Cambodia
Food and Exotic Snacks
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Cambodia culture, Cambodia exotic snacks,
Cambodia facts, Cambodia food, cambodia people, Cambodian food, Cambodian foods,
fried crickets, spiders, silk worms, crickets, herbal medicine, Cambodia,
Tourists, deep-fried delicacies
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At Phnom Penh's
central Phsar Thmey market,
which features a huge of variety of
commodities from clothing to jewelry and cosmetics to food,
fried crickets, Cambodian insect food, fried crickets in
Cambodia, spiders and silk worms have pride of place
around the entrances.
And the crickets, the male of which is said to have a delightful
''herbal medicine'' flavors are by far the most popular treat
for Cambodians and, increasingly, foreign visitors.
Tourists are even starting to ask for special packaging
from stall-holders so
they can take the deep-fried delicacies home
with them to the United States, France, Australia and China,
among other destinations.
Japanese
tourists, too, are high on the growing list of outsiders
who have become aficionados.
Deep-fried and salted
Cambodia
food and exotic snacks, the crunchy insects are
particularly prized by drinkers as a counterpoint to
alcohol, but non-drinkers, especially among women, are
top consumers too, the cricket vendors say. Sok Teak,
25, a cricket-vendor at the market for five years, said
her business is good, but she admitted it is down from
recent years, apparently because of drought that has hit
some of the prime cricket-catching areas.
Still, she is selling about 50 kilograms of
Cambodia food and
exotic snacks like fried
crickets a day, she said and on good days, particularly
when tourists seek packages to take back home, she can
sell 10 kilograms to 20 kilograms more.
A young Cambodian woman, who dropped by Sok Teak's stall
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she was
talking with Kyodo News, ordered a package to take back
home to France for her sister, even though she knows
French customs officials will confiscate the crickets at
the airport in Paris if they discover them.
''I like fried crickets. They are full of taste and
worth the risk at customs,'' San Chanthida, who has been
living in France for three years, said.
Sok Teak sells her crickets by the milk can for the bulk
customers and or by a 52-cricket count for snackers.
The
Cambodia
food and exotic snacks like a
52-cricket pack costs between 4,000 riels and 5,000
riels ($1 to $1.25) for a satisfying crunch while
browsing the market's other attractions. The best
crickets, Sok Teak says, come from the provinces of Kompong
Thom, Kompong Cham, and Kandal, all located along the shores of
Cambodia's grand lake Tonle Sap and the Mekong River.
Cambodia food and
exotic snacks from Kompong Thom, in Cambodia's heartland, is particularly
famous for its annual cricket catch and is known as the
country's leading cricket
exporter. But the continuing drought across much of
Cambodia is hampering cricket-catchers as well as
farmers.
This year's catch may well drop below last year's paltry
70 tons, which itself was a dramatic drop from about 100 tons
caught in 2002, warned Em Thean, a director at the Kompong Thom
agriculture department. The crickets, which
flourish in the watery soil of the Tonle Sap, have declined in
recent years due to the drought, but the number of catching
spots and catchers has increased to 2,000, Em Thean said, noting
that can mean less money for each catcher.
Starting from the first rains in late May until December, Kompong Thom town at night is aglow with thousands of
ultraviolet lights the cricket-catchers use to attract the
insects.
Em Thean said a family can net up to 60 kilograms on a good
night, worth about $36 to middlemen who buy the bugs and package
them on ice for transport to markets in Phnom Penh, and in
Thailand where cricket-crunching is also popular.
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Cricket aficionados
such as Pok Karina, 23, who has been chomping the
chitinous critters since she was six, say it is simply
the good taste that keeps them coming pack to the Phsar
Thmey for an insect treat.
Others, without the any scientific proof at all, firmly
believe eating a few crickets regularly can keep one
healthy and prolong life.
Chef Bourdain simply found them reasonably good.
Asian Economic News,
PHNOM PENH, Kyodo
COPYRIGHT Kyodo News International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT Gale Group |
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