Oven Baked Tarantula

[Mark Pajak]

Having a vacuum-packed crumpled up oven baked Haplopelma waved in my face is not what I really want to experience in an English shopping centre. (Gadget shop stall in the new Bristol mega mall)

http://www.edible.com/shop/browse.php?cmd=showproduct&productId=41

I can appreciate that in some countries invertebrates provide essential nutrients but can they really be sustainably "farmed" and marketed as gimic food for UK shoppers?

ALSO (not arachnids but none the less deserves attention): the "giant leaf cutter ants" are all what look like mated queens (having shedded their wings) so what are the consequences for nests robbed of such large numbers of their only reproductive castes?

[Lisa Baines]

I've seen this sort of stuff before... however they wont be appearing on my dinner plate!

EVER!

[Peter Lacey]

I'm a firm believer that everything on this planet is there for the eating although many things are not palatable or necessary to eat. Hopefully this gimick food will turn into a fad at best, but they are eaten in large numbers in Cambodai and Thailand.
Perhaps the Old World should have had urticating hairs afterall!!!

[Mrs Linda Street]

You learn something new everyday, just can't imagine eating a T

[Nicola Dolby]

Perhaps its time to name and shame this shop Mark. They eat dogs in China/Korea too but we don't see them vacum packed as well! Its a shame that Greenpeace or someone like that couldn't pay them a visit. They're great at protecting foxes, badgers and so on. Or maybe the BTS should say something to the local paper? If it were me I'd be in touch with my MP to find out if they could sell this stuff.

[Phil Rea]

Perhaps its time to name and shame this shop Mark. They eat dogs in China/Korea too but we don't see them vacum packed as well! Its a shame that Greenpeace or someone like that couldn't pay them a visit. They're great at protecting foxes, badgers and so on. Or maybe the BTS should say something to the local paper? If it were me I'd be in touch with my MP to find out if they could sell this stuff.

You've got to draw the line somewhere though Nicola. As has been said already, they're eaten in their thousands in the far east, and they are hardly endangered, so what's the difference? Millions of chickens, sheep, cows and pigs die every day to feed us. It's just the same. Protein is protein

Of course they can sell them. No one is forcing anyone to buy them or eat them. I think in the West we're far too 'delicate' where food is concerned. It's been culturally ingrained in us that certain things should not be eaten because they are somehow horrible or off limits, and it's hugely difficult to think any other way.

[Richard Gallon]

I'd like to know just how that Hornet's "special enzymes" manage to bypass your highly acidic gastric juices without been denatured and rendered useless. Damn, they really must be special enzymes if they can do that - lol!!!!

How many Mopani worms would they sell if they told people they actually taste of ear wax?!!

Richard

[Chris Sainsbury]

Hi
The way I see it is they export a nice heathly crunchy snack and in return they get Mc Donalds from us western people. And you want to call them bad!!!
I see no problem with eating dog either infact I'm pretty sure I have eaten it in Sulwesi in one form or another, at I never saw many cows there and the burgers we had at one place we stayed were the best in the world, coupled with fact you can pick out your dog, watch it get clubbed on the head then get the hairs burnt off at a local market I think dog gets put into a fair few dishes.
Those ear wax tasteing worms can't taste any worse than durian... now that is an offensive food!
Cheers
Chris

[James Box]

it's all cultural...and one of the worst and most arbitrary reasons to judge a culture is its food i'd say...after colour of skin of the people that live that way!

imagine how those that believe in sacred cows must feel with our mass consumption of beef!

[Matthew Baines]

Well from my own personal experience ( Lived on the streets before now been through the skips of supermarkets etc.) I believe you eat what you can get your hands on and for some South East Asian people this is what they can get there hands on .

Its just a phase so that toffs can say they have tried it. I have eaten many things that are classed as gross and a delicacy but are thoroughly delicious . In fact I have some pigs testicles in the freezer for cooking , now they are a aquired taste. Might have to bring some for unsuspecting BTS folk to sample at the next meeting!!

[matthew spooner]

my opinion on this one is each to their own, i just like the way the advert states that they are killing and selling them to raise money to conserve their wildlife lol

[Anita Pile]

LOL, yes that was the bit that I found ironic

[Colin D Wilson]

I must admit that it did come across as slightly ironic to me too.

If we decided to follow this principle then (stretching the ethical value of this to the point of stupidity) we could in fact be able to buy White Rhino burgers....with 25% of the profits going towards the preservation of the species ???

[jason holland]

hmm not really. it says its for there endagered wildlife. and obviously (well i presume) this species of tarantula isnt endagered there if they can cook the amount they cook each year in and out. so i wouldnt really see it as ironic really... meh... just me tho

[lynn mawdesley]

surely they must be captive farming these T's due to the amount they flog over there on the markets?