The Meng Mahn Have Emerged In The North.

[chownah]

In the north near the end of the dry season when a rain lasting two or three day comes there is an insect called meng mahn which emerges from the ground starting at sundown and fly up toward any light. They emerge for a few/several hours. They will do this for two or three consecutive nights. They are a delicacy up here and everyone in my neighborhood goes out and gathers them. You can catch them when they fly to a light or if you can find their hole you can sit with a candle by the hole and gather them as they emerge. They're not my favorite bug to eat but the Thai's go crazy for them. If you live in town so you can't collect them yourself you'll have to pay 10baht for a small portion which is enough to add into some nahm prik.

Now....collecting these bugs is a bit tricky because there is another bug that flies up at the same time called meng maow and it looks very very similar but is not edible. Also only the females of the meng mahn are eaten. Anyway in my village this is quite the social event with the kids running around with bottles that they stuff them into and everyone is in a good mood etc.

This event is sort of a natural division of the calendar indicating the coming end of the dry season and the start of the rain. It is very bep Thai Thai!!

[The_Moog]

Great story.

What quare folk they all be.

I've been here too long, I gotta get get back to civilization.

[meadish_sweetball]

Say hi to the hooligans from me when you get back to the UK.

[too true]

where have they all gone? they only came out for 1 day, really, didn't they? we collected about 3 or 4 kilos. but then the next night there were none, thankfully - makes driving a motorbike a bit like a computer game. i don't much care for them, they stick in my throat, but it's nice to see family and friends so happy over something as simple as a bug. about the meng mao thing, though... people in my family were picking them off their shirts and eating them alive. nasty. a bit too geckoish for me.

[chownah]

where have they all gone?  they only came out for 1 day, really, didn't they?  we collected about 3 or 4 kilos. but then the next night there were none, thankfully - makes driving a motorbike a bit like a computer game.  i don't much care for them, they stick in my throat, but it's nice to see family and friends so happy over something as simple as a bug.  about the meng mao thing, though... people in my family were picking them off their shirts and eating them alive.  nasty.  a bit too geckoish for me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think they mate and then go underground again to lay the eggs and live. I was wrong in my original post about meng mao being inedible. Years ago my wife told me that people don't eat them but now she says that some people do eat them but they aren't so good tasting and also their bodies are smaller so they are almost all wing which is sort of gritty. My wife fried the meng mahn she collected this year and I eat them with sticky rice. The pieces that give it a gritty texture get stuck on the sticky rice. The rice sort of 'absorbs' the gritty stuff in some way and in my opinion makes almost any fried insect much more enjoyable to eat. Never seen anyone eat these guys alive. I have eaten live baby shrimps and rice crabs. Can't say as they're especially good though...their OK.

[meadish_sweetball]

I had my first meng man with sticky rice yesterday. They taste great, you just have to avoid looking at them too closely before you put them in your mouth.