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How Eating Fried Tarantulas Saved Lives in Cambodia
Alive, tarantulas are vicious, hairy and poisonous. But deep-fried, many consider them an excellent snack. In Cambodia, fried tarantulas are a delicacy. Often rolled in sugar or garlic, the spiders are eaten by the handful out of street vendors’ carts by local residents and adventurous tourists alike.
While this unusual food item may strike westerners as simply gross (Gordon Ramsay included), the custom has tragic, historic roots going back to the murderous reign of Pol Pot and his communist Khmer Rouge movement.
After taking control, the Khmer Rouge forced Phnom Penh’s 2.5 million residents from their homes and into the surrounding hillsides and fields. Their hope was to turn the country, which they called Democratic Kampuchea, into [an] agrarian society cut off from the rest of the modern world. They killed most who disobeyed or sent them off to the notorious S-21 prison. For survivors, life was full of violence, back-breaking work and starvation. People had to find ways to survive and, for many, that meant finding food sources that were readily available in the countryside. Enter the tarantula.
It is not exactly clear who discovered that Thai Zebra tarantulas, or “apin” in Khmer, were edible. While the practice may date back to the late 19th century, it was during the time of the Khmer Rouge that tarantulas became part of the regular menu. Found in dens in heavily forested areas, the spiders were and are safe to eat and easy to prepare—the entire process from catching a spider to serving it can take only ten minutes. Known for high protein, folic acid and zinc contents, the spiders sustained Cambodians who badly needed nourishment.
Today, you can find fried tarantulas on street corners throughout Cambodia, priced at only ten to twenty cents apiece.
A Taipei-based restaurant has been getting a lot of attention for its newest addition to the menu- a ramen dish topped with a steamed 14-legged isopod that looks like something out of an Alien movie.
The Ramen Boy restaurant recently took to Facebook to announce its latest dish, a bowl of ramen featuring a generous helping of giant isopod (Bathynomus giganteus), which it describes as a “dream ingredient”. Called “Giant isopod with creamy chicken broth ramen”, the dish consists of a large bowl of ramen and a large isopod steamed in its own shell. To prepare the deep-sea crustacean, the cooks remove the stomach viscera, keeping the creamy glands for consumption, and steam it. The white meat is said to taste like lobster and crab, while the yellow glands are “unexpectedly sweet”.
A Taipei-based restaurant has been getting a lot of attention for its newest addition to the menu- a ramen dish topped with a steamed 14-legged isopod that looks like something out of an Alien movie.
The Ramen Boy restaurant recently took to Facebook to announce its latest dish, a bowl of ramen featuring a generous helping of giant isopod (Bathynomus giganteus), which it describes as a “dream ingredient”. Called “Giant isopod with creamy chicken broth ramen”, the dish consists of a large bowl of ramen and a large isopod steamed in its own shell. To prepare the deep-sea crustacean, the cooks remove the stomach viscera, keeping the creamy glands for consumption, and steam it. The white meat is said to taste like lobster and crab, while the yellow glands are “unexpectedly sweet”.
A Taipei-based restaurant has been getting a lot of attention for its newest addition to the menu- a ramen dish topped with a steamed 14-legged isopod that looks like something out of an Alien movie.
The Ramen Boy restaurant recently took to Facebook to announce its latest dish, a bowl of ramen featuring a generous helping of giant isopod (Bathynomus giganteus), which it describes as a “dream ingredient”. Called “Giant isopod with creamy chicken broth ramen”, the dish consists of a large bowl of ramen and a large isopod steamed in its own shell. To prepare the deep-sea crustacean, the cooks remove the stomach viscera, keeping the creamy glands for consumption, and steam it. The white meat is said to taste like lobster and crab, while the yellow glands are “unexpectedly sweet”.
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