Buzz
Despite their terrifying appearance, dishes made from scorpions are surprisingly alluring, especially for adventurous food enthusiasts. Favorites include crispy fried scorpions and salt-roasted scorpions, often favored by connoisseurs.
Live scorpions
After being captured, scorpions are kept in a container for a few days to cleanse their digestive systems. Once prepared, they are fried in hot oil. Within minutes, the aroma of perfectly cooked scorpions fills the air, enticing even the most hesitant diners. Fried scorpions are typically served with tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh herbs, and a dash of salt, pepper, lime juice, or soy sauce, depending on personal preference.
Crispy fried scorpions (pre-plating)
The cicada, often used for delicious dishes, is typically the young, freshly emerged variety. To catch these, artisans must meticulously venture out just as dusk falls, carrying torchlights to peer into the earth, searching around the base of trees, just inches from the ground.
Sautéed Cicada Delicacy
Freshly caught young cicadas must be prepared immediately; otherwise, they will molt into mature cicadas. The most common and favored method involves cleaning the cicadas, draining them, then frying them to a crisp or grilling them with lime leaves, resulting in a dish full of allure.
Presenting the exquisite Sautéed Cicada Delight
Dragonfly salad is not only delicious but also packed with nutrients, helping to combat premature aging and cancer while boosting vitality. The tender inner part contrasts perfectly with the crispy exterior, offering a rich and aromatic indulgence.
The price of this eerie dish is 75k per plate.
Eerie Dish No. 3: Worm Cake
Worm cake is quite popular and trendy in Vietnam. However, its inclusion in the list of the world's eeriest dishes is due to its half-worm, half-centipede appearance. Many find it terrifying at first sight, not to mention the squishing sound it makes when smashed to make the cake.
Live Grubs
However, it must be acknowledged that if one turns a blind eye to the ingredients, this dish is quite delicious! Grubs are only available from late September to early October. Mixed with minced lean meat, kumquat peel, chicken eggs, and chive flowers, making grub sausage has long been a famous specialty of Hanoi residents.
Grub Sausage
The price of this eerie dish is 150k per plate.
Eerie Dish No. 4: Roasted Grasshoppers with Lime Leaves
Grasshoppers are available year-round, but most abundant during the harvest season, usually around April and September in the lunar calendar. In the eyes of foreigners (and many Vietnamese), this is one of the most eerie dishes in the world, perhaps because insect-eating culture is rare. But in Vietnam, grasshoppers are a rustic delicacy, fragrant and familiar to many.
Destructive Floods Make Them Plump
There are many types of edible grasshoppers, such as bamboo grasshoppers and rice grasshoppers, but the most fragrant and nutritious is the giant water bug, which is large and meaty. The preparation of this dish is relatively simple, just roasting with lime leaves yields an excellent specialty dish!
Grasshoppers on a Plate
The price of this eerie dish is 88k per plate.
Eerie Dish No. 5: Bee Larvae Porridge
To obtain the ingredients for this horrifying dish, bee hunters must be extremely careful to avoid the terrifying risk of bee stings. Honeycomb bees are known for their extremely venomous stings and often build multi-level nests on dry branches. After obtaining the honeycomb, workers must carefully separate each layer to extract the bee larvae, avoiding breaking them to ensure they remain intact and flavorful when eaten. The bee larvae are then briefly boiled to solidify the milk inside, followed by discarding the black guts located in the lower part of the body.
Beehive Nest
After the initial processing, the bees are cleaned and stir-fried with onions and garlic. The porridge is cooked with seasonal rice, with a hint of dried coconut water to enhance the aroma. When the porridge is tender, seasonings are added, then the bee larvae are poured in, along with coconut milk, pepper, and finely chopped spring onions. Bee larvae porridge is refreshing, with a creamy texture and an irresistible flavor that no one can resist. Additionally, this type of porridge is extremely effective in relieving alcohol intoxication.
Bee Larvae Harvested
The price of this eerie dish is 88k per bowl.
Eerie Dish No. 6: Roasted Cockroaches with Lime Leaves
In everyone's memory, cockroaches are foul-smelling, disgusting creatures, even those accustomed to eating insects would find it hard to imagine digesting this dish. However, the Muong people have a talent for turning cockroaches into a delicacy that delights many.
Cockroaches
After being brought back, the cockroaches are stripped of wings and legs, soaked in salt water to rid them of their foul odor. When frying, a bit of sour bamboo shoot water is added and the heat is kept high, constantly stirring to ensure the cockroaches are crispy and evenly golden. What's special is that the chef only needs to add a few small lime leaves without adding any seasoning, because the cockroaches themselves already contain enough sweet, spicy, and savory flavors that are very appealing.
Roasted Cockroaches with Lime Leaves
The price of this eerie dish is 75k per plate.
One destination where you can enjoy all the eerie dishes mentioned above is: Ant Restaurant.
- Branch 1: Ant Restaurant - 100 Tue Tinh, Nguyen Du Ward, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi.
- Branch 2: Ant Restaurant - 143 Nghi Tam, Tay Ho District, Hanoi.
-Taking Your Pet Bear Out for Dinner-
