As Chinese prepare for Year of the Rat celebrations, roadside entrepreneurs in Thailand are serving rodent meat, uncooked or ready to eat, and customers are snapping it up for 150 baht (US$4.82; â,¬3.29) a kilogram. These rats are the kind found in rice fields, not the filthy garbage-can-marauders familiar to city-dwellers.
”It’s tastier than other meats — nothing can compete with rat meat,” said Sala Prompim, a roadside seller of the delicacy who says the hip and liver are the best cuts.
Customers are equally enthusiastic. ”It’s better than chicken,” said Thongyu Roruchit.
”It all depends what you like, but it’s a normal meat like any other.”
Jessada Promna said rat was ”delicious” and planned to fry some when he got home.
Rural folk in the country’s poor north-east have long known that rat can make a warming meal during the cooler winter months. But in Suphanburi province — a prosperous rice-growing province 100km north of Bangkok — entrepreneurs have developed a genuine market for field rat.
Roasted rat stalls are now a common sight on the side of the major highway that runs through the province, but Sala claims he was the first to offer the savoury rodents to passing motorists more than five years ago.
He says his rats are a far cry from their dirty, city-dwelling cousins because they live in the paddy fields around his home. ”They are definitely clean,” said Sala, explaining that they don’t eat dead animals or rubbish.
They’re meaty and low in fat as well, he said.
The animals are trapped, then put to death by drowning to ensure they are presentable for a dining platter. The bodies are boiled in water to make it easier to peel off their skin, and then their noses and legs are chopped off.
Leaving the head and tail on is important, he said, so customers can see they are eating the real deal, not some scuzzy urban impostor.
Sala said he buys his rats from local hunters at about 80 baht ($2,56) a kilogram, marking up the price 100% to sell at 150 baht ($4,82) to his customers.
Normally he might sell 30kg a day, though on Sundays and holidays he can move as much as 100kg.
His profits have allowed him to buy a pick-up truck and four motorcycles.
”I grew from nothing to making a fortune,” he said proudly. ‒ Sapa-AP