Tarantulas for Tea

A family of four boys in Cambodia, looking much younger than their teenage years due to malnutrition. They took the presenter out to catch dinner with them – tarantulas. 

I watched, mesmerised and horrified at the same time. They were so skilled at avoiding the deadly sting. So excited as they each caught their own dinner. One tarantula. Then it was the turn of the television presenter. Carefully he caught his spider, amidst the raucous laughter of the four watching boys. Then they headed home – which resembled a campsite.

Mother had returned from work while they were out, and cooked up some rice. Then came the moment of truth, and the western presenter gingerly held his barbecued tarantula aloft and bit into what resembled the bloated body. He said it was delicious. 

One man’s tarantula is another man’s crab – not that different in appearance.

He was investigating the protein sources as yet untapped in the world and which require much less resource-depletion than, say cows, and discovering that many people are already surviving on diets of insects – red ant omelettes, cricket stews, bbq’d spiders. 

I’ve become much more aware of every scrap of food I waste. The bottoms of the broccoli stalks. The carrot peelings. Bread crusts that have gone hard. 

The Lord has made a world rich in food resources, bursting with possibilities for feeding the people he created and whom he loves. 

I just need to get over my prejudices. Or become a veggie.