Sai Oua – ไส้อั่ว (Thai sausage according to Lanna recipe)
Sai Oua (Thai sausage according to Northern recipe)
Of course we all know Tom Yum Goong, Phat Kaphrao, Pad Thai and Som Tam, but Thai cuisine has more dishes that will delight your taste buds. Many of these dishes of Thai cuisine can be found throughout the regions. An example of this is Sao Oua (Sai ua) from Northern Thailand with its own unique taste.
Sai Oua, also known as Thai sausage, is a traditional sausage from Northern Thailand, specifically the Chiang Mai region. Its history is deeply rooted in the Lanna culture of Northern Thailand, where it has been prepared and eaten for centuries.
The Thai name for Sai Oua is “ไส้อั่ว” (pronounced “sai ua”). This name specifically refers to the spicy and grilled sausage that is characteristic of Northern Thai (Lanna) cuisine. The phonetic pronunciation of “Sai Oua” in English is approximately “sigh oo-ah”. Here “sai” sounds like the English word “sigh”, and “oua” sounds like a combination of “oo” (as in “food”) and “ah”.
The sausage is characterized by a rich and complex mix of flavors. It contains a combination of pork with a range of local herbs and spices, including lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf, shallots, garlic, and a variety of chili peppers. This gives Sai Oua a unique aromatic and slightly spicy flavor profile.
What makes Sai Oua special is the way the ingredients come together to create a harmonious blend of spicy, savory and subtle citrus notes. It is often eaten as a snack, with rice or in combination with other traditional Thai dishes. Sai Oua is not only a culinary delight, but also a representation of the rich culinary traditions and history of Northern Thailand.
You may think that Sai Oua is an ordinary bratwurst, but that is certainly not true. It is a sausage with an intense Thai flavor, thanks to a variety of spices. The sausages have such a unique taste that once you try Sai Oua, you probably won't want to eat regular sausage again! They are also called Chiang Mai sausages and they are also eaten in Laos and Myanmar.
Give them a try.
Enjoy!
I have already had them on my plate and they are very tasty and as you say I prefer them to the sausages from our homeland, I get them through a friend of my wife who lives in Chian Rai who brings them when she comes to Korat comes to family, unfortunately I have not yet found a shop in Korat where they are for sale
I let them pass me by and I don't like them.
My wife in Chiangmai makes this Sai Oua and sends it to customers in Thailand.
Sai Oua in the Thai script ไส้อั่ว Sai (falling tone) means 'intestine' and Oua (low tone) means 'stuffing'.
And in Dutch the pronunciation is 'Sâi Oèwa. So no Ou-a / Au-a / O-ua or anything like that.
Dear Rob V. You will mean that this is the Thai pronunciation, which you could best write like this in our Dutch writing system.
Often this way of writing, because you can't express the pitch in our writing system at all, so it can mean something completely different, is just an attempt by what many also think they can write differently.
In short, the Thai language in our spelling, as far as this is possible at all, is often (1) of many possibilities, so you could pronounce it roughly like Thai.
OK, oops. If you order that in Thai you say 'Can I have a few pieces of stuffed intestine?'
And that's what it ultimately isn't... 😉
When I went to the Chiang-Mai region, my wife made demands that she otherwise never made: TAKE THAT SAUSAGE WITH YOU! That's all she said, but I had to promise to take kilos of it with me on the plane. went home
that sausage not in the freezer but, and that only after a voice was raised on my part, by the grace of God it went in the fridge….. In Nongkhai with all its shops and the Laotian market, the stuff is not for sale.
I smelled it and that was enough: not for me. And it came up, I assure you….
When we live in the village in Chiang Rai, I regularly eat it as a kind of snack when I have a beer in the evening.
Depending on who manufactures this "Sai Oua", it is best to eat in time, and my Thai wife and I like to buy it.
The translation “stuffed intestine” is in principle no different from the production of a sausage from Europe, which is also traditionally nothing more than an intestine with a filling.
If we live in Bavaria (D) as usual during the summer, we are very lucky that a Thai friend of my wife is married to a Bavarian butcher, who supplies all acquaintances and even Bavarian customers with this Sai Oua in his own production.
You say: the village of Chiang Rai.
This 'village' has more than 200.000 inhabitants.
But you are right: the atmosphere is of a very large village.
Sai Oa also means big fart
The Chiang Mai sausage is tasty but very changeable in taste and ingredients since Covid. In China Town in CM there is an elderly couple who sell the best sausages, but I haven't seen them in a while, China Town is also a Ghost Town.
In San Sai they are sold per piece (small ones) for 20 bath, it depends on the mood of the owner how they taste, lately they have been with bits of fat and way too spicy. So I became a Nono.
These sausages are for sale on any market, but often much too fatty, so let's hope that the elderly couple in China Town will return, because the CM sausage is, as said before, quite tasty on its own.
Take a clear picture of it and then try to pronounce it. A picture says more than 1000 words.
"Sai Oua is a combination of classic Thai ingredients, such as lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, red peppers, galangal (ginger), turmeric, garlic, fish sauce and minced pork."
Laos (ginger) ???
Laos = Galangal
But I'm definitely going to try them, I have real pig intestine here (that artificial intestine always explodes with me), special AliExpress sausage syringe (what do you call such a thing?) and even 100% minced pork, which is very difficult to find in NL .
If you want to buy pure minced pork in the Netherlands, you simply ask your butcher to grind you a piece of pork. That's how simple it is. Most minced meat in the Netherlands and Belgium is a mix of pork and veal. Or else you just grind it yourself. There are enough meat grinders for sale with even an attachment to stuff sausages. I bought one of those here, at Lazada. Electric meat grinder.
The fact that your artificial always explodes when roasting is due to the fact that you start roasting at too high a temperature and first, before roasting, do not poke holes in the sausages. Yes, even frying a sausage is a culinary problem for some people. Here, in Thailand, I always use real intestine. Easy to buy at Makro, make pork sausage, chicken sausage, dried sausage yourself. I have the special spice mix sent to me from Belgium.
I also like what they call Isaan sausage here in the South, especially the one from Chiang Rai, but I don't start there myself, just like the French merguez sausage. To each their own, I would say.
I got to know them as Pai sausage, nice and spicy seasoned and delicious with a piece of brown bread.