Fried spider

Common card · No. 367412

Fried spider (Khmer: រពីងបំពង) is a regional snack in Cambodia. In the Cambodian town of Skuon, Cheung Prey, Kampong Cham, the vending of fried spiders as a specialty snack is a popular attraction for tourists. Spiders are also available elsewhere in Cambodia – in Phnom Penh for instance – but Skuon, a market town on the highway 75 kilometres (47 mi) from the capital, is the centre of their popularity. The spiders are bred in holes in the ground in villages north of Skuon, or foraged for in nearby forestland, and fried in oil. It is not clear how this practice started, but some have suggested that the population might have started eating spiders out of desperation during the years of Khmer Rouge rule, when food was in short supply. The spiders are a species of tarantula called "a-ping" in Khmer, and are about the size of a human palm. The snacks cost about 300 riel each in 2002, or about US$ 0.08. One travel book identifies them as Haplopelma albostriatum, known colloquially as the Thailand...

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