![]() ![]() In the mid-1990s, spiders mainly came from the forests around Skuon, but as these were cleared through the following decade and the highway system improved, the spider hunting trade moved further afield into the more densely wooded Prey Lang forest in Preah Vihear and neighbouring Kampong Thom province. ![]() Spider hunters either dig out their nests or poke a gasoline-soaked rag on a stick into the hole to chase them out. While the LA Times started the rumour that spiders were farmed (and a spider sanctuary existed in Skuon in 2011), there are no farms and there never was a sanctuary. Unlike many other insect proteins for sale on the streets of Cambodia, the spiders for sale aren’t commercially grown like silkworms or crickets, or pests like locusts. ![]() RELATED: WHAT TO EXPECT AT A CAMBODIAN HOMESTAY Are they sustainable? When you focus on the novelty in food culture, you miss the depth and the joy of ordinary food. They’re stuff white people like because they fit the colonial narrative of foreign people eating strange and unknowable food and bold food adventurers seeking the novel and the obscure in every food culture they happen upon. There might be some credence in the idea that eating spiders came about due to the deprivations of the Khmer Rouge era, but as a rule, deep fried snacks tend not to be a byproduct of mass starvation. There was no spider trade before tourism, and without tourism, it wouldn’t exist as a roadside snack.Īs with all good tourist food, they come packaged with a thin veneer of authenticity that is manufactured. The people who buy them are almost entirely from out of town. The reason why the spider trade centred on Skuon is that it was a bus stop on the way from the capital Phnom Penh to the temples in Siem Reap, a novelty to amuse domestic and foreign tourists alike. Spiders are available for tourists at most of the popular Cambodian markets, but the epicenter of the trade is the dusty roadside market in Skuon, about a hundred kilometres from Cambodia’s capital city of Phnom Penh. While the popular story is that spiders are a traditional foodstuff in Cambodia, there’s no evidence at all that they were popular or eaten as a snack until the rise of tourism in Cambodia in the mid-1990s. So, should you eat them? They’re the epitome of tourist food Unlike the humble cricket, spiders aren’t a common snack anywhere but have become associated with Cambodian (Khmer) food because of their media value. They’re sustainable and in most places where they are a staple, they’re eaten because they are tasty and not because of people’s desperate hunger. Insects are a protein source for about a quarter of the world’s population. It worked, insofar as it received a slew of articles and the predictable outrage that comes with feeding your kids an uncommon thing on camera. Over the past few days, Cambodian citizen Angelina Jolie ate spiders and an array of other insects and arachnids with her children to promote her new film. Should I eat spiders in Cambodia like Angelina Jolie? ![]()
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