Why Would You?
As I sit here eating my green salad and cold chicken roll searching for content on ’some weird foods of Asia’ for my new blog, I came across deep fried Tarantula. I only have one thing to say, ‘why would you’? End of blog!
Seriously every hair has risen in the form of horrendous goosebumps from head to toe at the thought of placing an arachnid, which I have to be honest looks better under a rolled up newspaper, into my mouth. The most common place to find this ‘delicacy’, please understand I say that word loosely, on the menu is in Cambodia where the preferred species for frying is known as a ‘Ping’. My interpretation of anything that is associated with the word ‘Ping’ in Asia, in my book, has an ending called ‘Pong’ and comes with a table and paddle!
Before I totally creep out, having arachnophobia, let’s have a look at the cooking method: Firstly you have to catch a tarantula: Good luck with that one, some get to 11 inches, yes I did say 11. Next toss dead carcass into a mix of MSG (Sodium Glutamate), sugar, garlic and put oil in a pan. Now this step confuses me somewhat, as no recipe I can find actually tells you how to kill it in the first place. I can imagine that rolling a live tarantula in ‘said’ mix could be mighty difficult if not somewhat dangerous!
Once you’ve discovered how to dispatch of the arachnid, drop one neatly sprinkled spider into hot oil with the garlic and fry until the legs are stiff. I’m finding this very hard to type now, my goosebumps match its legs!
That’s it, bingo you have one deep fried spider. Oh dear, oh dear, now for the worst step… Place in the mouth and crunch. Ewww.
I know there are thousands of spider lovers out there who will be horrified at placing this creepy creature between your dentures, and I am with them whole-heartedly. Sadly I have to say no matter who tries to convince me otherwise, I will never love a spider, dead or alive.
They belong in a place where I can’t see them and that is certainly not on my plate.
I finish this blog with one question: what on earth would you use for a dipping sauce?
