Oven-Baked Tarantulas?

Imagine: You’re hungry on the trail and have a hankering for a high-protein snack. You absentmindedly reach into a bag of nutritious goodies and there, between your fingers, is a crisp, dried brown worm.

If you’re a customer of Edible you wouldn’t be surprised because, after all, that is exactly what you ordered. The London-based exotic food company is setting out to change the way the civilized world sees eating all sorts of crawly critters by making them available on their Web site. Customers can buy anything from thai curry crickets and chocolate covered scorpion snacks to tea handpicked by trained monkeys and lollipops full of energy boosting black ants.

It may all sound a little weird until you consider the parts of the world where these foods are a staple or even a rare treat. In Cambodia, the oven-baked tarantula is considered a delicacy and leafcutter ants are eaten by the Guane Indians during marriage ceremonies to increase fertility.

Would you eat any of these critters for a mid-afternoon snack? Before you get out your credit card, let us try them first. Look for our next post about these treats from Edible where some of us brave souls at BACKPACKER will try them ourselves.

–Morgan Keys

Edible

Image credit: Isabelle Bonjean for Edible