Juicy Insects and Reptiles at Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Before traveling to South East Asia, I had seen and read a lot about how insects are considered a delicacy in Cambodia and Vietnam. During my days in Thailand, I saw it at some places. In Cambodia’s Siem Reap, I saw some more stalls. But, the markets of Phnom Penh take the cake. Roaches, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, maggots, silk worms are commonly seen. The special sights are the tarantulas, scorpions and the baby snakes.


Insects and reptiles are not just sold here, but devoured at an amazing place. Kids eat fried maggots and fried grasshoppers like how I would do to sakkarai pongal (sweet jaggery rice) and vazhakka bajji (deep fried raw banana and gram flour). Everyone seems to like it. People just walk to these stalls, pay 600 Riel (0.15 USD), carry a small bag full of these maggots or other insects and continue with their work. This is how I would react to buying some bananas or apples.


The experience of seeing this is very interesting. Personally, I would never eat any of these even in my dreams, but I definitely like to see the way the locals go about eating this delicious snack (according to them). Even the meat eating tourists, watch, think about eating and just end up taking a photograph. Do you want to taste some of these?