The first thing I saw when I stepped off the bus in Bangkok was a food cart piled with various types of seasoned and fried insects.  I knew that the cuisine would change as we traveled east through Asia.  And I’ve seen plenty of different types of meats in markets at home and abroad.  But nothing was so exciting as seeing “dog meal” on a menu for the first time.  We’ve made it, I thought to myself.  No longer in the veg-heavy subcontinent, seeing dog meal on the menu marked the beginning of a new place in terms of what constitutes “edible,” particularly with meat.  On the same menu was a dish made from field rat, as well as various parts of pig and cow which I don’t think I’ll be trying anytime soon.  Even though I don’t have the appetite to try the more adventurous things we are coming across in the markets and restaurants, I do enjoy hearing about them and seeing it for myself.  A couple of days ago we saw strips of buffalo skin drying out in the sun.  It gets scraped and re-softened before getting eaten (picture rawhide dog bones, that’s what it looks like).  Another delicacy in Laos and other Asian countries is the hardboiled chicken or duck embryo, also known as the “pregnant egg.”  Having thought I was getting a regular hardboiled egg, I accidentally ordered one the other night.  I thought it was strange that the shell didn’t crack when I hit it with a spoon, it seemed extra hard.  The membrane was pretty thick too.  A fair amount of liquid spilled out when I finally broke through the shell.  Must have gotten a lot of water inside it while it was boiling, I thought to myself.  But then I realized that there was no egg white and the yolk seemed extra large.  As I peeled back a small section of shell, there was a strange form of yolk/baby bird cooked inside.  Matt was pretty grossed out by the site, and I wasn’t planning on eating it, so I put it back in the little dish it was served in.  I had read about these eggs before, and suddenly it dawned on me why I had seen numbers on other “hardboiled” eggs at the market—the numbers indicate what stage the egg is in.  At the market in Phonsavon, we saw bowls of live grubs and crickety bugs (previously we’d only seen cooked insects), the usual fish, bats, chicken…wait, bats?!  Yep, a basketful of bats, wings tied down so they couldn’t flap.  That was a new one.  So was seeing a live rat a few stalls down.  Actually, I weren’t quite sure what it was when I first saw it, the snout wasn’t as pointy as a rat, plus it was a little bit larger than most rats.  I looked it up online and think it is a river rat.  In the process I came across a story about scientists who discovered a new mammal species at a market in Laos—the rock rat.  This was just a few years ago!  The web search also led me to an interesting website dedicated to exploring different social views on what constitutes meat and well as trying it along the way.  The site is www.weirdmeat.com, I recommend checking it out if you’re interested in that sort of thing (check out the “master list”).  I thought it was pretty cool to read about how the different meats are prepared and what they tasted like with out having to do so myself.  I have a phobia about eating meat that is not flat.  It’s just difficult for me.  In the meantime, the only new foods I’ve been trying are fruits, though I’m sure eventually I’ll try some of the more exciting items available on our journey.