Fried spider

Fried spiders for sale at the market in Skuon

A fried spider is a regional delicacy in Cambodia. In the Cambodian town of Skuon, locals eat fried spiders as an everyday snack. 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, also known as the Thai zebra tarantula, and notes that the same species' common name has been the "edible spider" for more than a hundred years. The popularity of the dish is, however, a recent phenomenon, starting perhaps as late as the 1990s. The same book details a recipe: the spiders are tossed in a mixture of MSG, sugar, and salt; crushed garlic is fried in oil until fragrant, then the spiders are added and fried alongside the garlic until "the legs are almost completely stiff, by which time the contents of the abdomen are not so runny."

The taste is mostly described as bland, somewhere between chicken and cod, with a textural contrast between a crispy exterior and soft centre. The legs contain little flesh, while the head and body have "a delicate white meat inside". The abdomen, however, many find not as pleasant: inside is a brown paste consisting of organs, possibly eggs, and excrement. Some call it a delicacy while others recommend not eating it.