Little Birds in Phnom Penh

Exploring the waterfront food vendors in Phnom Penh brings a wealth of curious finds. Unfortunately I had little time and no interpretor at this stall, so my research isn't very in-depth. But sometimes that's more fun because you have no idea what you've just eaten. Nothing wrong with that.

At one portable stall, I found a selection of small birds -- deep-fried and whole. I ordered one of each, three different ones, of varying sizes. I managed to communicate enough with body language to get the vendor to explain how to eat them properly. You only remove the beek and feet, and eat the whole bird in one or two bites. These were only OK. Kind of bland, but I was in a rush and didn't investigate to see if there were dipping sauces. I suspect these were not the best versions out there, so I hope to try these again on my next trip to Cambodia. Are they finches? Sparrows?

Bug Cart, Khao San Road, Bangkok

I love Bangkok. Where else can you find a transvestite selling deep-fried scorpions and giant cockroaches for tourist consumption? Consumption as in food, for people.

Khao San Road is famous as the world's backpacker mecca. Hardcore travelers lament that Khao San Road is now a big sell-out, long past its good old days of flea-bag hotels, drugs, and legends. So yeah it is, but you can still find everything you used to, and more. It's probably the most international block in the world. Travelers unload souvenirs and trade stories collected from all corners of the world. You can buy Dutch disco CDs, African drums, Guatemalan hats, and Chinese opium pipes.

You can also buy a selection of snacks from a bug cart. Crickets of various sizes, large black scorpions, meal worms, and large water bugs. But the timing never seemed right. The carts seem to appear at odd hours, so after a few days of disappointment, I'd given up on eating the bugs.

I certainly saw a few critters at our hotel. We had a few in-room geckos that were feasting on little bugs but they refused to share with us.

Then I saw her. As we were carving into a blackened catfish on a sidewalk table, an old lady rolled by with a cart of fried bugs. I got up a few minutes later to seek her out but she had vanished into the night. I was sad for 2 days and had given up all hope. Then, last night, as we were finishing up our final Pad Thai before going to bed, another cart rolled up: BUGS! The vendor, a flamboyant transvestite, was excited to help me choose the bug course. It was oddly reminiscent of ordering from a cheese cart at a fancy restaurant. Anyway, I got a small scoop of each bug, 8 of them all together. All the bugs were deep fried and sprinkled with a pepper. We ordered a few of each and sat down on the curb to analyze the taste and texture of each. Here's a photo, set next to a Singha Beer can for size demonstration.



Here's a list:

Black scorpion. Poked my lip with the stinger on accident but ate the rest of the tail in two bites. Flavorless.

Big grasshopper. Tasted grassy like some Savignon Blanc's do. Not bad.

Malengdaa water bug. Looks like a giant cockroach. This is the bug they grind into chili paste in Thailand. We picked up a small bottle of it at 7-11. Bug jam at 7-11. Anyway, the one I had wasn't very exciting. But the most difficult to place in my mouth, to be honest.

2 kinds of maggots. These were my favorites. One tasted like almonds, the other was juicy and sweet.

Crickets. Crunchy, tasted like potato chips. I could chow down on these next baseball game.

The rest were small, undefinable, maybe other kinds of crickets, or merely legs and antennii.

Pig Brains

Siem Reap, Cambodia

We were eating at one of those large shacks -- the big roadside restaurants with no walls and a tin roof -- in Siem Reap . We'd eaten quite a bit already, and drunk a ton of beer. (The beer in Cambodia is quite good. It's a mystery why a country with this climate produces at least 3 dark stout beers, which seem totally unfit for the hot weather. There's a reason Guinness comes from Ireland.) So fueled by the beer, I suppose, and the urge to drink more, we decide to order more munchies. Someone decides we should get the pig brains. Good with beer! is the concensus.

I expected something like the minced meat "larb" popular in Thailand, but the pig brains are more like a soupy stir-fry, with tomatoes, shallots, parsley, and fish sauce. I wouldn't have known it was pig brains unless someone had told me. Nothing remarkable but, yes, fine with beer.

I have to admit that animal brains is something I balk at before digging in. I suppose that's because things like Mad Cow disease have hit modern, western countries so recently. While I'm at it, I've never understood the logic behind feeding a naturally vegetarian cow some cow meat. Here's your cousin's brains to eat, moooo.

And, speaking of both Cambodia and Mad Cows ... did you hear the one about the Cambodian diplomat who suggested England send her mad cows over to run around the Cambodian countryside and knock out a few land mines? Two birds with one stone, eh? Sounds like a Jonathan Swift proposal -- absurd and offensive, but quite reasonable.

In America, they have this TV show called "Fear Factor". On this show they dare contestants to do things like eat weird meat. Read about the cow brain episode here.

Mekong Lobster and the Giant Squilla

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, September 2004

I was catching the sunrise over the Mekong River this morning and on the banks a man approached me with a basket filled with small crabs, and what looked like a shrimp the size of my forearm. I'd never seen a shrimp that size, with foot-long antenne and a long, slender claw. He wanted USD $20 for it. I figured this was a ridiculous price, but I rushed back to my hotel to pick up some cash and ask a local friend for guidance. I was told this is actually a fresh-water Mekong Lobster, and I could find some at the big central market.

So I jumped on a moto and scooted over to the market and found some. There was only one vendor who had a real selection of them. The lowest price I could get for the Mekong Lobster (which looks more like a gigantic shrimp to me, than a lobster) was USD $6. I also scored a giant squilla, which is another crustacean -- a long, rectangular shell on top, colored purple and white. Also around $6. Brought them, squirming alive, back to the hotel restaurant and asked the staff what we could do with them.



Twenty minutes later, I was sitting down with a nice chilled French chardonnay and one of the best meals I've ever had. Seriously! The lobster was cooked in a freshly-made saffron-cream sauce, and the squilla in a citron, salt and Kampot pepper crust. Despite the massive size, I had no problem eating both of these, as the taste and texture were so sublime. I've paid $100 back home for a prime lobster -- this was better. And the hotel restaurant refused to charge me, except for the wine, since I'd bought the massive critters at the market myself. My father was kind enough to video me eating, so I'll post that here soon, in a few years when watching video online is a reasonable option.

Chicken or Egg ?

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I thought I'd have to go to the Philippines for this one. It's actually been on the top of my "must eat it!" list for years. But lucky me! I found it last night, right around the corner from the Foreign Correspondents building in Phnom Penh. A nice lady with a cart had them.



Here's the deal: They take duck eggs in which the embryo has begun to form in to a real live chick, and hard boil them. Good with salt, pepper and lime. I bought two, one for my father, who insisted he was full from the salad he had for dinner (wimp!). Anyway, I got the whole thing on video.

You peel the egg shell off and inside is a duck egg (about 2-3 times as big as a normal chicken egg) and the egg is surrounded by blood vessels, and you can see the early form of a duck baby within the white of the egg. The yolk is still separate. The first bite had a crunchy surprise in the middle, which clearly resembled a beek and duck head. You can see the formation of feathers throughout the egg. Anyway, the whole treat had a pleasant savory flavor and denser texture than conventional hard-boiled eggs. I'm going to pick up a couple more for our road trip south today.

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OK, I've tried a few more now and found that they're available at different stages of embryonic development. You can get them younger (more like an egg), older (almost hatched), or anywhere in between. All are delicious. Although this one sounds probably the most "weird" of all weird meats, it's one of the most tasty. This is a popular snack food, with locals eating it while watching TV sports, picnicking, or as an appetizer to a full meal.

In the Philipines they call them balut eggs. Actually, I'll soon travel to Nanjing, China, where chicken abortions are a local specialty.

Eating Spiders in Cambodia

Location: Cambodia.

Spiders. Along the road north from Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital city) to Angkor Wat (famous ancient temples), a town called Skuon is famous for edible spiders. These spiders look similar to furry North American tarantulas. There are road-side street vendors with large woks filled with oil for deep-frying the crispy critters. The spiders are breed in holes in the ground near the town.



I had been dozing off on the bus, but the dusty, frenetic road stop in Skuon jarred me awake. My Cambodian friend reminded me this was the town famous for edible spiders. He pointed out of the bus as we unboarded, to a row of street vendors standing behind large woks heated by trash-can barrel ovens. "Sometimes a few spiders get away, so watch your feet, don't want them to bite." I looked down at my Tevas sandals and shrugged, blinded by my white feet.

There they were, stacks of whole crispy-fried spiders. We ordered about 10 to share, and the vendor placed them into a plastic bag. A true road-side snack, we munched away on these as the bus drove us north to the ancient wonder of Angkor Wat. Some eat them straight like a sandwich, others pull off one or two legs at a time and eat them like french fries. My first time, I was methodical, tasting one leg at a time -- there are 8 of them, of course -- and finally eating the body in two sections. I found it easier to palate the body after the legs had been removed. I also found that a few cans of cold Angkor beer helped get me in the mood, and to wash down the grease.

There are two sections of the body, and the back with the pinchers is the best. The poison is killed when the spider is fried, but it doesn't nullify the medicinal quality -- good for coughs.

Only one of our Cambodian companions declined offers to munch on spider meat. He said he'd had enough of eating spiders to survive the Khmer Rouge years. (More on that later).

Verdict: Actually quite good! No it doesn't taste at all like fried chicken. Some think it tastes like crab, but I didn't find the resemblance. The taste itself is not strong, it's the cripsy-chewy texture that is most appealing. Make sure you have some paper napkins, as the black juice from these is greasy and it doesn't look good on your goatee. I've eaten about 10 insect-type creatures now, and these spiders are my favorite.