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Mmmmm, never tried this while I was there (well, don’t think I did anyway)…I’ve never been sick so often due to dodgy food than when I was in Cambodia, then again I haven’t been to India or Egypt- yet.
Anyone try the spiders, think you get them up around Stung Treng(sp)?By Jan McGirk in Bangkok
14 November 2004It is paddy rat season again in southern Cambodia, and gourmands from all over the country, not to mention the rest of South-east Asia, are polishing their chopsticks at the thought of stir-fried rat, boiled rat al dente and Vietnamese-style barbecued rat.
At Soeung Thy’s roadside stall in Phum Bek Kroang village, near Sihanoukville, the specialty is plump paddy rats drizzled with curry sauce. Demand is so great that he hires skinny boys to strap torches to their heads and hunt the creatures by night with bare hands and a bamboo stick.
The rat season begins when the monsoon rains ease, bringing the rodents down from higher ground to feed on rice roots. Many Cambodians were forced to eat paddy rats for the first time during the starvation years of the Khmer Rouge, but they have long been a treat in rural areas, and in the past couple of years have become a fad in Cambodian cities.
Rat is lean, low-fat meat, say foodies, with the taste likened to pork or tangy partridge. Recent outbreaks of a virulent bird flu in Thailand and Vietnam, which killed 31 chicken handlers, have made many Asian cooks reluctant to touch raw poultry, further boosting the popularity of rat dishes across the region.
At the rural roadside stands around Sihanoukville, where a brace of grilled rats sells for 500 riel (roughly 8p), customers debate whether it tastes best grilled over coal, stir-fried or stewed in fiery curries. Villagers typically wash this delicacy down with a shot of rice wine or a swig of beer. “We eat rat like we eat duck or chicken,” said Soeung Nhean, a labourer. “We don’t know what nutrition it provides, but we know that rat meat has a really good taste.” So robust is demand that dealers cannot get enough supplies from local hunters and trappers, and imports from Vietnam are growing. There, farmers lay traps on regular rat runs though the paddies, using sweet potato as bait. Hunters bring steel baskets, each crammed with up to 400 rats, to the docks, where wholesalers arrive in boats.
Like other “bush meat” – snakes, lizards or monkeys – rats are rarely washed before processing. After evisceration, all the intestines, livers and heads are cleaned and packed in salt. Ethnic Chinese communities sometimes serve this as gia cay (mock dog meat).
Small rats are considered the most succulent and can be grilled whole on bamboo skewers. But most gourmands prefer their rat boiled – the head and legs are trimmed off, and the remainder is marinated with lemon leaves before being spiced and boiled.
To concentrate the flavour, some press the cooked meat between wooden boards overnight. Officials warn diners that rats can spread disease: the most hygienic technique is to trap your own or buy rats live at the market, then fatten them up in a kitchen corner until it’s time for a seasonal feast.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=582721
How sick did you get. A friend of mine had problems for six months after returning from India. This really deters me from going there cos there isn’t that much I want to see in India anyway and the thought of doing six months ghard labour for the sake of a place in which I don’t have a huge interest is not appealing.
I had a few problems after Morocco, but nothing major (in fact my story of that is up onthe site somewhere).
Go toIndia during their coldest months, there’s less bacterial activity then and also eat LOTS of yogurt if you can. I had no problems there for the whole of the month. Get ALL your shots.
Egypt is another story, started feeling a little off took some Cipro and was fine just three hours later. Our travel medicine MD here said that without question he’s heard more stories from patients getting sick in Egypt than anywhere else Mexico included. He said in might ne necause of the shere #’s of people who go there but he thinks that the bugs there are particularly virulent, not that the ones in India are anything to sneeze at :roll:
He also said that the Flu is the one most people don’t think about but really is a huge risk so get your shot before you go anywhere.
Best,
StivI lived in Egypt for 6 months in 1993, so was advised to “weather the storm” so to speak.
I went down with a downright nasty bowel infection in Cairo and spent the best part of a week sitting on the toilet, doubled up with cramps, sweating buckets.
The Dioralyte helped keep the cramps tolerable, but otherwise it was just a case of sitting it out (literally)
The remainder of my stay was trouble free.
I had shrimp 2 weeks ago in San Ciprano and my gut was fucked for a week. Not fun.
Rat in Cambodia eh? I will pack H.P. sauce for my next visit. I wonder if they can make rat happy? Xtra happy for me :D
Food in India was not to bad however I did eat at dominos when ever I saw one :)
Egypt was O.K. for food. I went to a bar in Cairo called Cap D Or in centeral Cairo that gave you unlimited FRESH veggies to go with your beer. The only thing that was stale in that bar was the Stella :)
ROB Rajisthan is nice.
Never tried the spiders Kapa although I used to bring the bar girls at Chequers bar in PP crickets :)
Took my ass for a piss for what seemed like 50 times a day the first time I had malaria. Not fun.Didn’t get sick once in my almost 2 months in Cambodia though I did refuse the spiders (quite enthusiastically, if I recall correctly – “Take them away!! TAKE THEM AWAY!!!”).
Had digestive problems in India pretty much all the time which was only aggravated by a friend of mine who lives in Delhi & had a great time making fun of me for not being able to eat all these “great delicacies” – and she is Tibetan not Indian, damn it! Not like rancid Yak butter is a healthy alternative though…
Most of the bad stuff I have come down with in Africa (giardia, dysentry, worms, more giardia, etc) but I think that’s more in proportion to the time spent there ratherthan the place’s general unhealthyness…
Yeah my guts arn’t exactly made of Iron. The good thing for me is that if the food is dodgy, I’m sick within an hour or two and then basically I feel fine. Not sure how I’d handle Egypt or India though, so far I’ve been lucky to get by without anything nasty. In a cruel twist of irony, on the last night in Thailand after eating just the delicious local dishes, we blew the remainder of our baht at an Italian restaurant off Khao San road (I was opposed to the idea I might add). Within an hour I was firing at both ends, just what you I needed for a 12+ hour flight back to NZ.
I think I may be going for a world record for violently ill in the most exotic locations. My guts seem to not care much for food most likely prepared with the left hand.
I have to say though, the risk of getting sick in India is worth taking- the food there is incredible, thought I would be sick of it after a couple of months, but I just kept going- even after the 3 bouts of nasty-ness I weathered.
A friend of mine swears by grapefruit seed oil to keep your stomach strong- buy it at a vitimin store and then eat a few drops before you dine…hmmm, that cholera solution sounds better to me…
Whatever. Next time I’m in Snookyville I’ll try the rats and tell you guys about it. I have tried the spiders on a couple occasions and their not so bad as long as you get some that have been fried for long enough to have the mushy abdominal parts be no longer mushy. The spiders are a specialty of Skuon, which is about an hour and a half or so north of here, Phnom Penh. I haven’t really been sick once since I’ve been here. The occasional cases of the shits that I do have can usually be chalked up to too much cheap beer. I eat raw beef noodle soup for breakfast at least twice a week among other streetside delicacies and am doing just fine. Every few months, I take some anti-worm pills just to be safe.
I lived in India for a year and got sick a few times, but nothing that lasted for more than two weeks. I did learn from my experiences there that Giardiasis is painful, gross, and foamy.
Cheers, A.R.L.
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