Category: Food Critic

Would you eat a tarantula?

The other day I watched a little bit of the TV show “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern“.  I don’t usually watch it, but it can be interesting (and quite gross at times) . In the clip I saw, he was in Cambodia, and he showed people who eat tarantulas.  And of course he tried it.  I don’t think I would try that…

Yummy... NOT!

The story of how this happens is unusual also.  A husband and wife team go into the forest to catch tarantulas, then they de-fang them using a stick, a knife, and their hands, and they sell them for 12 cents apiece.  Imagine if that was your job!  It’s dangerous enough to find and catch poisonous spiders, plus the other dangers in a forest.  Then they remove the fangs and poison.  What could possibly go wrong?  And to get only 12 cents per spider… I realize the economy is on a different scale there, but that still seems quite low for the amount of risk involved.

A woman buys the tarantulas, rinses them off, seasons them with a mixture of powdered instant chicken soup, garlic, salt, pepper, and sugar, then fries them.  While cooking, they make whistling noises and popping sounds (like a small explosion).  While frying the hair/fur falls off.  Supposedly they are quite tasty, with a sweet and nutty taste.  The woman sells them in town for 25 cents each, and makes about $25 a day, which is a really good living there.

Reading about it doesn’t do the story justice.  You should watch this short clip to experience it a little closer.

To answer my original question: No, I would not eat one.  I’m not scared of spiders, but I’d still rather not eat them, especially when they’re potentially poisonous.  There’s plenty of other foods I would rather eat.

the Krispy Kreme milkshake

I heard that there’s a restaurant that created a Krispy Kreme milkshake.  If you’ve ever had a fresh Krispy Kreme donut (doughnut), your mind has probably already concluded this might be one of the best milkshakes ever.  I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has already left for the store to get donuts to put in your blender.

This Krispy Kreme milkshake is made from two donuts added to a blender with a vanilla milkshake.  How could that not be awesome?

I found a review of the Krispy Kreme milkshake, and the author said he couldn’t finish it because the sugar rush was “formidable”.  I can imagine it being quite rich, but I’ve never met a dessert I couldn’t conquer.

It looks like the inventor of this is the Flip Burger Boutique in Atlanta, GA.  The menu looks like a gourmet place, with “burgers” costing between $7 and $21, without a side.  (I say “burgers” because some of theirs don’t even have beef.  In most circles those items would be called sandwiches.)  It seems like an odd fit because the restaurant appears to feature only fancy novelty type foodstuffs.  While a donut milkshake is quite the novelty, it doesn’t seem as “sophisticated” as the rest of their sides.

If I find myself in Atlanta, I hope to try one, solely for research purposes, of course.  🙂

FYI, while researching this story, I saw a news article saying Krispy Kreme had created their own frozen beverages a few years ago, which were effectively a drinkable version of their doughnuts.  I’ve been in a few Krispy Kreme stores and never noticed this, so perhaps they didn’t stay around.  In a way I can see that — while it would surely be great tasting, when you’re in a Krispy Kreme store and can get hot doughnuts that melt in your mouth, why would you pass on that?

What do you mean “out of bacon”???

I went to a local Mexican restaurant at lunch today, and there was a problem.  One of the guys with me ordered fajitas with steak, chicken, shrimp, and bacon, which is an excellent combination.  Sometimes I order that dish, but today I changed it up.  I ordered a dish called pollo zapata, which is like pollo asado (grilled chicken breast covered with cheese dip) but with mushrooms and bacon.

When the waiter (who I know) brought my food, he said, “Sorry, we’re out of bacon.”  That’s it.  The rest of the food arrived, but to me it was incomplete.  The bacon from this place has a good smoky flavor, which is most excellent.  (Of course, it’s good regardless, because it is bacon, after all.)  He didn’t inform me until my food was delivered, then nothing extra was done about it.  That’s disappointing.

I asked my friend if his fajitas had bacon, and they did not, but the waiter didn’t even say anything to him about it.  Needless to say, he was disappointed also.

So what should they do when bacon is missing?  I’m sure there’s varied opinions here, but they could at least let us know before they fix the food, in case we want something else.  Or they could offer a discount.  Or they could include extra cheese dip.  But nothing was done.  That’s also disappointing.

Maybe this is just another sign that the Buffet o’ Blog staff should open our own restaurant.  If we had the required funding, I have no doubt that we could create one of the most awesome restaurants ever.  We have so many great ideas.  Plus, we’d make sure we didn’t run out of bacon!  If our stockpile was ever in danger of reaching its expiration date, we’d cook it up and give extra bacon to the customers.  Or we could put up a sign outside that said “FREE BACON!”.  I guarantee that would bring in some extra customers!

See, why don’t other restaurants think of stuff like this?  Obviously we must have a dizzying intellect, or have boundless inspiration and creativity, or think so far out of the box that we’re like, “What box?”  Or maybe all of the above.  Either way, we have a copious abundance of epiphanies when it comes to designing the ultimate restaurant.

We would like to see this come to pass, for a few reasons — it would be exciting; we’d want to eat there a lot; it would make lots of money.  So if you’re an investor type person with lots of extra money, have your people contact our people.  We’ve been documenting our restaurant ideas for a while now, and we’d like to see this come to pass.

restaurant review – Almost Famous

Today the Buffet o’ Blog staff tried a fairly new restaurant here in Conway, AR, called Almost Famous.  They specialize in smoked meats.  Need I say more?

I tried the pulled pork sandwich, which was good.  It was served on buttered Texas toast, with plenty of meat (on the regular size).  Their fries were of the steak-cut variety and were good.  The sweet tea was also good.  So I recommend it.  Sorry I didn’t get a picture… I was hungry.

They also have 1/2-pound hickory-smoked burgers and ribs and various other smoked meats.  I’d like to try it again sometime.  You can buy smoked meat by the pound, which I might have to look into (until I get a smoker).  You can even buy smoked bacon, which sounds promising.  They’re thinking about adding steaks and pork chops to their menu soon.

It’s located on Oak Street, going toward Vilonia, past the new fairgrounds, and it’s on the right.  They also have an area for outdoor dining, for other months.  Everyone that worked there was extra-friendly.  Their normal hours are 11-7.  It wasn’t crowded when we went.

FYI, I’m not affiliated with them, but I appreciate what they’re doing and want to spread the word since it’s out of the way and many people probably haven’t heard of it.