Fried tarantula, Cambodia
If you have arachnophobia, you’d better look away now. During the years of terror under the Khmer Rogue (a communist party which is considered to have orchestrated the Cambodian Genocide – a 4-year period when over 2 million people lost their lives due to executions, starvation and forced labor), people began eating anything they could get their hands on, spiders making no exception. However, it seems Cambodians have developed a taste for tarantulas, as the huge spiders are heavily consumed even these days, more than 30 years after the regime changed. Actually they are considered a delicacy, being described as having a delicate meat, tasting like a cross between chicken and fish and served with a lime and black pepper dip.