I was having the time of my life shopping in so many malls, flea markets and street stalls in Thailand when I suddenly remembered that I have not had my lunch yet at 4:00 in the afternoon! Time truly flies so fast when you are pretty much occupied, in my case, with shopping. So with a grumbling stomach, I was forced to look for something to eat. I left the shopping area and proceeded to the rows of food stalls within the flea market that I was in and anxious to fill my stomach right away so that I can resume my shopping.

There were a lot of yummy looking food choices like hot noodles, grilled squid, assorted food cups, etc. But what caught my attention were the gigantic piles and piles of bugs and insects that were being sold in the food section of the shopping area! I heard myself say “my oh my!” It was as if I was lost for a few seconds and accidentally transported to the pets and animals sections of the market. You can just imagine my surprise when I saw a lot of live locusts, grasshoppers, roaches, and even maggots! And yes, I was not lost. I was still in the food area and the main tourist attractions are the bugs and insects that were being served as exotic foods.

It is easy to see this for yourself if you are in Bangkok. Coming from your hotel, like the Amari Watergate Hotel Bangkok or Arnoma Hotel Bangkok, you can take the Sky Train to the Mo-Chit Station to get to the Chatuchak Market. The Chatuchak Market is practically a treasure trove when it comes to great bargain finds and scrumptious inexpensive food. Of course, your eyes will pop out with all the decreasing price tags that you will see marked on the various good that are being sold there. But what will make your eye balls really pop out of their sockets are the exotic foods like are lined up and are yours for the picking. You can even choose the manner by which you would like to these exotic food items to be cooked but the most popular choice is to have them fried but you can have them in your soup.

A lot of street vendors, who obviously enjoy seeing amazed look on the faces of tourists, would be more than willing to cook them for you. They will even show you that the bugs and insects are very much fresh meaning that they are alive before they are cooked.

Now, remove those weird expressions on your faces. I am sure that you will find it hard to believe if I tell you that all those exotic foods are not that bad. Some of them even resemble the taste of regular or normal food items that it is not hard to develop a liking for them. Try the water beetles. These bugs melt in your mouth and taste that cheese specifically cottage or white cheese. Fried ants are not bad but because of their size, it is advisable that you take in that about a spoonful for you to even taste anything. Fried roaches taste like, surprise surprise, sausages! You can even add some hot sauce or dried chili powder to those roaches before putting them in your mouth. The bugs will burst in your mouth when you bite and you will discover that it tastes good. Maggots are fried as well and taste like crab meat. If you are still hesitant to try them, then just think that they just taste like your average potato chips.

If you don’t like them fried then you might want them in your soup like the white ants and their eggs. These are color white and about the size of steamed rice. Adult ants as well as the eggs or half embryos are mixed in the soup. As I could not make myself try this dish, I asked those who ordered the soup and they said that is was amazingly good. The ants were soft and they pop in your mouth to give that sweet and spicy flavor.

These exotic food items are rich in protein and can be good for you. If you would like to try any of these bugs and insects, I suggest that you buy some from food stalls that looks busy and are patronized by the locals. This means that they serve good food.

I hope that I am not disgusting you with this and that I somehow convinced you to give these bugs and insects a try when you are in Thailand. It might come to a point when you will be surprised with the fine good taste of the food that you are munching on and that it no longer matters that those are actually bugs.

Posted in Food, Thailand

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 7:44 pm and is filed under Food, Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.