Food News: Rats for Dinner in Cambodia (by Choice)

Cambodians are beatnig rising food prices the old fashioned way, choosing alternative food sources.

As inflation pushes the price of beef beyond the reach of the poor, increased demand for rat meat has pushed up rodent prices. A kilogram of rat meat now costs 5,000 riel (69p) compared with 1,200 riel last year. Spicy field rat dishes with garlic are increasingly on the menu as beef costs 20,000 riel a kilo.

I think that some of our more bizarre foodstuffs must have come from such famines of choice, can you imagine how humans ended up eating crab over cat (at least Europeans)?  Lobster seems like an odd choice over, say, rabbit.  The spice mentioned in the article must cover up any gamey residue in the meat.  If you raise them on the right foods, I bet it could be somewhat tasty, especially after a few generations of selective breeding to breed out the aggression and breed in plumpness.

Rat Soup, yum.