Eating Insects in Bangkok and Where to Find Them – Explore the Exotic

Insects are considered a delicacy amongst street food in Bangkok. They are mainly served via push carts that ply the city streets at night. Most famous as bites accompanying a drink these insects can be crunchy, mushy, salty or sour. The choice is yours. And in case you are wondering where the tie up is with a bag of crisps; consider the fact that both food categories are greasy, tasty, crispy and are fabulous accompaniment to a chilled beer. Of course insects do trump over crisps in the nutrition category where a juicy bamboo worm may offer many more nutrients than a sliver of fried potato.

Head over to Khao San Road and you are bound to come across Vinai Suvarnaharn as he pushes his cart of insect delights. The menu is a variety of exotic creepy crawlies cooked to perfection. On rare occasions and season permitting, Vinai will offer a batch of scorpions which are quickly bought up by bar girls and curious tourists. It is in fact quite common to see a batch of camera touting tourists gathered around Vinai's cart. Vinai's route is always the same starting at Khao San road he will head over to Banglamphu and finally head home past midnight; once his products are sold out. The most famous districts to come across the insect vendors are Khao San Road, Soi Cowboy, Klong Toey Market, Pahurat, Patpong and Banglamphu.

Look forward to dining in Bangkok; an experience that is utterly exotic especially if you are intent on sampling all that the street food stalls have to offer. Of course for that overall experience sampling a bag of fried insects is a must. There are many faint hearted tourists who opt for the safe option of taking a photo of the cooked insects; for which these vendors have now started charging a fee. After all no photo is worth its salt unless you have actually experienced what you are posing for. Just as authentic is your experience at a city hotel in Bangkok; for these are a far cry from the insect carts, offering business and leisure traveller's stylish modern enclaves to stay within. And if you are looking for more familiar food, places like AVANI Atrium Bangkok offer 'Public All Day Dining Feasts' for sampling international dishes from as early as 6 am to 10.30 pm.

This is certainly not a feat for the faint of heart. The insects are not always as crunchy as they appear. For instance the bamboo worms may look very crispy but are in fact rather chewy, soft and nutty in flavour; be aware of all this before popping a handful in your mouth. Grasshoppers on the other hand are crunchy all the way while Queen Ants tend to be a bit sour and are sold wrapped in beetle leaves to counter this. Scorpions promise a whole new exotic flavour that is best experienced rather than explained.

A variety of insects make up the culinary delights of Bangkok street food. These include the seasonal scorpions, silk larvae worms, bamboo worms, crickets, grasshoppers, queen ants, spiders and water bugs.