Again this morning, Reuter's "Oddly Enough" has an article about those "odd" Cambodians. This one makes a clever joke about Cricket Season in Cambodia. No, Cricket Season in this part of the world does not mean bats and bases and Englishmen in silly white uniforms. It means hunting crickets and other insects. To eat.
I have seen roaches and crickets and grubs and even scorpions fried and offered for sale to eat on the streets of Thailand. I have yet to taste the delicacies, but as soon as someone who I trust can PROMISE me that it will be crispy and crunchy and not soft and gushy, I will try.
According to the article: "2003 looked like a bumper year, although oversupply had sent cricket prices tumbling from about 1,000 riel ($0.25) per kg to just 200."
Crickets for five cents a kilogram?! I'll take two kilos!
Ok, I now have word by email from a reliable source about the crickets:
"They're not soft and gushy. Well, they're sort of soft, but definitely not gushy. And there is also some crisp to them because of legs. I've tried, queen ants, ant eggs, crickets, and silkworms. The silkworms are the worst, the queen ants, and red ant eggs are the best, although I ate those in ki jiaew. The eggs popped in your mouth, but it didn't really have any taste. The crickets were ok, but they cook it in this disgusting sauce. I was getting sick from the sauce they cooked them
in, more than from the crickets themselves. The silkworms were just bad. I still stomached them, though. The kids were eating them by the fistfull."
Well, there you have it. Anyone want to join me for a "fistfull" of bugs for dinner?