serve this to the king,” says Dalaphone Pholsena, a restaurateur in Vientiane. Before her are two small bowls of ant-egg soup, a favourite dish of the late summer in Laos. In it are chunks of white fish, meaty mushrooms and dozens of splayed and lifeless ants. Bobbing at the surface is the: clusters of ivory-white eggs that look like tiny white beans. They burst in the mouth like fish roe, but with a more acidic tang.
Ms Dalaphone considers herself a defender of the dishes traditionally eaten by Laos’s subsistence farmers—of which there are still many. Ant-egg soup is a classic: both an important source of protein and an emblem of rural life. The eggs are laid by red weaver ants, which nest in mango trees and coconut palms in April and May. A brave forager—the ants’ bites are like the prick of a needle—uses a stick to tear open the nest, catching the eggs in a bucket.
Nowadays, however, many pack up the eggs and ship them to markets in the city instead. Laos is urbanising fast. In 2000 about a fifth of its population lived in cities; today over a third does. New urbanites often express nostalgia for the countryside. On weekends many middle-class Laotians drive to the family village to help tend the rice paddies. Failing that, a steaming bowl of ant-egg soup can be almost as transporting.
A kilo of eggs can fetch as much as 150,000 kip in Vientiane, the capital. That is a handsome sum for a poor rural forager. But even as the price of eggs climbs, people like Ms Dalaphone worry about the dish’s future. Urban youth grow up eating pizza and wontons and are often squeamish about gulping down bugs. Asked about ant-egg soup, Gie’s 12-year-old son replies, “It looks awful, not a tasty meal.
Chefs say traditional Lao cuisine, including ant-egg soup, needs a charm offensive to survive. A reprieve may come from the covid-19 pandemic, which is likely to hobble the economy and prompt some of those on falling incomes to revert to cheaper folk dishes or even to foraging to save money. But in the long run, in all likelihood, fewer and fewer Laotians will be willing to brave a sting for their supper.
Another virus on the way.
COVID-21 is coming very soon to your door
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wait what!! How do ants have such big ass eggs
It fits in the garbage can.
Oh.... I'll stick with the coffee
Escamoles en Mexico
Basically SamsungSA is here in SamsungMobileSA to help economical structure... Level2 cyrilramaphosa cyrilramaphosa Julius_S_Malema take this as china is msadi o save monna wa ngwana ka zaka ka lapeng but zaka its natural trading EFFSouthAfrica ANCParliament
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“Did it move?” asked the first hungry man. “Yes, it did!” The second man replied excitedly while rubbing his eyes. “Great, let’s eat it!”
Yuck
This is very similar to the fact that Ant-smeg soup is an important source of protein and an emblem of their friendship for Dec.
next virus coming
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( Hank hill voice)' I think I'm going to vomit'
don’t worry. if things keep going the way they are the entire country will be foraging for insects within a few years.
I've eaten salamander and other exotic food. Cuisine all stems from surviving when there's no Walmart like supply chain, graveled roads hundreds of years ago. It's about survival and benefit over cost.
Lao food is amazing. I can’t quite remember the name (jaow-bong?) but there’s an incredible spicy buffalo skin dip that the world needs to know about. Laos also brews the world’s best lager.
I’m no marketeer but maybe a change of name might help?
It may survive with ketchup, although I doubt it.
Un Mexico we eat something similar called 'escamoles' yummy!
Some stuff I can’t try. This is probably good but I couldn’t go with it.
Let the bat pandemic be over
I would try this.
Isn't COVID-19 enough from the Chinese eating bats? Now will there be COVID-20 with the Laotians eating ants?
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