Face Your Fears and Eat Them

After a sombre day of reflection we wanted a nice dinner to cheer us up. TripAdvisor suggester Romdeng so we thought we would give it a go. Friends and Romdeng are sister restaurants and are part of Friends International – an organization that assists urban children and youth by providing a safe environment to learn skills for becoming productive members of society - bonus! Plus we were curious about the fact that they had tarantulas on the menu. We had already committed to giving the arachnids a go, and chose a Lotus bud chicken salad and a fish amok as our mains. 

The 3 crisp spiders were brought out on a pristine white plate, resting on salad like they were perched on foliage about to scuttle away. It was mighty strange seeing big fat spiders immobilised like that, like it was some freakish trick and they would soon be released from their frozen state and come alive again just as you pick them up. Just the mere sight of them turned the stomach a little. 

Bravely we ripped off a leg, tentatively dipped it in the lime pepper sauce and had a nibble. Totally fine if you keep your eyes closed. Tasted like deep fried nothing, crisp, almost hollow airy tubes. So far bearable. Meanwhile, Jed had ventured to the body and encouraged me to give it a go to get my opinion. It took quite a few mouthfuls of fish amok to pluck up the courage. I bit into the bulbous sac and a squishy nutty texture oozed into my mouth. Nasty! Didn't warrant spitting out, but still, not exactly a desirable flavour/texture combo that I need again. We ate through the rest of our meal, feeling a little ill sharing our table with the remainder of the spider carcasses, but proud we had a story to tell and for our culinary bravery on our second day!