The World On A Plate

   

Fried “Mouse”/Rat, Battambang, Cambodia

September30

I’ve eaten a lot of bugs now, and in Cambodia in particular got quite used to seeing plates piled high with them. So it was a novel sight to come across big plates of fried mouse in Battambang, Cambodia. I say ‘mouse’ but in fact I suspect it was rat.

I asked the nice lady behind the big plate of fried rodents what she was selling, and she wrinkled her nose as if in disgust at her own produce and said ‘that mouse’. I think she had been previously been visited by reams of vegan Lonely Planet toting backpackers and was pre-empting my disgust and toning down ‘rat’ to a rodent with a better reputation. I am myself, it should be added, whilst not vegan, highly guilty of travelling only with a well thumbed Lonely Planet wedged under my arm, and the kind of baggy trousers which my friends refer to as ‘asylum pants’.

The second reason I think it was rat was that Lonely Planet said it was, and The Bible tends to be right on these things.

Mouse or rat?

So I bought a single specimim of the confused lady, for the bargain price of 20p (14 cents) and headed off to find a spot where I could decently photograph it before eating. This done I had a few little nibbles. Tasted like beef jerky. Quite nice, though I admit I didn’t finish it.

Stalls opposite the main post office in Battambang, Cambodia, sell ‘mouse’ (rat) for 14c each.

posted under Cambodia

Email will not be published

Website example

Your Comment: