nosh nook #29 - thursday, april 23, 2009

cambodian spiders under threat (link)
04.22.09 - voice of america - by rory byrne

it turns out that i've lived a sheltered life. here i am, months away from the midpoint of my thirties & i still haven't tried spider. it doesn't end there. i've never tried truffles or waterboarding or snake meat either, meaning that i still have a full life to live, things to do, arachnids to taste...miles of spider-filled tastiness to go before i sleep.

as rory byrne reports, in cambodia, giant spiders are all the rage as snacks. back in the 70s, a time when pol pot & the khmer rouge were running around screwing up the country by killing millions of citizens & forcing millions to flee, giant spiders (along with geckos & scorpions) became a source of food for refugees. currently, people looking to munch on some garlic & herb giant spider travel to the town of skun, where "every day thousands are sold in the town's big spider market" for around 50¢.

byrne spoke with locals to gauge the current market for giant spiders. while a local spider catcher sang the praises of spider meat & a local farmer spoke of the health benefits of spider wine, a local seller noted that farmers have been destroying spider nests. this, in combination with overhunting, threatens the giant spider's existence.  unless something changes, future cambodians may never get to experience the pleasure of a tasty giant spider. we humans are experts at doing that. we take the tastiest of god's creatures & do our best to try to eat them until they're threatened with extinction...delicious, delicious extinction.