Weird Food Wednesday – Fried Spiders
Yes, yes, we can …feeeeeel the disturbance in the force… generated by the tingling spines of all who simply read the blog post title. We have lots of friends and family who are going to cringe at the notion that spiders are a “delicacy” anywhere, and we’re certain that our Taste Winchester History Facebook Page and Taste Winchester History Instagram Page will be flush with the frightening feedback from the masses, but after Tuna Eyeballs, the Witchetty Grub, and Shiokara, is any of it really a shock at this point? Taste Winchester History brings you FRIED SPIDERS!!!
Fried spider is a regional delicacy popular in the Cambodian town of Skuon and is prepared by marinating it in MSG, sugar, and salt, and then frying it in garlic. Now, everyone I know believes that everything tastes better in garlic, so maybe this dish has a chance amongst our spider-fearing fans. You’ll be excited to learn that it apparently has more meat on it than a grasshopper, so all of you who regularly eat grasshopper will undoubtedly be fuller if you set those aside and start eating fried spiders, sauteed in garlic. However, you should also know that friend spiders have brown sludge in the abdomen, which consists of mainly innards, eggs, and excrement. The spiders are a species of tarantula called “a-ping” in Khmer, and are about the size of a human palm.
Folks, you don’t get much tastier than that, am I right?
“Tastes like chicken!” Doesn’t everything, though? Especially everything weird. The fried spider is no exception with the flavor described as bland, a cross between chicken and cod. In its defense, the discerning spider-eater will enjoy the contrasting textures from the crispity-crunchity exterior of the body and stiffened legs to the gooey-creamy interior. I would imagine it much like a Nestle’s 100 Grand Bar, only instead of chocolate & crisped rice with ooey-gooey caramel you get spider hair & crispity-crunchity spider legs, with ooey-gooey spider eggs, guts, and excrement.
So close and yet so far, far apart…
So who is ready to eat some Fried Spiders? Let us know on the Taste Winchester History Facebook Page or the Taste Winchester History Instagram Page!
