You may possibly remember that November last year, our city hosted the Southeast Asian Food Festival at which I was hoping to find Cambodian fried spiders. Well, one of the first things we asked a local in Cambodia was: where can we get fried spiders? Actually, I better clarify, I was asking where can we get fried spiders. I noticed Jason was asking where can his wife get fried spiders. In the south, they told us probably in the north -- they don’t eat spiders in Kep. In Siem Reap, people were just confused -- some said maybe in the south, other’s said, not the right season, and yet others said it was a Thai thing and Cambodians wouldn’t eat that (there’s a little bit of animosity between the Thai’s and Cambodians). Then one of my friends informed me she’d seen them whilst in Phnom Phen -- great, I thought, my only chance of being able to gross someone out by something I’ve eaten and I've skipped the city for emotional reasons.
Just to clarify -- after my former description of durian, I know you’re most likely grossed out and want to know why that doesn’t satisfy me. It's elementary, my dear Watson -- just say, someone says “I ate monkey brain.” Which is countered by someone else saying “Well, I ate dog testicles.” At which point I throw in “Well, I ate durian!” It really interrupts the flow of the competition because everyone says, “What’s a durian?” and then I have to explain and then it looses all its grossness credibility right there.
But back to the subject at hand -- no spiders in Cambodia.
Jason consoled me be saying we can come back one day and try again but I knew he was secretly rather glad so that didn’t help one bit. He says he’s genuinely sorry but I really don’t believe him. BUT one night in Thailand, after yet another tuk tuk driver dropped us off somewhere that was not where we asked them to take us, I found fried silk worms.
They also had fried, grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches, caterpillars and frogs. Frogs have faces so I can’t justify that. I draw the line at cockroaches. But silk worms…
It took me ages to convince Jason that we needed to try this. He said no he didn’t feel that need. I said he needed to broaden his horizons. He said the durian experience was enough broadening of his horizons for him. We went back and forth until I wore him down and he promised that when we got back to our hotel, we’d get the video camera out and tape the whole experience. He then put them into his pocket and of course hours later after finally finding the right bazaar I’d been trying to get to in the first place, can you believe, but I actually forgot all about them?! Until a few days later when I found them all soggy in the little bag…
“Did you not remind me about them on purpose?”
“No I completely forgot about them. What a shame I guess we won’t be eating any silk worms in Thailand either…what a shame…”
“I don’t believe you are full of any remorse at all.”
“That would be correct.”
However, God heard my cry and the very last day we were in Chiang Mai, we rented a motorbike and Jason drove the two of us out to a waterfall just outside of town. Just as we were packing up to go take the bike back, what should I find but...fried silkworms! So I bought 5 baht worth (which is about 10 silk worms) and Jason conceded to do this with me (I was fully prepared to do it myself though). Silkworms, video camera and participants (albeit unwilling). All components in place. All systems go!
They're not disgusting...but they're really not very good either.
I didn’t say I was going to like them, I just wanted to say I’d eaten them before. I’m still planning to go back to Cambodia for the fried spiders though.
So somehow I can't actually find the picture I took of the silkworms but we do have a video which I'll get Jason to upload when he's not busy working on some of this other stuff he's doing these days.
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