A Late Night Feast

My clothes were off and I was climbing under my mosquito net to go to bed when my phone rang. It was Dr. Sera at the health center. With an excitable buzz in his voice he said,  “Mr. Rich, you come to hospital now! It’s 9:30 pm and I have no idea what this is all about. I get dressed and head over in the dark.

When I arrive, the night shift staff is all huddled around a table under a fluorescent light bulb at the coffee shop. They are tearing apart a hornet’s nest, collecting and drowning the lethargic hornets in a bowl of water and plucking hornet larvae from the remains of the papery nest.

Earlier today, I stood under a large sugar palm tree with Dr. Sera and several other staff members looking at a huge hornet’s nest. I unfortunately did not take a photo of it not thinking much of it at the time. We had an impromptu language lesson where I learned the Khmer word for hornet (omal) and taught them the English word. Apparently, the discussion I did not understand at the time was about harvesting the nest, perhaps for improving safety on the health center grounds, unquestionably for collecting this apparent delicacy.

Hornets, I am told, fetch a premium price in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Pehn. These hornets however went into one bowl and the larvae in another. A quick rinse with water, and they are off both to the wok for a little stir-frying.

So, if you are taking notes, here is the recipe:

• Heat several tablespoons of vegetable oil in a hot wok
• Fry several cloves of crushed garlic in the hot oil until slightly brown
• Add a sizeable portion of diced green onion
• Add one nest’s worth of hornet larvae
• Season with a bit of sugar and MSG
• Stir-fry until they look done!
• Repeat with the actual hornets

Serve both with generous portions of beer and a side of fish!

Because I know you are dying to know, the hornets were a bit crunchy and I did not care for the wings stuck in my teeth. I guess the stingers soften or something in the cooking process as no one got a sting in their mouth. The larvae actually were better, softer, and moister. Both tasted like smoky garlic and onion. I have no idea how they got the nest from the tree without any one dying.