How about some stewed silkworm pupas

I'm on a mission to learn how to cook - heck, you never needed to learn here in Malaysia coz food's so cheap and so easily available - but I was kicking myself in New Zealand for not learning how to cook. Restaurant/cooked food there is damn expensive and spicy stuff is well, a bit of an effort to acquire.

So today I decided to be nice and try my first attempt at green curry chicken for my beloved wife & Edmund. Imagine my excitement when I saw that a new Korean grocery store had just opened near my fav friendly neighbourhood store Jaya Grocer in Damansara Perdana (by the way, Jaya Grocer in Jaya 33 has the most amazing mind-boggling variety of stuff on 1 shelf that I have EVER seen. SERIOUS. Didn't know there so that many types of flour available. The organic section is awesome too.)

Beondegi in a cup from Korean street vendors

Coming back to the Korean shop. I have been working on an article about the UN wanting to make insects as food to curb global warming & world hunger (cheaper to farm, less gas emission) so beondegi (stewed/boiled silkworm pupa), a Korean snack, was one of the stuff I was researching on. Here's the list of other insect snacks around the world. And this was what was published in The Star.

I entered the shop for a curious look around and headed towards the can food section in hope that they would be carrying this exotic tidbit. Imagine my excitement when I found it (I was practically jumping for joy inside but playing it cool outside.)

Took the can to the counter and saw this tall young korean-matsy mixed dude approaching so I asked him if he knew how to cook it. He spoke Korean to an older man and translated that all I have to do is open the can, pour the contents out and boil it for a few minutes till it's soft. Sounds simple enough.

My prized find

Like what you see inside?

Su & Edmund came late but nvm. So we opened the can and dumped the gross-looking contents in a pot and boiled the little critters (poor things, they never had a chance of flying free) till we thought they were soft. We poked it with a fork just to make sure.. it was still quite hard.. But as we were famished, we thought oh what the heck, we won't die.

Boiling till its soft

End product

The things looked like dried up roaches, but without the jutting legs. If you scrutinise it closely and turn it over, you can kinda see the moth's legs curled up in their pupa. Here's a closer shot of these buggers.


Its bottom. Can kinda see their legs.



All wrapped up

I took quite a while to put one in my mouth. Su was creeping me out with stories of the moths coming alive like cockroaches when I swallow it and it would start crawling up my throat. Bitch. She didn't help damn it. Edmund was more cool. He just looked at it and said oh ok.

After much hesitation, but I was determined to eat it - hey, I've gotten THIS far - I chucked one pupa in my mouth and chewed on it. The taste was totally unexpected. It had a fishy taste, maybe because it was soaked in salty liquid, much like ikan bilis but with a mushy beady texture, like cooked fish eggs. It wasn't too bad actually. If you can get over the initial concept and don't think about what it is. Prawn's are sea bugs anyway. I'm sure you'll eat it if your eyes were closed and LIKE the bloody thing.

Su is a major chicken. She tried one and that was it. Well, at least she tried. Edmund heaped it on his plate like nasi lemak's ikan bilis and being kiasu, I followed suit. Seriously, it wasn't that bad. We ended up finishing half of the tin. An accomplishment seeing that it was only the 2 of us eating it. Think it would make great beer snacks. Ta-paued the rest for Carolynn to try at home.

Oh, and the rest of my food was finished too. Not bad for a first try who never cooks. *pat pat on back* so proud of myself hahah. At least I'll have decent curry in NZ ;)

I cooked all this k!!

Su brought some peace offering from Mines (Edmund's workplace). Coffee cake with some delicious biscuits to go with all my fattening coffee liquor. Edmund took some arty shots of melting ice too.

Ice art

All in all, a very proud day indeed. If any of you are interested, the can of beondegi is priced at RM3.80 and is available at the Korean shop at The Tropics, Damansara Perdana. It's right at the entrance, you won't miss it. Happy sampling!