A raw blood dish is displayed with cooked entrails at a restaurant in Hanoi April 28, 2009. Frozen pudding from fresh duck or pig blood is a popular dish in the Southeast Asian country although duck blood is less consumed following bird flu outbreaks that have killed at least 55 Vietnamese since late 2003. In Vietnam, there appeared to be a degree of confusion towards swine flu which is not in fact linked to pigs alone – but an assortment of swine, human and avian viruses. One bowl of raw blood costs VND10,000 ($0.55).
A vendor selling deep-fried spiders poses with a spider as she waits for customers at bus station at Skun, Kampong Cham province, east of Phnom Penh March 14, 2009. It costs $2 for 10 deep-fried spiders, which come seasoned with garlic. The fist-sized arachnids are crunchy on the outside and taste like cold, gooey chicken on the inside.
Thai farm employee Somsak Inta, 36, puts two house lizards in his mouth prior to eating them in Nakorn Nayok province, 60 kilometers away from Bangkok April 9, 2008. Somsak started eating lizards when was 16 as a means to treat health problems, which he claims could not be cured by modern medicine. He has since been eating lizards for over 20 years, believing, among other things, it increases his sex drive.
Mealworm quiches are seen at the Rijn IJssel school for chefs in Wageningen January 12, 2011. All you need to do to save the rainforest, improve your diet, better your health, cut global carbon emissions and slash your food budget is eat bugs. Mealworm quiche, grasshopper springrolls and cuisine made from other creepy crawlies is the answer to the global food crisis, shrinking land and water resources and climate-changing carbon emissions, Dutch scientist Arnold van Huis says. To attract more insect-eaters, Van Huis and his team of scientists at Wageningen have worked with a local cooking school to produce a cookbook and suitable recipes.
A typical dish in ant sauce is seen in the restaurant Color de Hormiga in Barichara May 19, 2009. Every year during the April-June season thousands of Colombian farmers and inhabitants of Santander province collect ants culonas (Atta Laevigata) as part of a traditional ritual in the region. The ants, named “Culonas” for their big size, are cooked and sold as exotic, specialized food.
