Delicious Pregnant Crickets!

October 10, 2006 1:47 PM

The whiskey containing the scorpion is left for several months, which then imparts a unique flavour into the whiskey; it is quite an acquired taste. Tasty pregnant small crickets in salt water brine. Real Cobra Snake whiskey is infused with a real farm raised Cobra snake, ginseng roots and seed pods. All these and more, sold here.
posted by jonson (52 comments total)

mmm tasty decomposing animals
posted by edgeways at 1:58 PM on October 10, 2006

Kinda gross, don't think I'll buy any but it is nice to know where to get it.
posted by Iron Rat at 1:59 PM on October 10, 2006

I wonder how this stuff gets started. "Let's put a scorpion in here... it'll taste even better!"
posted by chef_boyardee at 2:00 PM on October 10, 2006

Mmm durian fruit paste *drools*
posted by Iron Rat at 2:03 PM on October 10, 2006

Is this the stuff Jason Stratham drinks in that movie?
posted by bardic at 2:08 PM on October 10, 2006

Scorpion Blue?
posted by Captaintripps at 2:09 PM on October 10, 2006

Crickets? Tasty?! My girlfriend has to keep the damned things as food for her lizards. They put off a smell that's somewhere between rotten garbage and pure, unfiltered death. You couldn't pay me enough to eat one.

This sounds like a job for Steve!
posted by lekvar at 2:15 PM on October 10, 2006

I've got a bottle of snake wine from thailand. A friend of mine was traveling though, and got me a big bottle of it. I haven't cracked it open yet. I'm kinda scared to. But hell, at least now I know it's actually potable.
posted by Freen at 2:15 PM on October 10, 2006

Oh, and regarding...

Remember to keep an open mind when eating edible insects, after all where did the pig come from?

I can't say for sure where pigs came from, but I'm pretty sure it's not from the abdomen of an insect.

I hope.
posted by lekvar at 2:18 PM on October 10, 2006

Thai spiced cricket tastes good...until you've gotten through the spice flavour and you reach the cricket flavour. Then it's...not so good.
posted by Bugbread at 2:24 PM on October 10, 2006

Well, I've already had the infamous bacon martini . . .

This stuff shouldn't pose too much of a challenge.
posted by jason's_planet at 2:25 PM on October 10, 2006

Pregnant Crickets - Ingredients: Grasshoppers
posted by numlok at 2:29 PM on October 10, 2006

why is it that both the snake and scorpion whiskys are described like:

The story is that this is used in SE Asia as a very strong Aphrodisiac; and it also has many medical uses, such as the treatment of back and muscle pain.

bot of them are good for that? or does any venomous creature in rice whisky work? playtpus perhaps?
posted by Dr. Twist at 2:39 PM on October 10, 2006

I wonder how much brain ion channel blocking venom gets into the whiskey and how long (whether it does?) it remains bioactive...
posted by porpoise at 2:51 PM on October 10, 2006

I have tasted Laotian snake "whiskey" (distilled rice alcohol I guess, more or less the same stuff as Thai Mekong whiskey, but with two snakes inside, one biting the other). It was absolutely disgusting. The taste remained in my mouth for several days.
posted by ikalliom at 2:52 PM on October 10, 2006

Buddy of mine and I go to a nifty joint downtown called El Alacrán and they have some of that. Never had the desire to drink something with a large insect in it though.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:54 PM on October 10, 2006

I gotta agree with lekvar here, I keep crickets for my chameleon, and unless I was on the shady side of dead, I wouldn't even consider eating one. The smell they produce in mass is potent and more than a little revolting.

So yeah, I'll stick with my non-insect inhabiting whiskey thankyousoverymuch.
posted by quin at 2:57 PM on October 10, 2006

Le Cheval in Oakland, CA has a big jar of snake infused rice whisky over the bar. I was there with a friend of the manager once and he brought it down and served me a few shots.

My friend's wife asked for a taste, to which the manager replied that basically she COULD have some, if she wanted, but it wouldn't do anything special for her. Implying, I guess, that my virility would be greatly improved by what I drank.

It didn't taste bad.
posted by luriete at 3:00 PM on October 10, 2006

“I wonder how this stuff gets started. "Let's put a scorpion in here... it'll taste even better!" “

I dunno chef_boyardee, humans do crazy things with food/drink/ingestion.
Coffee, if you think about it, is a bit nutty. Pick beans, set them on fire, grind them, boil water through them, drink the water. Tobacco too. Truffles. Mushrooms. How would it occur to a sane man that he should eat habenaro peppers when everything that is that hot is typically poisonous?
When aliens come down and visit earth - matter of time before we start wondering how they taste.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:00 PM on October 10, 2006

Tasty pregnant small crickets in salt water brine.
*Tip. If roasting them try dipping in your favourite sauce
Ain't enough ketchup in the world, man.
posted by boo_radley at 3:02 PM on October 10, 2006

At the end of one New Year's Night, a friend of mine opened up his bottle of Thai gecko whiskey to share with all of us. I don't know how long the gecko had been in the bottle, but its skin was already well into an advanced stage of sloughing; each scale adding subtle texture to the contents of each of our glasses. I do know that I almost lost everything that I had worked all evening to put inside me when my friend remarked that I had something between my two front teeth. It just didn't seem worth the effort at that point.
posted by billyliberty at 3:14 PM on October 10, 2006

There's a reason Maker's Mark doesn't put out a product like this.
posted by shnoz-gobblin at 3:22 PM on October 10, 2006

The site is closed to orders until October 14th? They are out of stock on every single freaking scorpion whiskeY? I want to die. I want to take all of you with me.
posted by my homunculus is drowning at 3:29 PM on October 10, 2006

Smedleyman : When aliens come down and visit earth - matter of time before we start wondering how they taste.

Hell they ain't even here yet and I'm already trying to decide if they should be fried or barbecued. I suppose I'll also have to wait to see if they are more white meat or dark before I decide on what kind of wine would go best...

[Waits expectantly]
posted by quin at 3:31 PM on October 10, 2006

When aliens come down and visit earth - matter of time before we start wondering how they taste.

It will almost certainly be a Chinese man who finds out first. And if it does anything for his loins, the aliens will be finished.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 3:35 PM on October 10, 2006 [3 favorites]

Thailand is for wimps, the fun stuff is in Vietnam. I had Blackbird spirit there; well it looked like some sort of black bird, in a demijohn of spirits. Tasted kind of greasy. The landlord was negotiating with a punter to get hold of some bats to make up some special brews....
posted by bluefin at 3:54 PM on October 10, 2006

more & much much more
posted by growabrain at 4:29 PM on October 10, 2006

This sounds like a job for Steve!
posted by lekvar at 2:15 PM PST on October 10 [+] [!]

Wow, that blog deserves its own FPP. Seriously, silkworm pupas? Eecch! The natto entry reminds me of a recent trip to a nice Japanese restaurant with a friend though. He ordered some natto and had to reassure our waitress that yes, he had eaten natto before and was thus aware of its...pungent qualities. Heh.

On preview:

more & much much more
posted by growabrain at 4:29 PM PST on October 10

weirdmeat.com? I'm afraid to click.
posted by kosher_jenny at 4:32 PM on October 10, 2006

I've heard in the past, and can not vouch for the veracity of it, that throughout human history there is a small % of people who will try eating almost anything... many of them die, but it is thanks to them that we eat many of the strange things we do...
posted by edgeways at 5:03 PM on October 10, 2006

You've just solved Christmas! Thanks!
posted by DenOfSizer at 5:23 PM on October 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

Several times while living in Beijing I drank snake wine. It was normal Chinese baijiu (grain alcohol - I'm not sure if this was a millet base or sorghum) with two or three snakes, branches, herbs, and other things in it. The first time wasn't bad; kind of a whiskey flavor over baijiu. It also had a whiskey color. The second time was awful; I think it was a newer batch, so it was mostly clear and tasted like extra-bad baijiu. I then made the mistake of drinking two shots of it, which screwed me up something fierce. That was enough for me.
posted by RobotAdam at 5:30 PM on October 10, 2006

I did drink a shoeful of - well, we called it "snakewine" for whatever reason. I kind of remember it being pretty gross, but as you may imagine, it was not the first thing I'd had to drink that evening - my memory is not entirely clear.
A shoeful of snakewine.
posted by zoinks at 5:34 PM on October 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

C'mon, you ate the worm at the bottom of the bottle of cheap tequila, why not a cricket?

I remember in kindergarten when Susan Wagonmaker, oh I had a crush on her, for "odd food day" in show and tell brought in rattlesnake meat and chocolate covered ants. Well, when you have a crush on a girl you suck it up. The funny thing is, they both tasted pretty good. I have had what you might describe as an adventurous palate ever since.
posted by caddis at 5:38 PM on October 10, 2006

There was some other chocolate covered bug as well. Who knows, it may have even been a cricket. I just don't remember.
posted by caddis at 5:44 PM on October 10, 2006

ikalliom - a sister of mine brought me the same bottle of the snake whiskey with the two snakes.

It was college, so naturally me and my friends drank it pretty quick. It had little chunks of snake flesh in it and tasted rather nasty.

Once we finished the rice wine, we filled it with Fleischmann's vodka (it was Madison, WI after all). When that was done we put in some peppermint schnapps. And so on.
posted by mammary16 at 5:47 PM on October 10, 2006

edgeways, that's an interesting theory -- I would love to read something about that. That kind of makes sense, that some people will put just about anything in their mouth, while others are more...selective. Science-people, testify: are we biologically hard-wired to find some foods disgusting and some delicious? I have to say, I would have to be pretty near death to eat bugs. And I may at that point still choose death.
posted by butternut at 5:50 PM on October 10, 2006

"You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but the lips have gotta touch the toe."
posted by paulsc at 5:51 PM on October 10, 2006

caddis - there's nothing wrong with rattlesnakemeat, especially barbequed. Mind, you have to pay attention to the venom sacks when you're preparing the meat, but if cooked correctly it's quite tasty.
posted by lekvar at 5:58 PM on October 10, 2006

I wonder how this stuff gets started. "Let's put a scorpion in here... it'll taste even better!"
posted by chef_boyardee at 5:00 PM EST on October 10

Probably:
"Check it out, guys: a scorpion crawled into my whiskey and died."
"Dude! I bet you five bucks you won't drink that!"
posted by joannemerriam at 7:46 PM on October 10, 2006

This shit is amateur. Just try living in China for a while, a snake in the liquor will me the least of your worries!

Incidentally, I recommend the white liquor with plums and Tibetan red deer penis if you are ever up in Yunnan, tasty. It's also supposed to make you more verile and sure enough the next time I slept with my wife she got pregnant, no foolin'!

(PS- I swear that I had no idea that's what was in there until after I took the swig, it's not like it's terribly polite or even possible to refuse a drink in someone's home around here, so please no guilt about the red deer's endangered status than I already have)
posted by Pollomacho at 7:52 PM on October 10, 2006

Insects as food
posted by rough ashlar at 8:12 PM on October 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

Do you eat the scorpion, like "the worm"? I would if I was a badass. Unfortunately I'm nerdy and have IBS.
posted by aliasless at 8:30 PM on October 10, 2006

doesn't eating scorpions cure ibs?
posted by caddis at 8:37 PM on October 10, 2006

There's also mezcal with a scorpion that I want to get some day.

From what I recall, you can eat the scorpion, you just been to be careful of the stinger. I guess it doesn't break down as easily in the stomach.
posted by Talanvor at 9:32 PM on October 10, 2006

Eh, after two stings, I am far too wary of scorpion venom to want to try ingesting one of the critters in my alcohol, though presumably: a) it would have been de-venomed first, no? and b) prior (increasing) reactions to venom in the bloodstream shouldn’t affect ingestion, should it?

But bugs are just fine. Dip? Naw, the bug carts in Thailand sell em without. Just a paper bag of grasshoppers if you like. (or scorpions, or “water beetles” – looked like cockroaches to me) The grasshoppers were roasted and salted, so that was nice, and for some reason the locals asked me if they tasted like prawn... I guess shrimp/lobster really are underwater vermin when you think about it.
posted by dreamsign at 10:31 PM on October 10, 2006

Talanvor, I have that mezcal. It's not particularly good in my opinion.
posted by steveburnett at 10:46 PM on October 10, 2006

Scorpion whisky is probably a good tipple to wash down your deep fried tarantula with (self link, but I ate a lot of them).
posted by rhymer at 11:58 PM on October 10, 2006

I wonder how this stuff gets started.
and
why is it that both the snake and scorpion whiskys are described like

Marketing. Because whisky is whisky, pretty much, despite what the sniffers and swishers say, so whisky manufacturers have to play the typical marketing mind games on customers: Our whisky is special because it was made from a fine blend of... oh, blends are out of style? OK, our whisky is special because it is "single malt" -- just like everyone else's... OK, but ours is made from the purest springs or rivers or rain or mist or something that the world has to offer, and it has been made this way for fifty? OK, a hundred. No? Five hundred years! A thousand generations. Made by God. God in a kilt and playing bagpipes. OK, so was everyone else's? But ours is absolutely pure! No? OK, ours is not pure. It has a dead animal in it! A snake! No? A a a cricket! A cricket for good luck! No? OK, ahhhh a scorpion! Only real men drink the whisky with the scorpion. Not good enough? OK, it, um, cures some vague ailment that depends mainly on your state of mind... like, of course, impotence! This'll make you hard and horny, and you'll be too embarrassed to admit it if it doesn't! And, fine, if you insist, it takes the creaks out of your back. Just try a bottle and see if that doesn't loosen you up.
posted by pracowity at 12:37 AM on October 11, 2006

Whisky is definitely not all the same. However, throwing bugs into the bottle is probably a cheaper way of getting a higher price for your hooch than aging it.
posted by caddis at 7:00 AM on October 11, 2006

I keep crickets for my chameleon, and unless I was on the shady side of dead, I wouldn't even consider eating one. The smell they produce in mass is potent and more than a little revolting.

Sure, but isn't the same thing true of cows?
posted by fermion at 10:55 AM on October 11, 2006

I'm desperately waiting for a place to order all of this stuff from. All these great links. . .getting thirsty.
posted by my homunculus is drowning at 4:07 PM on October 11, 2006

Sure, but isn't the same thing true of cows?

Yeah, but you can wash a cow.

:)
posted by quin at 4:59 PM on October 11, 2006