A decade or so ago a documentary was shown on Dutch television which shocked the
viewers. It depicted a frog farm in Thailand where the legs of live frogs were
chopped off and the body, still alive, was thrown back into the pond where they
were raised. Many of my Dutch customers approached me to denounce the barbaric
practice and consequently they would never eat frogs’ legs again.
clipart task force: animals\frog.cgm
Unless somebody can convince me that the above is common practice, I do not
believe this scenario for several reasons. I suspect that the unscrupulous Dutch
(?) T.V. journalists set the scene up for commercial reasons in order to sell
their product. It is not that I feel that the local entrepreneurs will not stoop
to such a thing if they think that it would enrich them but it is highly
unlikely that they would pollute their frog ponds with the decomposing bodies of
the dismembered amphibians. Another point is that in Thailand the whole frog,
even the liver and the roe, are eaten and frogs are sold in the markets often
still alive and jumping. And if not, they are sold whole because to eat only the
legs is a luxury people can hardly afford. Frogs are not cheap. Once I bought
some live frogs in the South Pattaya market and I asked the vendor how to kill
them. He said: ”Put them in the freezer.” I have seen them killed, however, with
a blow on the neck with the blunt side of a chopping knife. If one is not a
vegetarian and principally against the killing of animals in general, then there
is no difference whether one eat a steak, pork chop or the leg of a frog.
The late Elizabeth David, the author of many cookbooks who taught the English
how to be better cooks and enjoy French cooking, made the following observation
in her book “French Provincial Cooking”: “It is odd that frogs’ legs which are
such delicate little morsels that even the most fastidious could not object to
them, should inspire such horror in England.
The
plant and the fruits of the Jeruk Leemo
It was in the dark days of 1940 and 1941 when we lived in Batavia, at present
Jakarta, that I had my first frogs’ legs. Our uncle, the youngest brother of my
father, was an engineer on a Dutch merchant ship which occasionally arrived in
the port of Tg, Priok. Oom Adolf could not go home to his family as the
Netherlands were occupied by the Germans. It was always a great occasion when he
showed up, unannounced as the ship’s movements where of course top secret in war
time. Often he would bring us a side of smoked salmon obviously from the Pacific
coast of the US. At other times he brought oranges and apples but invariably he
would treat us to a visit to our favourite Chinese restaurant on Laan Holle
(later Jalan Sabang and at present Jalan Haji Agus Salem). It was called the Tai
Tong restaurant. We would sit in the garden under the stars next to a pond with
golden coloured carps and have frog legs and Sateh Ayam (chicken meat on bamboo
skewers). In my memory those legs as well as the “Sateh” were the most delicious
I have ever eaten. After the war when I looked for the restaurant again it was
no more.
Frogs’ legs Jakarta style are marinated in a soy sauce mixture, then fried
without being dipped in batter. The fat used should be clarified butter as the
dish is officially called “Kaki Kodog Goreng Mentega” or “Frogs’ legs fried in
butter”. What makes them unique is a few drops of the juice of a small citrus
fruit served with it, called “Jeruk Leemo” citrus amblycarpa. According to one
of my books on Indonesian vegetables and plants, this lime is unique for West
Java, at least at the time it was written which is about seventy years ago. The
fragrance of this fruit is comparable with that of the popular Look Makrut,
citrus hystrix, although even more fragrant.
In 1952 I joined a shipping company which was called the K.P.M. or “Koninklijke
Paketvaart Maatschappij, and whenever in Jakarta, we would go ashore and have
frog’s legs Jakarta style. Our favourite restaurant for this feast was what we
called the “Lampshade Chinese” because of the lampshades on the tables of the
open air restaurant. It was situated on Gaja Mada. Another popular frogs’ legs
restaurant was in the old city of Glodok, the Chinese quarters. It was nicknamed
the “Van Mook Restaurant” after the last Dutch High Commissioner and negotiator
who frequented it regularly in the first years of Indonesia’s independence.
I have eaten frogs’ legs in other parts of the world like Surabaya, also in
Indonesia, where they were fried in bread crumbs which was very disappointing.
In Thailand frogs are usually sautéed “Kreteeum Prik Thai” style, with lots of
chopped garlic and pepper. Another popular way is to sauté them with chopped
bird chillies and Bai Krapow (hairy basil). Hairy basil is not a favourite of
mine and much too overpowering but this is personal and this way of preparing
foods like wild boar, snakes, chicken and what ever is very popular. These
dishes are all very hot and taste of Bai Krapow.
Luigi Carnacina, the great Italian chef and disciple of Auguste Escoffier (the
king of chefs and the chef of kings) in his wonderful book “Great Italian
Cooking”, translated into “La Grande Cucina Internazionale” which is more apt as
many of his recipes are international, has ten different recipes for frogs’
legs. He prepares them deep fried, Bordelaise, Italiano, with peppers and
mushrooms, “fine herbes”, Fiorentina and of course, à la provinçale, the most
popular and best known preparation for those delicate limbs. He invariably soaks
his legs in milk for an hour or so, a practice, I assume, to make them whiter.
However, with all respect to the great man, I fail to see the point.
