Cambodians Resort To Eating Rats

[george]

Cambodians resort to eating rats

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Fear of catching bird flu from eating chicken has prompted some people in northwest Cambodia to resort to eating rats, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Rats have been fetching good prices in Battambang province during the last two weeks, according to Rasmei Kampuchea, or the Light of Cambodia.

The newspaper said villagers catch the rodents in nearby rice fields and sell them for up to 35 cents each to market vendors, who resell the meat for about 20 cents a pound.

"I started selling rat meat over two weeks ago when people became afraid of eating chickens for fear of getting infected with bird flu," Chhun Sarom, a 38-year-old vendor, was quoted as saying.

Cambodia is one of 10 Asian governments that have confirmed outbreaks of bird flu. The virus has killed 14 people in Vietnam, six in Thailand and tens of millions of chickens across Asia. Health experts say eating properly cooked chicken poses no danger to people, but the outbreak has chilled demand for chicken throughout the region.

There have been no reported human cases of bird flu in Cambodia, but three cases of the virus were confirmed in animals near Phnom Penh and at a zoo south of the capital.

More than 25,000 chickens, ducks and swans have been culled in Cambodia in an effort to stop the disease from spreading.

Chhun Sarom said he sold up to 130 pounds of rat meat a day. Mao Say, 50, told the newspaper that she and her four children catch about 18 pounds of rats in the rice fields daily.

People eat the rat meat with rice or as a snack while drinking alcohol.

--AP 2004-02-18

[adjan jb]

I've tried rat meat a few years ago in a Thai village. Not bad. But not delicious either.

In fact, people don't eat rats but field mice.

[plachon]

I've tried rat meat a few years ago in a Thai village. Not bad. But not delicious either.

In fact, people don't eat rats but field mice.

You can call it what you like Adjan, but they're still rats. Bamboo rats, field rats, rattus norvegicus, etc., all tastes bloody good on a stick and barbequed till black on the outside or pad pet noo, for the more squeamish. Bet in a blind taste test, 9 out of ten punters wouldn't know the difference between chicken and rat, once it's all fried up with loads of garlic, chillis and black peppers. Saep Lai!

Isaan people have been eating rat for generations, and so too have Cambodians I suspect, so this is typical non-news from a pig-ignorant reporter from a city.

[Up2U]

Cambodians resort to eating rats

The newspaper said villagers catch the rodents in nearby rice fields and sell them for up to 35 cents each to market vendors, who resell the meat for about 20 cents a pound.

How big are these rats ???

Sell to butcher for 35 cents - he skins it, takes the guts out, de-bones it and sells the meat at 20 cents a pound.

That looks like a 2 kilo rat to me - wouldn't want to meet that in a dark alley.

[pnustedt]

Isaan people have been eating rat for generations, and so too have Cambodians I suspect, so this is typical non-news from a pig-ignorant reporter from a city.

I've seen worse things (or better, depending on your taste) than rats being bought back from Isaan fields for dinner!

[plachon]

Isaan people have been eating rat for generations, and so too have Cambodians I suspect, so this is typical non-news from a pig-ignorant reporter from a city.

I've seen worse things (or better, depending on your taste) than rats being bought back from Isaan fields for dinner!

Go on Pneu, try me for the most revolting/least appetising animal, vegetable or mineral food offering that has crossed your threshold (or near it anyroad)?

[mouse]

Yeah I remember when I was afraid of getting in a car accident in Thailand, so I always took a bicycle taxi . Or when I had the fear of AIDS so I stopped eating the diet candy . When I was afraid of flying and that is why I am here ........ RATS %$#@!%$ Never!! even if starving. Not for me anyway.

[pnustedt]

Go on Pneu, try me for the most revolting/least appetising animal, vegetable or mineral food offering that has crossed your threshold (or near it anyroad)? 

OK - you asked for it! I've tried "fresh" monkey bain in Koea, green large abolonee (sp) gizzard in Japan, cat and goodness what else in China, but nothing beats my sister-in-law's cooking in Sisaket!

On my last visit I met the family returning from pick'n'mix in the fields with buckets. There was everything from the normal grasshoppers to centrepedes and enormous spiders which were vying for top position in the bucket.

Everything she cooks is a grey gunge, you can only tell what is by the texture - if it has grissle it's beef, fine sharp bones - fish, coarser bones - chicken. Be particularly careful if it's shell-like texture, either field bugs or pond bugs. I just don't eat. In these circumstances my wife usually has a stand-by - a processed sausage with garlic, chillie and loads of garlic.

I discovered that my wife - and the rest of the family - catch pond bugs, store them in a bottle for months to allow them to rot (or ferment) and add this "special ingredient" to their "sum dum". Again, on my last visit, she packed bottle of this special ingredient in hand luggage on our return to HK, yes it leaked on the plain! Phew. On arrival at Chap Lap Kok our luggage was inspected - but not for long, the customs guy was about to open the bottle, I disuaded him and he was very grateful!

[Axel]

Yeah I remember when I was afraid of getting in a car accident in Thailand, so I always took a bicycle taxi . Or when I had the fear of AIDS so I stopped eating the diet candy . When I was afraid of flying and that is why I am here ........ RATS %$#@!%$ Never!! even if starving. Not for me anyway.

Now I do understand, why your name is 'mouse'

Keep on going!

[Pink Mist]

Go on Pneu, try me for the most revolting/least appetising animal, vegetable or mineral food offering that has crossed your threshold (or near it anyroad)? 

OK - you asked for it! I've tried "fresh" monkey bain in Koea, green large abolonee (sp) gizzard in Japan, cat and goodness what else in China, but nothing beats my sister-in-law's cooking in Sisaket!

On my last visit I met the family returning from pick'n'mix in the fields with buckets. There was everything from the normal grasshoppers to centrepedes and enormous spiders which were vying for top position in the bucket.

Everything she cooks is a grey gunge, you can only tell what is by the texture - if it has grissle it's beef, fine sharp bones - fish, coarser bones - chicken. Be particularly careful if it's shell-like texture, either field bugs or pond bugs. I just don't eat. In these circumstances my wife usually has a stand-by - a processed sausage with garlic, chillie and loads of garlic.

I discovered that my wife - and the rest of the family - catch pond bugs, store them in a bottle for months to allow them to rot (or ferment) and add this "special ingredient" to their "sum dum". Again, on my last visit, she packed bottle of this special ingredient in hand luggage on our return to HK, yes it leaked on the plain! Phew. On arrival at Chap Lap Kok our luggage was inspected - but not for long, the customs guy was about to open the bottle, I disuaded him and he was very grateful!

You forgot the Gekkos Pnu

[plachon]

Thanks for opening up the pantry door Pnu for our inspection. Thought I might gag, but it all sounds quite wholesome stuff to me, minus the spiders and monkey brains (was that like in Indiana Jones, where there was a special table for the purpose and the brains were still quivering?). But pond bugs and beasties are all quite healthy and wholesome (loads of all the right proteins and minerals), and it's the families who've given up eating this fayre and turned to packaged and processed shit in the village that you want to worry about. It sounds like your wife packed a bottle of jaew maeng da , which ought to translate as "giant pond bug paste", but some might translate it as "pimp paste", which certainly sounds more catchy. I'm sure the customs officers at Chap Lap kok, would approve too, if that is what you told them was in there!

Me, I eat all that shit and generally enjoy it, but I draw the line at fresh heart and liver sliced from a semi-dead cow (Kalasin) and boiled up goat placenta (Khon Kaen) for non haut cuisine. They say that Isaan people eat absolutely everything with legs, fins and fur, apart from Sor Rue Sii, and I believe it. They're legendary in Israel for clearing the national parks and zoos of virtually all life, bar the zoo keepers. Serves those bar stewards right for kicking out the Palestinian labour.

[meadish_sweetball]

Me, I eat all that shit and generally enjoy it, but I draw the line at fresh heart and liver sliced from a semi-dead cow (Kalasin) and boiled up goat placenta (Khon Kaen) for non haut cuisine

Buffalo placenta soup and laap made from fresh buffalo placenta are my personal gross-outs (Jangwat Amnaad Jaroen).

Mind you, northerners are almost as Lao as the Lao and their Isaan counterparts in their eating habits, they are just smart/chicken enough not to talk to foreigners about it. Bugs don't go safe in Chiang Mai.

While you're right that these bugs are, in fact, good for you, I still can't eat them myself.

I might give the rice field rats a go though; after all, they basically eat the same things as pigs and chickens (mainly vegetarian stuff), and their meat should taste similar and be of a similar quality.

[snowleopard]

I might give the rice field rats a go though

How about "ratty" Swedish meatballs?

Jag har hört att dom ibland använder "rått" kött!

Excuse the pun!

Cheers.

Snowleopard.

[meadish_sweetball]

Vitsigt!

[Bit Beefy]

Im all for trying new things. But the thought of eating a rat does make me heave. Im sure if push came to shove and i was starving id eat it, but if someone came to me and said would i like some of this rat that they have on there stick i would smile and decline.

As for the rest of the stuff please do carry on as its quite educational

[otherstuff1957]

My wife has this little game she likes to play. It's called: Eat this, Honey.

I've eaten Cow placenta, Rats, insects, etc... My reactions vary from a very unenthusiastic "Alloy" , when I'm trying not to gag, to a polite "Alloy", when the food is OK, but not really tasty, to a very enthusiatic "ALLOY!", when she actually feeds me something edible

Noo - rats- actually taste fairly good, but I really didn't like chewing on the bones! When I was eating them my sweetie kept assuring me that these were Farm Rats, not Wild Rats. I guess that that was supposed to make me feel better

Grasshoppers, which I had to get a little drunk to try for the first time, are now one of my favorite snacks!

[Ricardo]

When I was eating them my sweetie kept assuring me that these were Farm Rats, not Wild Rats. I guess that that was supposed to make me feel better

I recall being assured by the vendor , in a street-market in Ayuttaya some time back , that a good BBQ country-fed rat tastes much better than your average city-rat , but I'm pleased to say I am in no position to comment from first-hand experience.

Then again - who knows what was in the mother-in-law's fridge , the last time we were visiting ? Perhaps I ought to smile at her more often

[Boon Mee]

Maybe this could catch on:

Top doc backs picking your nose and eating it.

Picking your nose and eating it is one of the best ways to stay healthy, according to a top Austrian doctor. Innsbruck-based lung specialist Prof Dr Friedrich Bischinger said people who pick their noses with their fingers were healthy, happier and probably better in tune with their bodies.

He says society should adopt a new approach to nose-picking and encourage children to take it up.

Dr Bischinger said: "With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner.

"And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system.

"Medically it makes great sense and is a perfectly natural thing to do. In terms of the immune system the nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria are collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine.

"Modern medicine is constantly trying to do the same thing through far more complicated methods, people who pick their nose and eat it get a natural boost to their immune system for free."

He pointed out that children happily pick their noses, yet by the time they have become adults they have stopped under pressure from a society that has branded it disgusting and anti social.

He said: "I would recommend a new approach where children are encouraged to pick their nose. It is a completely natural response and medically a good idea as well."

And he pointed out that if anyone was really worried about what their neighbour was thinking, they could still enjoy picking their nose in private if they still wanted to get the benefits it offered.

What a Hoot!

[Up2U]

Field rat is on the menu of many restaurants in Vietnam, with many ways of cooking it.

I am sure that if there were as many restaurants in Cambodia as in VN, this would not have become a journalistic hype, but would have been a minor comment on the travel pages.

[possom]

have made a few trips to cambodia, and as my phaasaa khmer isnt up to much ,couldnt really be sure what ive eaten . i generally go on the basis of ,if it looks good and doesnt stink, ill eat it . dont know about knowingly eating rat meat though,have seen them being sold on huay khwang market a couple of times ,and while my tgf assures me theyre good eating , i could never bring myself to beleive they had been living in the fields and not the local sewer . i guess its all down to upbringing !!

[marto]

OK - you asked for it! I've tried "fresh" monkey bain in Koea, green large abolonee (sp) gizzard in Japan, cat and goodness what else in China, but nothing beats my sister-in-law's cooking in Sisaket!

Indiana Johnes??? Where you been man? Missed the soup with eyeballs...

[Sandy]

OK they fear catching the bird flu, then what about rabies and other stuff u can catch from rats, mice, etc?

Still putting yourself in the same kinda risk.