Cambodia Journals | Skoun, 27 August 2019
We leave the capital heading east.
The bus, which was originally billed as a minivan, drives through the hot and scorching streets of the city center only to find itself after not even half an hour under a torrential downpour.
The driver, who gave no sign of having noticed, continues his ride through the Cambodian province with the same juddering disposition as at the start: throttle. They also achieve a curious result: all the passengers go to sleep, some snore and the children are silent, probably lulled by the constant noise of the rain.
After all, the worst of endings best lived in Morpheus-given unconsciousness…
The ride continues and shortly after two hours, at an unlikely roadside market, the bus stops. We are around Skoun, about 50km from Kampong Cham.
Lunch break!
Tarantula beauty elixir
Skoun is famous throughout Cambodia for one of the country’s most typical dishes: tarantulas.
Cambodians are said to have started eating fried spiders during the time of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime. Because of the great scarcity of food and the large presence of these large spiders in the countryside and forests, the peasants, gripped by hunger pangs, began to feed themselves with what they found available.
Other sources acknowledge the custom of fried tarantulas in more modern times, in the early 1990s, although it is not clear how the custom came about.
It remains that fried tarantulas-which Skoun has the most famous market for in the country-are now a delicious dish that is particularly sought after even by young people.
Tarantulas are bred in holes in the ground or collected in forests at the edge of the countryside. The dish is very simple in preparation: very hot oil is spiced with garlic, and then the spiders, still alive, are dipped in the oil and removed when the legs are stiff and crispy.
Eaten whole as they are, the transition between the crispness of the legs (devoid of meat) and the soft part inside the head and body is peculiar in the mouth, with a taste reminiscent of chicken and cod.
There is a fervent belief among young Cambodian girls: it seems that the tarantula is a veritable elixir of beauty and, perhaps to stand comparison with the Thai and Vietnamese, young girls from the countryside and provinces consider it a very important ritual.
