Comments on: Spider Fixation http://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/meta/spider-fixation/ Khmer food, restaurant reviews and recipes served to you from Phnom Penh by Phil Lees Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:38:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Maintaining the spider rage - The Last Appetite http://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/meta/spider-fixation/#comment-58099 Maintaining the spider rage - The Last Appetite Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:46:36 +0000 http://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/uncategorized/spider-fixation/#comment-58099 [...] I miss the days when I used to rant about the Cambodian spider story of the week, where a Western journalist, parachuted into a strange land, proceeds to take the local food completely out of context. It gave me a regular windmill to tilt at. Now when I pitch articles about the possibility of Cambodian food being a varied and delicate cuisine to magazines, I’m sure that the grim thought lurking in the back of every editor’s mind is “They eat spiders, don’t they”. Sean Thomas’ recent article in The Independent is a tour-de-force of the culinary racism that does me out of business. What can you say about the decidedly unlovely tarantulas of Skuon? Except that they aren’t very lovely. Certainly, they are much prized in Cambodia – anyone who goes to Skuon is expected to bring back a bag of big roasted spiders for the kids. When told that these rancid, sugared arachnids are less than popular in the West, Cambodians are shocked and surprised. They find western cheese-eating equally repugnant, of course. [...] [...] I miss the days when I used to rant about the Cambodian spider story of the week, where a Western journalist, parachuted into a strange land, proceeds to take the local food completely out of context. It gave me a regular windmill to tilt at. Now when I pitch articles about the possibility of Cambodian food being a varied and delicate cuisine to magazines, I’m sure that the grim thought lurking in the back of every editor’s mind is “They eat spiders, don’t they”. Sean Thomas’ recent article in The Independent is a tour-de-force of the culinary racism that does me out of business. What can you say about the decidedly unlovely tarantulas of Skuon? Except that they aren’t very lovely. Certainly, they are much prized in Cambodia – anyone who goes to Skuon is expected to bring back a bag of big roasted spiders for the kids. When told that these rancid, sugared arachnids are less than popular in the West, Cambodians are shocked and surprised. They find western cheese-eating equally repugnant, of course. [...]

]]> By: Karen http://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/meta/spider-fixation/#comment-33616 Karen Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:02:01 +0000 http://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/uncategorized/spider-fixation/#comment-33616 Phil! I'm a touch sad. In my own defense, since I like to think I aspire to serious journalism, may I point you to today's post on Choptalk: http://www.epicurious.com/gourmet/blogs/foodeditors/2007/08/quite-simply-th.html It was a query on Cambodian street coffee, years ago, that first piqued the Gourmet editors' interest, so you should feel good knowing the country is not overlooked by all journalistic eyes. Phil! I’m a touch sad. In my own defense, since I like to think I aspire to serious journalism, may I point you to today’s post on Choptalk:
http://www.epicurious.com/gourmet/blogs/foodeditors/2007/08/quite-simply-th.html
It was a query on Cambodian street coffee, years ago, that first piqued the Gourmet editors’ interest, so you should feel good knowing the country is not overlooked by all journalistic eyes.

]]> By: Graham http://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/meta/spider-fixation/#comment-33609 Graham Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:59:53 +0000 http://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/uncategorized/spider-fixation/#comment-33609 And.... the first sentence of the Guardian travel section last week, "For someone of my generation it feels extraordinary to visit Vietnam as a tourist. We spent our youth talking about the Vietnam war, watching it on the news, reading about it in the papers, going on anti-war demos..." http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/aug/19/escape.vietnam Make it STOP... And…. the first sentence of the Guardian travel section last week,

“For someone of my generation it feels extraordinary to visit Vietnam as a tourist. We spent our youth talking about the Vietnam war, watching it on the news, reading about it in the papers, going on anti-war demos…”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/aug/19/escape.vietnam

Make it STOP…

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