Ant Egg Soup

[BOD]

Has anyone read Ant Egg Soup: The Adventures of a Food Tourist in Laos by Natacha Du Pont De Bie?

If not, and if you are interested in Asian food and bush tucker, I would highly recommend it.

It is more than a travel book or a cook book. It is bushcraft as well.The recipes are provided in detail but there are wonderful descriptions of how the ingredients are foraged. Ethnobotany and ethnozoology in service of cuisine.

If preparing game and foraged food is the height of bushcraft knowledge, then this woman is streets ahead of many of us. Her common sense and enthusiasm is in stark contrast to the hopeless back packers she occassionally encounters and whose economic impact on local communities will slowly but surely lead to a decline in 'authentic' lao food. Ugh!

Reviews at

http://www.abbeys.com.au/items/30/89/84/

http://www.davidhigham.co.uk/html/Titles/Ant_Egg_Soup

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0340825685/202-2461469-1811806?v=glance&n=266239

Need I say I have no connection to the publisher or author

[BOD]

When I posted this thread I never expected to encounter the real thing.

After a few days in the Borneo forests, another BCUK member and I were invited to join an Iban headman and his family for dinner.

Without my glasses, I was happily tucking in to the assortment of food when I heard my companion say "there are 2 types of ant in there". I looked closely and was amazed and delighted to see Ant egg soup with ants as well.

Now you may think I am some kind of weird extreme foodie but that is not the case. I can 't stand liver and most sorts of animal spare parts, hate celery and so on. But the soup was delicious, the ants lending a lemony tang to a very nice dish.

As for the two types of ant, the second type were grubs or larvae of some kind. 'Umbut" a relative of rattan was the veg.

Unfortunately the choice morsel - the queen - was taken by my companion. He enjoyed it.

So here is what it looks like

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i154/BOD_photos/Food/2006Course19-3-20067-40-50PM.jpg

[BOD]

Yes the monkey (a maroon langur) meat was tasty a bit like venison. I wonder if they are endangered. Not rare here though

It was taken by blowpipe iand poison dart incidentally.

[Tengu]

it certainly looks novel.

I can imagine people paying a lot of money for that in a fancy resterauant

[redcollective]

Ah well it could have been worse: rat! Actually I'm surprised it didn't taste like chicken? :rolleyes:

Here's a bit o' reading before the next monkeymeal Stuart:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/Eid/vol11no07/04-0957.htm

What other meats did the people you stayed with eat? Did they raise any animals like chickens or pigs? Do they still have enough territory to support them in hunting?

[bilko]

No psycological gagging As it passed over your pallete?
I think that would be my main problem but from your pics it looks like you are used to a wide range of cuisine.
Plus i wouldn't want to insult my host.
Thanks for the insight though :)

[Cyclingrelf]

Hey - I read ant egg soup last year, then lent it to all my family. Great read!
Thanks for the pictures - interesting to see it.

[Nightwalker]

:eek: You have some stomach! I couldnt eat those things. Probably the ant soup but not rat, monkey-head or snake!

[BOD]

:eek: You have some stomach! I couldnt eat those things. Probably the ant soup but not rat, monkey-head or snake!


Actually, I find it much harder to eat liver and other spare parts than monkey or snake.

Surprisingly, while I hate tripe the Iban version was quite delectable and the boar lungs not too bad.

As for human-simian virus transmission the lesson is not to eat your monkey rare! Its not the animal but the cooking and preparation - think mad cow disease!