Eating bugs in Thailand

Jason Herridge says:

Nice one David, but it will be a long time until I try those kind of delicacies! The most I've done is eaten a chicken's foot, which I didn't know at the time - I just thought it was a bit on the crispy side - until a girl told me what it was. All stuck in my teeth, it was - not pleasant.

I try to be adventurous, but normally end up with chicken fried rice. Maybe one day my gastronomic adventures will challenge yours... but I doubt it!

sean says:

Right now I'm teachingEnglish in South Korea. I have not eaten dog yet, nor do I have any intention of doing so. I have however, eaten bundegi.This is the larvae of a silk worm. It looks and smells disgusting, but it doesn't taste that bad...kind of like an under cooked kidney bean.

Tony says:

Hi,

Maing-daa also means a ponce a guy who lives off the earnings off a hooker.

JR says:

Hmm, tastes like dried salty prawn you say?... is this the same for all delectable bugs? You've got be thinking bout trying some.... I've never had the guts to try the maing daa paste my parents often combined into their dining sessions.

hayashi says:

Theres nothing my tgf likes more after a few games of pool than some giant water beetles to take back to our apartment for a late night snack.Theres something funny about watching a beautiful girl crunching on the shell to get to the tasty part i have tried them taste nice better than mcdonalds any day of the week

bill says:

I have eaten 'bugs' four or five times... always in an attempt to impress some bar girl. The most recent event was last friday when I tossed a handful of ants in my mouth, crunched the sweet treat for 15 seconds and washed it down with a beer. I don't really mind the taste, but all in all I'd rather have cashews.

Johnny says:

I was served some crikets once fried with special sauce at the foyer of a casual hotel in Chiang Mai.

The Canadian bloke grabbed the butterfly and chomped it down. Not to outdone I grabbed the fried criket. I thought how bad could it be with a beer at the ready. Chomp, Chomp, Chomp, this is ok, I'll look real brave now, I'm thinking. Then I got a taste of the juice from inside of it, which basically tasted like vomit to me. I then had to dash out into the street and was dry reaching. The travel agent lady that worked in the foyer couldn't stop laughing watching me reaching with tears in my eyes. I had the feeling that she was thinking "Gets them every time".

They reckon you should always try things at least twice before giving a final verdict, but I don't think I like fried crikets. Maybe Cockroaches taste better.

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The other time I ate insects was when I left a half can of Sprite beside the bed, because I knew I would wake up thirsty due to the A/C. So I wake up at around 4am, reach for the can in the dark, gulp, gulp, gulp, while I'm gulping I remembered seeing ants near the leftovers of room service the night before. Sure enough, their were ants in the can. But that doesn't count because I swallowed them whole, and they were little.

philH says:

I have eaten maeng-daa on three memorable occasions.

The first I was wasted, absolutely bolloxed and thought they tasted quite good.

Second time was the following day. Just got to the bar 5:30 evening and around comes the man, "daa-daa-daa". So it has to be done, first thing that hit me was the price. Ten Baht for a fried bug? A plate of khaw phat is only 25! A guy I worked with was sitting the other side of the bar and when I demonstrated my gutter level eating habits. He turned away retching violently which was lucky as I spat the fucking thing out and retched my guts half up. I regained my composure first and greeted him with a cheery "they're not half as bad as they look" and downed half a bottle of Singha to wash the taste out.

Those times were about ten years back but recently I decided to give them a try, see if they are as bad as I remember. They were.

The fried locusts, ant pupae, small beetles etc I can cope with provided they are washed down with copious amounts of beer.

My advice to anyone visitting LOS? Thailand has arguably the best tasting food in the world. Leave the bush tucker trials to brainless, moronic minor celebs on TV.

Anyone know what happened to the locust stalls? I haven't seen any for a while but there was a rumour that the locusts were first killed using pesticide.

Andy says:

No wonder Christianity never really took off here. God might send Biblical Plagues of locusts; frogs; and boils(?!?) to frighten the Thais. And they'd just eat them.
One of my staff at work once got really sick from eating the fried grasshoppers, and almost died. I've never bothered with anything "bush" since.

the yank says:

I worked with the thai military back in may and had the opportunity to try fire ant larve.... it was strange at first and started of as a bet to eat them, next thing I know my friends and I were eating them. the larve is white and looks like rice at first until you take a closer look and notice the little face of an ant forming. hahaha

andy says:

big black fried spiders in PP in cambodia were more of an experience than any of the bugs or scorpians in BK.

daniel says:

i never eaten the bugs but when i was in issan i went out hunting for scorpians with a thai friend but i when we came back and cooked then i was quite suprised to find they smelt good and tasted nice too..............

chock dee, with the maggots peeps