Is it just me, or is this delicious snack disgusting? It must be, since they made the contestants eat it in two episodes of Survivor…

A Balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell. They are considered delicacies of Asia and especially the Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors at night in the regions where they are available. They are often served with beer. The Filipino and Malay word balut (balot) roughly translates to mean “wrapped.”

Balut are most often eaten with a pinch of salt, though some balut-eaters prefer chili and vinegar to complement their egg. The eggs are savored for their balance of textures and flavors; the broth surrounding the embryo is sipped from the egg before the shell is peeled and the yolk and young chick inside can be eaten. All of the contents of the egg are consumed. In the Philippines, balut have recently entered higher cuisine by being served as appetizers in restaurants: cooked adobo style, fried in omelets or even used as filling in baked pastries. [Wikipedia]

A man in Cambodia has been arrested after using a syringe to inject his blood into a woman’s rib cage and waist in an attempt to win her affections.

The assailant fell in love with the woman when the two were classmates in 2004, Tan Sophal said. After the woman refused his advances, he came up with the scheme to inject her with his blood, he said.

“He thought that if he could not marry her, at least his blood can stay inside her body,” Tan Sophal said. “That’s why he injected her with his blood.”

Caterpillar Inc. is planning to move its Asia headquarters from Tokyo to Beijing. The world’s largest manufacturer of earthmoving equipment says the move is dues to greater potential sales growth in China.

The company said in a statement that “expected future growth in China makes it the single largest opportunity for future sales for many Caterpillar products.” Vice President Rich Lavin, who oversees Asia Pacific manufacturing, will also move to Beijing.

Caterpillar employs about 5,000 people in China, out of 90,000 employees worldwide. In the last three years, the number of China-based employees has doubled, said Jim Dugan, a company spokesman based in Beijing. Caterpillar also has 13 manufacturing facilities in China that it either owns itself or operates through partnerships.

Good advice according to a report in the Cambodia Daily.

A man died on Friday and his two young daughters were poisoned after eating toad’s eggs in Kampong Cham province’s Kang Meas district, police said. Sarm Hou, 45, died, but doctors were able to save his daughters, aged 4 and 8, district police chief Cheng Sokhoeun said on Tuesday. “He ate a lot and his children ate less,” Cheng Sokhoeun said. People in the district dare to eat toad’s eggs even though they are poisonous, he said, adding that some may believe that they are similar to non-toxic frogs.

Though you might think that most people would be interested in keeping toads as far away from their mouths as possible, cane toad licking seems to be popular recreational activity among people looking for a halleucenogenic high.

As an evolutionary protective measure, cane toads secrete a variety of poisons, mainly through gigantic glands on either side of its head which can spew venom several feet. The toad’s skin and body are also infused with toxins. This makes the toad poisonous to most of its predators, but it has the odd side effect of making the toad hallucinogenic for people who lick it, or very carefully smoke or eat specific parts.

In addition to whatever social stigma you might incur, toad licking is a fairly dangerous activity — the main point of poison is, after all, to kill those who ingest it. This presents a particular danger for dogs who share an ecosystem with the toads, since a dog will lick just about anything you put in front of it.

Slurp. . .

Via Details Are Sketchy

A woman in Cambodia has been arrested for murder after she put acid in her husband’s soup and wine, and then strangled him to death.

The motive? She wanted to be rid of her husband so she could be with and eventually marry her lover – her daughter’s fiancé!

“When the acid didn’t kill him immediately she says she strangled him with her bare hands and then dragged the body about 300m to hide it behind the house,” Mao said by telephone.

Neighbors discovered the body of Ngay Prouch, 42, on September 30, he said.

U.S. retailing giant Wal-Mart is reporting a quintupling of losses for its operations in Japan. Though the company has already pulled out of Korea and Germany, they claim they are still committed to making a go of it in Japan.

Seiyu, the US giant’s Japanese unit, made a 54bn yen ($465m; £246m) net loss in the first six months of 2006.
Hit by a one-time write-off and ongoing cost-cutting work, this compares with a 10.6bn yen loss a year earlier.

Wal-Mart hopes to get their Japan operations into the black in 2007.

During the reign of Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge, an acute lack of food forced people to consume the only things they could forage: spiders, crickets, water beetles and other insects. As revolting as this sounds, locals found the bugs so tasty that they remain today an integral part of the Cambodian diet.

One favorite seasonal snack is fried tarantulas.

Street vendors sell the big spiders spiced with garlic, salt and chilies.

Connoisseurs say the best spiders are plucked from their underground burrow in the jungle and pan-fried over a wood fire until the skin of the hairy, venomous spider turns red-brown.

“Buyers say spiders are good and they say that they can cure diseases. Some people buy up to a hundred of them, even the whole tray,” said 20-year-old Chin Sarath, who has been selling spiders for the past seven years.

Besides tasting good, many people claim that a spider diet cures everything from backache to breathing problems.

For a more graphic portrayal of spider munching in Cambodia, visit the Spider Boy Gallery.

30 people in Cambodia, most of them children, came down with food poisoning after eating homemade noodles contaminated with chewing tobacco that had dropped into the noodle batter from the mouth of the cook, a 39-year-old woman.

Sieng Sang, an avid tobacco chewer like many poor Cambodian women, said she had not realized a wad had dropped into the flour as she was talking.

Police gave her a lesson in hygiene and told her to be more careful when opening her mouth while cooking.

Cambodian Chaeng Kim Hoan was fighting with his wife when he threatened her with a hand grenade in an effort to make her shut up. The grenade went off accidentally and Chaeng was killed.

His wife was uninjured.

Cambodia has banned the introduction of 3G cell phones, which can be used to send still images and movies, upon the order of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

“I have written to the Minister of Telecommunications to delay the use of certain mobile phones,” Hun Sen told an assembly of Buddhist monks in Phnom Penh on Friday. “We can wait 10 more years until we have managed to improve morality in society.”