day ride. It doesn’t demand any specialized equipment apart from the regular tire repair kit, water bottle and maybe a light snack.
The long excursion can be as long as a few hundred kilometers ride with camping equipment, a more spacious bicycle mending kit and particular clothing and garments to face the contingency of changing meteorological conditions. This way a cyclo tourist can circumvent entire countries, pass over borders or travel between distant towns. Some cycle tourists even go as far as traveling the world and passage multifold continents by planning ahead with great accuracy for any feasible contingencies and scenarios.
In France and continental Europe a network of roads dedicated to cyclist tourist called “veloroute” is under construction to facilitate the movement of cyclists across Europe. These paths are especially designed to be far away from super highways and high traffic road ways while using common touristic itineraries giving cyclo tourists access to conventional touristic attractiveness such as camping grounds, museums, restaurants and accommodations. The parsimonious advantages to regional economies help to finance and develop the “veloroute”.
History
Cyclo tourism was pioneered by Paul Vivie in France in the late 1890′s, the first excursions were Lyon-Nice and were executed in less than 24 hours. He is the originator of the 7 commandments of Velocio (cyclo tourism):
- Take rare and short breaks
- Have numerous light and frequent meals, eat before being hungry and drink before being thirsty
- Never push until unusual exhaustion leads to lack of sleep and appetite
- Cover yourself before being too cold and uncover yourself before being too hot
- During excursion, limit or eliminate tobacco and alcohol consumption
Equipment
The bicycle is the most consequential element of the cyclist tourist. It must be cozy and vigorous to adjust the extra weight required on long excursions. The seat is peculiarly significant because if not suited to long tours it will cause blisters, bruising and pain on long journeys. The frame is usually made of high class steel from reputable establishments such as Reynolds, Vitus or Colombus. Mud flaps must wide and vigorous, ball bearings must be of high grade, saddle bags must be spacious and are often made of high grade leather. Most long excursion bicycles are actually usually custom made to withstand the special and palliative conditions and circumstances that cyclo tourism can bring. Lighting should be complete with head lamp and break lights, tires must be of high quality and made for both street and moderate off road conditions.
5 Tips: How To Look Younger
Apr 26th
Although aging is ineluctable, you can still significantly decrease the effects of time. We do not have to look aged before our time if we do not need to. We can become that well polished vintage car that turns everyone’s head if we so desire. It just takes a few simple lifestyle changes.
Following these tips may at first be difficult. As with any alteration in life they must take primary endeavor. Anyway after a while they turn into part of your common routine, and the results are definitely value .
1.Give up smoking
Smoking is bad for your body and unpleasant for your appearance. The toxins which are being ingested dim the skin and yellow the teeth. The regular puckering also causes deep wrinkles around the mouth, which tend to be associated with age.
2.Drink more water
Water flushes lots of toxins out of the body, helping your skin to become fresher and more youthful looking. It moisturizes the skin from the inside, and is free!
3.Take care of your teeth
This is an actually underestimated one. Teeth tend to yellow and wear all over our life times, making them a good indicator of age. If we look after our teeth, and possibly get them whitened every now and then, this can make an outstanding impact on how old we look.
4.Enhance exercise
Workout brings oxygen to the skin, giving it a healthier shine. Workout also adds tone and definition to our bodies, and expands our flexibility, giving a more youthful looks. Workout also promotes your energy levels, helping you to act more youthful.
5.Decrease junk food and alcohol
Processed foods support water retention, which leads to bloating. And no one looks good after a night of heavy drinking, which dehydrates your body.
The solution? Righetti suggests eating unprocessed foods, like fruit and vegetables, and more whole grains. Dark fruits like pomegranates are packed with antioxidants and are remarkably good for cleansing toxins.
As for alcohol, don’t throw out it completely. Just practice restriction. And before boozing, down a full glass of water to keep away from that morning-after puffiness that absolutely gives away what happened last night.
6.Get more sleep
A shortage of sleep can cause dark pander like circles under the eyes. Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to an early beginning of wrinkles and saggy skin.
Get amply sleep and you’ll look perkier and feel greater. Getting too much can make you feel groggy, though, so stick to seven or eight hours per night.
7.Slacken more
Stress created through strain can append lines to our faces. Being emotionally relaxed can promptly remove some of the lines on our faces. The long term effects of normal relaxation sessions can help boost our general health and immune systems, giving us a more youthful glow. Regular meditation, yoga, or even hypnosis sessions can greatly help.
How to choose a yoga coach
Apr 2nd
People practice yoga for various reasons. They may desire to raise their levels of health, fitness, and flexibility. Or develop their muscle tone. Reducing levels of strain and anxiety are also high on the list, as is particular development, and the desire to follow a more spiritual path. Some may have a particular medical condition or health problem they want to address.
One’s reason for starting yoga may have a demeanor on both the variety of yoga that makes a ‘perfect fit’, as well as the especial master chosen within a yoga discipline. Whilst the different varieties of yoga obviously suit some aims better than others, the coach you practice with will also make a difference to achieving what you desire with yoga. Or not.
Foe example, if you have an individual medical condition, it would be greater to informally interview prospective yoga teachers beforehand. First, to find out which classes might be proper, and to see whether that coach has a real grasp of what the condition or problem implies for a yoga practice. Some people, whether they are yoga coaches or not, have a more rigid outlook, and may not be able to appreciate that a flexible approach in such circumstances is important. Or, they may not have sufficient training or experience. Perchance they are even too busy to be available in a more personal way.
When choosing a yoga coach, it’s important to use your perception. And to understand that we, as individuals, may not find our requirements met by a class even if others do. Some masters are more nurturing than others, some are more focused on the spiritual aspects of yoga (which may or may not align with our own spiritual outlook). Some perform adjustments – which is where a master will use their body-weight to support you go further into a position – without really finding out whether a person has any injuries. And some simply do it too over-zealously. A student in that situation may feel that the ‘teacher knows best’. But it’s important to listen to your own body, and understand that not all yoga training is equal. And, not all teachers are equal, in all areas, either.
Some other things to consider when choosing a yoga master are:
- Are they dogmatic? Do they push an assured philosophical or spiritual viewpoint? Is there a subtle (or not so subtle) manipulation that implies that without their ‘guru’, your spiritual progress is on unstable ground. In actually, do they advise that you ‘need’ a guru (their guru) as a ‘guide’ in matters of spirituality because your own connection to Source-God isn’t good enough. In other words, are they suggesting you place your power outside of yourself, or do they rehash that you in fact are your own guide, and can get their quite well under your own steam.
* Are they (or the prominent representatives of their yoga discipline) overly concerned with money, fame, power, the size of their organization, or their degree of influence? If they (the organization) certify yoga masters, how long do the trainers have to train for? What are they trained in and what aren’t they taught about?
* How well does the master embody the basic spiritual qualities of compassion, kindness, peace, joy, and equanimity? Whilst we are all beings at different stages of the journey, it helps to look at a coach’s character, and ethics. No-one requires to be perfect, but what qualities, of themselves, are they bringing to class.
The benefits of washing your dog
Mar 29th
Can you believe that about a third of the body’s cells are expiring at any given time and each cell has to finally be replaced? And there are so various chemicals and toxins in the globe today that our bodies have to work even harder.
Accumulated toxins as well as ordinary dirt and debris support bacterias and parasites to flourish. They can also drop energy levels by overburdening common bodily functions. This toxin buildup may not make any one specific disease but can make a dog more susceptible to infectious illnesses and inflammation.
Luckily there are ways we can aid our pets. The first is workout, the second is a day of fasting and the third is grooming, which is what we are going to focus on here.
You may wonder why we have to clean up our dogs at all. Wolves in the wildlife never get bathed and they appear to do just fine without all of that pampering. The basic reason we have to wash our pets is because they were bred to have abnormally long, curly or fine hair which gets absolutely dirty and matted. Certainly canines will try to self groom with their tongues and paws but with their long coats, they normally can’t do the job alone. Nor should they. Dirt and debris left in the coat is dangerous for two reasons.
1. Your canines will try to wash their fur by licking it. So they will swallow things like lint, flakes of paint, debris from automobiles and even asbestos fibers all of which can lead to many internal problems.
2. These same toxins in the fur can cause skin irritations which leads to mangy skin.
Here are a few of solutions:
1. Clean up your canine with an all natural shampoo every week or every month depending on the breed of dog you have and your lifestyle.
2. Brush your canine daily. Unlike humans who absorb most environmental allergens through their noses and mouths, dogs tend to absorb allergens through the skin. Weekly cleaning can prevent itchiness, washing allergens away before they get a chance to permeate the skin. Also, frequent brushing encourages skin health by bringing excretions from oil glands onto the skin. It also helps to erase mattes from building up.
3. Give your canine a detoxifier to help remove toxins more quickly. Healthy Skin Shiny Coat is an herbal tonic that you give to your canine by mouth. It helps to reroute the toxins to the kidneys and viscera so the skin will be healthier.
Make your own body scrub @ home
Mar 24th
Body scrubs have various benefits. They relaxing and pleasant and also flake off dead skin, leaving it sensitive soft and smooth and promoting the well-being of your whole body.
Beauty and day spas provide a diversity of many body scrubs, but they can be expensive. Why shell out that kind of money for something that can be made in one’s own habitation with basic ingredients that can be found in almost any kitchen? These cheap formulas for homemade body scrubs are simple to make and will abandon the user feeling as if they just got a treatment from a specialist at an costly spa.
Rejuvenating Body Scrub with vanilla latte
Coffee is not something commonly used on the skin, but it absolutely has many advantages when made into a scrub. Coffee grinds help exfoliate the skin and the caffeine in the coffee may assist with the appearance of cellulite and varicose veins. The ingredients for the vanilla latte body scrub can be found in any home.
Mix two cups of coarsely ground coffee and half a cup of sugar, white or brown, with a few tablespoons (or until total saturation) of olive oil. If the mixture is too runny, just add more salt and if it is too dry just add a little more oil. The mixture should adhere together and be simple to pick up and expand on the skin. Next add a few drops of vanilla essence for the aroma. This scrub will scent delicious and make skin looking wonderful.
Relaxing Ginger and Green Tea Salt Scrub
Green Tea is a strong anti-oxidant for the skin and helps decrease the impacts of free radicals. Mix two cups of crude sea salt with the contents of two green tea bags. The tea bags may be wet with hot water first to deliver to aroma, but it is not essential. Mix in a few tablespoons of grape seed oil or olive oil and a tablespoon of ground ginger, until mixture is completely saturated. Once more, if the mixture is too dry or too damp, the proportions of the ingredients can be tweaked. This Asian inspired recipe will leave skin, not only smooth and exfoliated, but relaxed and refreshed as well.
Moisturizing Oatmeal and Brown Sugar Scrub
Oatmeal is every mother’s go to cure for irritated skin and itchy skin. This formula is best for those with delicate skin or dry skin. Mix one cup of brown sugar with one cup of ground oatmeal (not instant). Then mix in quarter of a cup of honey and sufficiently jojoba or sweet almond oil until totally saturated. A little vanilla extract can be added for an extra treat if desired.
Pla thu is a very Thai fish
Mar 22nd
If there is a fish that is near to the heart of Central Thailand’s culinary custom it is possibly the pla thu, a type of mackerel that goes perfectly with nam phrik kapi, the kind of chilli dip sauce. But there are very many breeds of pla thu, including types found off the China coast and in Indonesian.
The one that Thais like best, and which reside in the Gulf of Thailand, is not extraordinarily big and is remarkable for its oily meat and its appetizing aroma and flavour.
Its life rotation concerns a definite amount of journey. The mother lays her eggs in southern Thai sea waters where there are stony reefs to take care of them. When they hatch, the tiny fry gradually make their way to the Gulf of Thailand, and the closer they get to the part of the gulf that they are looking for, with its miry bottom, the more food they discover. It abounds in the muddy-bottomed sea off of Samut Songkhram and Phetchaburi, where the fish grow to full size and their meat reaches top quality. It is in these places that the best and yummy pla thu are caught.
The pla thu fish that aren’t caught by fishermen return to the South to generate and the cycle is repeated. Since the entire life cycle takes place in Thai waters, this genre of pla thu is considered to be a Thai fish.
It is one fish that is consumed by Thais in every part of the country. People who live near rivers prefer to eat freshwater fish and dislike sea fish because of their smell. But they make an exception for the pla thu and concede that it is delicious.
FISH PASTE: ‘Nam phrik kapi’ with fried ‘pla thu’.
Thirty years ago a candidate seeking election in Isan bought votes by handing out dried and salted pla thu to villagers. He won, and the cost he paid was inexpensive because he only had to give a few pla thu fish to each household.
When visiting friends in Laos, the most welcomed gift to bring along is a few of these same dried, salted pla thu, or possibly some mussels preserved the same way.
This genre of mackerel is a kind of “miracle fish” that can be used to cook almost 100 dishes that range from the extraordinarily simple to complex recipes that are difficult to prepare. The fish used can be fresh, steamed or dried and salted. Even the entrails are significant ingredients for food. In the South of Thailand they are mixed with salt and fermented for a couple of days. Then the liquid is used to make kaeng tai pla, the most pleasurable dish of southern Thai curries.
In the Central Region the pla thu innards are fermented in the same way, then consumed with minced lemon grass, shallots and chilies sprinkled on top.
Fresh pla thu can be cooked in numerous of ways. About 30 years ago people in the Phetchaburi area would ferment the fresh fish with salt for about eight months and then strain the result to get just the liquid, which was used as an excellent nam pla. If this version of nam pla is no more available, it is only because pla thu has risen so abruptly in price.
In the Amphawa district of Samut Songkhram province, locals envelop the fish in banana leaves and grill them in a coconut husk fire. The smoke odors the fish, which are then eaten with nam pla Mon, a sauce made by mixing nam pla with sugar, lime juice, krachai (an aromatic root), chillies and ginger. This is a simple dish sole to the farmers of Amphawa, as the nam pla Mon is a specialty of theirs.
Pla thu tom khem is another appetizing pla thu dish. To make it, a salty stock must primary be made from nam pla, sugar and tamarind juice, then sticks of sugar cane are placed on the bottom of the pot. Cleaned fresh pla thu are then added and cooked slowly over a low fire for many hours. The longer they simmer, the more the fish will be flavored by the stock as the meat becomes firmer and the bones become so soft they almost dissolve.
This dish is flavorful as is, but to make it even more yummy chop some shallots and bird chillies and sprinkle them over the fish, then serve with hot rice. It’s all you need for a great meal.
Fresh pla thu can also be cooked chuchee-style. Chuchee using fish are made by frying curry seasonings with coconut milk until the mixing becomes very thick, almost dry, then adding the Pla Thu fish. Only fish without scales can be used. People who reside near fresh water will use local kinds like pla nuea awn, pla kot or pla khao and will sprinkle slivered kaffir lime leaves and chilies (phrik chee fa variety) over the fish before serving. This dish is an excellent favourite with Thais who live near rivers and lakes, but even they will agree that when made with pla thu it is just as good as when the local, freshwater types are used.
Then there is pla thu sot rat phrik sam rote. To make it, first the fresh pla thu are fried and then a three-flavoured sauce is made by frying shallots with pounded chilies, nam pla, sugar and tamarind juice, then pouring the sauce over the fish.
These are only a few examples of the many dishes that can be made using fresh pla thu.
But pla thu are also used in “steamed” form in a spacious variety of recipes. Actually, the fish are boiled in salt water rather than steamed. In the old times they were called pla thu kheng after the kheng, or small, round, woven bamboo containers in which they were displayed in the market.
The ones sold in the Samut Songkhram province had their necks broken by sellers so that they seemed to be looking down. This downward-looking shape became emblematic of pla thu from Samut Songkhram, and it originated when sellers were forced to break the necks of large fish so that they would fit into the kheng. Most pla thu were of a regular size, but big ones sometimes appeared and had to be forced to fit into the kheng bamboo container for sale. With the passage of time, when the broken necks became a kind of Samut Songkhram trademark, even the smaller fish had the treatment.
Salted, dried pla thu are usually big fish of the breed called hang khaeng (“hard-tailed”) pla thu in Thai. They can be wrapped in very many layers of banana leaf and roasted. As they cook they give off an appetizing aroma, and taste wonderful when sprinkled with sliced shallots and bird chilies with a little lime juice squeezed over them. They can be eatenwith all kinds of hot curries, or with con-gee(rice soup).
The pla thu is a very Thai fish, one that has a prime place in the culinary culture of each area of Thailand. If other species of fish were to be taken away, we could probably bear it. But if the pla thu all disappeared, we would be in a sad situation indeed.
