Date achieved:
Tuesday 5th November 2019
Where?
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Why is this experience on the Challenge List?
It’s something that I’ve seen on those travel shows where the actor goes to a foreign country picks up a bug and just eats it. Also my grandfather used to always joke about eating bugs for dinner so thats exactly what I wanted to do, eat a bug because well why not…
Description:
When I was in flight centre booking my spontaneous holiday to Vietnam and Cambodia (three weeks before I was leaving), I was asked if I wanted to do a cultural food tour exploring the night markets in Cambodia. I only had a few days in Cambodia so I thought I may as well make the most of it.
I was told that there might be some unique food experiences on the night but when I got on the tour it was definitely an interesting night. The group of people that were with me were a couple from America, another couple from the UK and the tour guide and the drivers.
The first place we arrived at we were introduced to a Cambodian delicacy Pong tia koon which is the Cambodian version of balut, in other words its a eggs that has developed for 18 days and then boiled… Yep this was the first thing we could try, at this point I was kinda wondering what kind of food tour I had signed up to! I cracked the egg open followed the instructions of the guide and added the salt and pepper, parts of it were like soup and then I tried a little on a spoon and heard a crunch and that was enough for me, no amount of salt could fix that. Interestingly a local sitting next to us downed three of the eggs in the time I had three mouthfuls!
Later, we had a bit of fish amok, durian, pig intestines, seasonal fruits, sweet roti (which was made by an 86 year old street vendor – she definitely didn’t look like she was that old, she was so lovely to us telling us that she had been selling it at the market for quite a while), some other desserts and then we found the insects…
There were quite a few different insects on offer and they had a huge supply of each. We were allowed to try the silk worms, grass hoppers, bettles and frog legs.
We all looked around to see who was going to be the first brave soul, the tour guide showed us exactly how to eat the silk worm and then everyone else grabbed one.
We ended up having a countdown and all eating it at the same time, which they actually weren’t too bad, once you bite down on it the middle is actually quite squishy and had a bit of a nutty after taste.
Next up was the grass hopper, which I would have to say was probably the best (I had two of them) but it was super crunchy which was all I could feel in my mouth as I was chewing. It had a bit of a chicken mixed with peanuts kind of taste.
Then was the beetle which was even crunchier than the grass hopper cause it had such a hard external outer shell, once I broke though that it wasn’t so bad.
The last one that we got to try was frogs legs which had been fried, when you think of a frog they have super skinny legs and when its fried its no different so there actually wasn’t that much I got to taste but it did have a slight chicken taste to it.
After the insects we got to go to a restraurant have some dinner which everyone scoffed down so quickly it was so yummy and a great way to end the tour.
Would I do it again?
I may have pulled some funny faces whilst I was eating the bugs but it wasn’t actually that bad (the video might show otherwise)…
I would do it again, possibly try a different type of insect, definitely is an experience that I won’t forget anytime soon!
VIDEO
Highlight:
My tour guide, seriously he was the best he made us all laugh when we were all nervous about trying the new foods and then laughed at all the faces that we were pulling while we were eating it. It really was funny and watching the expressions of the other people on the tour with me, it was great.
Getting to experience trying the insects would also just have to be a highlight, its a very unique experience.
Cost:
Through Flight Centre I purchased this tour for $68 and I loved every moment of it, the tour was really well planned and had everything we needed included.
Further information:
This is the tour that I went on and I would HIGHLY recommend it, my tour guide was so knowledgeable and you could really tell that he was passionate and loved what he was doing.