Hungry? How about a nice tarantula?
March 5, 2015 9:20 AM   Subscribe

Fried spider is a regional delicacy in Cambodia. It is not clear how this practice started, but some have suggested that the population might have started eating spiders out of desperation during the years of Khmer Rouge rule, when food was in short supply.

Today, spiders — rich in protein, folic acid and zinc — are considered a delicacy and sold in markets and restaurants across Cambodia. The practice has also encouraged a lively tourist trade.

So what does spider taste like? Well, you might expect it to be crispy on the outside and gooey in the middle and that's not a bad start. The legs are pleasantly crunchy and have little flesh in them. Then you get to the head and body which have a delicate white meat inside, rather like a cross between chicken and cod. These bits are quite moreish and the only downside is that, after munching a few, you can develop little spider fur balls in your throat.

But then there's the spider's large, globular abdomen. This is the only really disturbing part of the animal: it's full of a dark brown paste that includes everything from eggs to the heart and spider excrement. One local man enthusiastically claimed these were a delicacy and was energetically popping spider rears into his mouth like grapes. But even some of the sellers blanched at this display of arachno-machismo.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (73 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Paging Mr. Munroe
posted by stevis23 at 9:24 AM on March 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


(nope^infinity)+1
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 9:24 AM on March 5, 2015 [16 favorites]


I'm gonna go ahead and not add this to the list of exotic meats I might try once even though I'm a vegetarian.
posted by Drinky Die at 9:25 AM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Fried spiders are proof that god hates us and wants us to be miserable.

I should know better than to open up MetaFilter right before lunch. I really should.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 9:27 AM on March 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


People are traveling to Cambodia to eat spiders.

Traveling To Cambodia.

To Eat Spiders.

Voluntarily.

Of their own free will.

But then there's the spider's large, globular abdomen. This is the only really disturbing part of the animal

I BEG TO DIFFER
posted by zarq at 9:27 AM on March 5, 2015 [35 favorites]


We were shelling a bunch a blue crabs the other day, and it was really hard for me after a while to not imagine we were shelling spiders for the delicious spider meat inside.

So hey, I'm on board.
posted by angrycat at 9:27 AM on March 5, 2015 [8 favorites]


Relevant:
a haiku to commemorate the occasion:

nope nope nope nope nope
nope nope nope nope nope nope nope
nope nope nope nope nope
posted by elizardbits at 11:59 PM on June 16, 2012

posted by zarq at 9:29 AM on March 5, 2015 [20 favorites]




I was with you for a moment, but

after munching a few, you can develop little spider fur balls in your throat

...aaaaaand you lost me.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:30 AM on March 5, 2015 [10 favorites]


I wonder if you fry spiders with spiders.
posted by zamboni at 9:31 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


I have eaten
the spiders
that were in
the fryer
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were horrid
so furry
and so filled with eggs and fecal matter
posted by Splunge at 9:31 AM on March 5, 2015 [49 favorites]


There's been a lot of snow in my area today, so I'm not able to get to the store to pick up more nope, and in truth, I don't keep as much in the pantry as I probably should. Still and all, I'm going to get all the nope I can (even that one jar that technically expired in February) and put it right here, on the fried spiders.
posted by thudthwacker at 9:32 AM on March 5, 2015 [14 favorites]


I'm basically just weeping in utter, utter horror right now....eep.
posted by supermedusa at 9:34 AM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


omg I just read the rest of the OP and I. just. cannot. oh god. the abdomen part....I'm seriously twitching and writhing. BLARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by supermedusa at 9:37 AM on March 5, 2015


I have to wonder if I would starve to death if my only source of food was the fried spider lunch truck.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 9:39 AM on March 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


I don't eat invertebrates, so on a visceral level I'm not seeing this as cringe-worthy as some of you suggest. In all honesty, anybody who eats invertebrates in general (and lobster or crab in specific) shouldn't have a problem with this.
posted by truex at 9:39 AM on March 5, 2015 [4 favorites]


Oh there's a "nope" tag! How delightful! A veritable cornucopia of horrors awaits!
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 9:41 AM on March 5, 2015 [8 favorites]


It's time to taste
what you most fear.
Rightguard will not
help you here.

What you need,
my dear...

Is a holiday in Cambodia,
where you'll do what you're told!
Need a holiday in Cambodia,
where the slums got so much soul!
posted by indubitable at 9:44 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


I can't imagine eating a spider on purpose, unless the only other option is to let it live. Then I might have to take one for the team.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 9:45 AM on March 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


There is a suggestion, the lost civilisation of the Khmer empire, particularly Angkor, was abandoned because of famine. The elaborate waterworks, a network of canals and reservoirs, was not enough to provide for a populous whose numbers would rival a modern city.

Having said that, so what? Maybe spider was a sought after delicacy for the elite few. Or food for the underclass. Have you looked at a lobster? Really looked at it? They are related to cockroaches. I'll have the giant sea cockroach please!

Your favourite delicacy grosses someone out, somewhere.
posted by adept256 at 9:50 AM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


This is a great post and you should feel great for posting it! I love spiders.

I'll just let you sit in the ambiguity of that sentence.
posted by byanyothername at 9:53 AM on March 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


Good to see Spiders Georg getting out of that cave and finding a career in the restaurant industry, I guess.
posted by Metroid Baby at 9:53 AM on March 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


But even some of the sellers blanched at this display of arachno-machismo.

More like machismOHMYGODWHATAREYOUDOING.
posted by duffell at 9:56 AM on March 5, 2015


Hell no I would not eat a fried spider but you steam me up a giant sea cockroach and I'm dipping that shit in some drawn buttah!

I contain multitudes.
posted by bondcliff at 9:56 AM on March 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


Yeah, but lobsters aren't hairy.
posted by backseatpilot at 9:59 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


In all honesty, anybody who eats invertebrates in general (and lobster or crab in specific) shouldn't have a problem with this.

And yet, it does. How can this be!?
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 10:00 AM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


> Yeah, but lobsters aren't hairy.

Some are.
posted by Poldo at 10:01 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


I had one, or part of one, in Phnom Penh about 12 years ago. It is precisely as disgusting as you think it would be. As the FPP says, they are eaten only when food is in short supply (because they are not food), or if you are a dickhead tourist.
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 10:02 AM on March 5, 2015 [6 favorites]


what the fuck
posted by Kitteh at 10:04 AM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


$rm -r spiderbutt


(taking a cue from Stonestock Relentless)
posted by datawrangler at 10:21 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


I may remark agriculture may be difficult in Cambodia. Step on a landmine, or eat a spider?

Two minutes on DDG found this organisation concerned with demining former conflict zones.

In icky-yuck-ewww factors, eating spiders is nothing compared to potentially being exploded while planting rice.
posted by adept256 at 10:22 AM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


I've had fried spiders in Cambodia about 10 years ago and I almost threw up when I bit into the abdomen. The legs were pretty much just crunch and oil and were much more palatable (although not particularly good).
posted by Falconetti at 10:22 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


I also had one in Cambodia about 12 years ago. I knew about them beforehand and so when I saw them at a roadside stall I went for it. Everything was fine except for the abdomen. I've got a picture somewhere of me with a spider in my mouth.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 10:29 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


When I was travelling in Cambodia we were half convinced the "spider on a stick" thing was just an elaborate prank being played on tourists by the whole country, would have been awesome if it was true.
posted by coust at 10:29 AM on March 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


Andrew Zimmern chows down on Tarantulas in Cambodia.

Before you click on that link: it is just as bad as you imagine.

He gives it a thumbs-up, though.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 10:32 AM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


God, the fashion of irrational arachnophobia is getting old.

Everything I've read and seen (including Andrew Zimmern, whose palate I actively admire) makes fried tarantulas seem absolutely delicious. Fried soft-shell crab is one of my favorite things in the world, and this doesn't seem very different at all, down to some funky abdominal bits.
posted by cmoj at 10:38 AM on March 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


This is the worst thing ever.
posted by marimeko at 10:39 AM on March 5, 2015


I tell myself they're like blue crabs, really just as weird but yet probably tasty. Then I look at the pictures, and I am overwhelmed with NOPE.

And I like spiders.
posted by kinnakeet at 10:42 AM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Time to up your game, Iowa State Fair!

Yesterday I had sardines for lunch, there were still fucking FINS and SPINAL CORDS in that shit

Today I'm probably gonna have a Tijuana Mama sausage and I literally have no idea what it's made of

Sure I'll eat a spider, whatever man
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:51 AM on March 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


I had one, or part of one, in Phnom Penh about 12 years ago. It is precisely as disgusting as you think it would be. As the FPP says, they are eaten only when food is in short supply (because they are not food), or if you are a dickhead tourist.

Horseshit. I have a Khmer friend who lives in Phnom Penh and she loves fried spiders.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:03 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


Eating lower of the food chain is a good thing for people and the planet. I accept that many people right now will get squicked out by eating identifiable insects, but you could easily put insect-sourced protein powder and the like into foods to make them more nutritious. And I'm pretty sure that at Noma, the world's top restaurant, people pay a fair bit to eat identifiable insects, so maybe even that will become more acceptable in the not-too-distant future.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:07 AM on March 5, 2015


Anyone who pays to eat at the world's top restaurant deserves to have hot spider guts shot down their throat.
posted by aaronetc at 11:14 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


God, the fashion of irrational arachnophobia is getting old.

I'll have you know that I have been irrationally arachnophobic since the 1970's. If it's a new trend, then I helped start it.

I was arachnophobic when arachnophobia wasn't cooooooool.
I was arachnophobic from my hat down to my boooooooooots.

posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:15 AM on March 5, 2015 [5 favorites]


You know what the real tragedy is?

Cambodia is home to things worse than eating spiders. You couldn't pay me enough to go there.
posted by doctor tough love at 11:17 AM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


Andrew Zimmern chows down on Tarantulas in Cambodia

I would love to visit Skuon, Cambodia. Having just viewed that video, however, I would wear this.
posted by CynicalKnight at 11:19 AM on March 5, 2015


He took it all too far
But boy could he cook spid-ah-arr
posted by a lungful of dragon at 11:19 AM on March 5, 2015 [6 favorites]


Would eating Spider-Man offer the hairy crunchiness of spider or the delicate sweetness of long pork?
posted by nicebookrack at 11:22 AM on March 5, 2015


Cambodia is home to things worse than eating spiders.

Seriously get over it. I would gladly eat nothing but spiders if it would make Cambodia a better place for it's people.
posted by adept256 at 11:50 AM on March 5, 2015


Eating lower of the food chain is a good thing for people and the planet.

There's an alternative. You give food waste to the insects, you feed the insects to tasty animals, and then you eat the tasty animals. In addition to being more environmentally sustainable, this method avoids the thing where you have to put spiders into your mouth.
posted by dephlogisticated at 12:02 PM on March 5, 2015 [10 favorites]


Spiders are the most bad-ass insects ever but I'd sooner one eat me than eat one myself.
posted by blucevalo at 12:03 PM on March 5, 2015


I went to Cambodia, and all I ate was this lousy happy pizza. There weren't spiders on the pizza, I think, but I definitely hallucinated some on my pillow later.
posted by nicodine at 12:05 PM on March 5, 2015


The thing about eating a tarantula for breakfast is that absolutely nothing worse will happen that day. It really gives you something to look forward to.
posted by five fresh fish at 12:16 PM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


I mean, it's like this xkcd was made for this very conversation.
posted by Riki tiki at 12:19 PM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


No. I'm not even going to click the link. There might be pictures, and ... no.

I also do not eat sea insects. No crab, no lobstah, and I'm from New England. Gaaaah.
posted by clone boulevard at 12:31 PM on March 5, 2015


I went to Cambodia, and all I ate was this lousy happy pizza.

Was waiting for the "contained actual louses" punchline
posted by prize bull octorok at 12:50 PM on March 5, 2015


Spiders are not insects.
posted by uberchet at 1:28 PM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Whenever someone makes the lobster cockroach comparison I give up on eating lobster. Then I forget it. And I can eat yummy lobster again.

This would not work with fried tarantulas.
posted by Splunge at 1:39 PM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


Cambodia is an incredible country and you should all try and visit. I did not eat spiders. Amok and Loth Cha on the other hand, are incredible.
posted by misterpatrick at 1:54 PM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Like cmoj, I've always figured tarantulas were like land-dwelling soft-shell crabs. I am not sure I'd go for the ...innard section, but the legs sound promising.
posted by fiercecupcake at 2:36 PM on March 5, 2015




I don't know what you are all freaking out about. It's a well known fact that the average person ingests 14 spiders a year while they sleep.
posted by double block and bleed at 2:51 PM on March 5, 2015


I am not sure I'd go for the ...innard section, but the legs sound promising.

I was ready to agree with you, but then there's this bit: after munching a few, you can develop little spider fur balls in your throat, and nope nope nope nope. It made me actually gag just imagining it. Maybe if you could....defur them somehow. I'd eat spider legs if there was no fur to worry about.
posted by yasaman at 3:08 PM on March 5, 2015


yasaman, the nz spider reddit thread I posted covers defurring.
posted by ryanrs at 3:10 PM on March 5, 2015


My god, ryanrs, reading that thread is like reading a dispatch from another planet:

You don't need to milk them, they hardly have any toxins by weight. Apple seeds have cyanide in them but nobody cares FOR THE SAME REASON.

This whole thing about removing the toxin became popular after that Play School episode where Big Ted got sick from a Fryder. A week later TV2 ran a retraction but by then the harm was already done.


This is why I voted National. They were the only party to promise to completely revise the Arachnid Harvesting Act so that every day New Zealanders can enjoy an eight-legged feed like the old days. Spiders and snapper were the most important election issues last year imho.

I literally can't tell if that thread is an elaborate trolling attempt or not. It is, right? God I hope it is. D: Whatever, burning or boiling the spider fur off seems sort of legit, so I'll grant that at least.
posted by yasaman at 3:34 PM on March 5, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's a well known fact that the average person ingests 14 spiders a year while they sleep.

They say you eat 27 spiders in your life. The thing they don't tell you is that it's always exactly 27. Always.

If you're about to die and you've never eaten a spider, 27 of them will appear and rush into your mouth all at once. If you've eaten more than that, you spend your last moments burping up live spiders.

posted by mhoye at 22:24 on May 27, 2014 [−] [!]

posted by Johnny Wallflower at 3:51 PM on March 5, 2015 [6 favorites]


If you guys like this kind of stuff you should cruise the list of delicacies on Wikipedia which includes fried tarantula along with balut, century eggs, haggis and a lovely seal turducken.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 4:25 PM on March 5, 2015


I remember a terrible dream I had, way back in high school. It ended with me picking up a huge spider, a tarantula that may have been alive, and I proceeded to calmly eat it. Bite, chew chew, look at spider with a bite taken out of it, bite, chew chew, until the whole thing was gobbled up. Then I woke up to the worst morning breath ever--I think the morning breath came first and my imagination whipped up the spider-eating dream to make sense of it.

So disturbing. It took me days, weeks to shake that dream, and I still remember it decades later. In other words, you'll never catch me eating a damn spider. Been there, done that.
posted by zardoz at 5:24 PM on March 5, 2015 [3 favorites]


I scrolled down here really fast just to add another NOPE. I can't even read the goddamn comments.
posted by scratch at 5:43 PM on March 5, 2015


Fried soft-shell crab is one of my favorite things in the world, and this doesn't seem very different at all, down to some funky abdominal bits.

I don't eat crab because it they are just big oceanic spiders, and yuck. I think it's the big abdomens that make me gag at the thought of eating spiders, since I've quite happily eaten plenty of insects before, with great gusto.

But I've also eaten some weird things at high-end sushi restaurants, so I have no ethical leg to stand on, much less consistency in my distaste.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:55 PM on March 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


I am with truex - I don't eat invertebrates and it is for all the same reasons most of you are 'noping' the spiders. Sometimes sushi dinners can be uncomfortable because while I loooooooove the fish, I cannot even fathom the invertebrate options and there is always the inevitable pusher and there is only so much polite "I'm not a fan of crab - more for you!" you can do with some pushers before you realize the only alternative is to explain that if I'm going to eat that crab, it's going to make me retch the same way that eating a cockroach (or spider) off the floor would and really I'm trying not to think about it as I watch you nosh on some basically-bug-meat. And that's just not polite dinner conversation.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 7:01 PM on March 5, 2015


Do not try the spider patte.
posted by clavdivs at 7:12 PM on March 5, 2015


I contain multitudes.

You had the squid?
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:49 PM on March 5, 2015


Sorry, but I had to do this for all you 'haters':

While people often call lobsters the “cockroaches of the sea,” lobsters are not very closely related to cockroaches. While both are invertebrates with very distant common ancestors, they have evolved in different ways over millions of years. Despite occupying distant branches from each other on the tree of life, cockroaches and lobsters do share similar diets, segmented bodies, hard exoskeletons and nocturnal activity patterns.

Okay? Can I eat now?

Source.
posted by Splunge at 5:13 PM on March 6, 2015


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