First unearthed by starving Cambodians in the dark days of the Khmer Rouge ‘‘killing fields’’ rule, Skuon’s spiders have transformed from the vital sustenance of desperate refugees into a choice national delicacy. Black, hairy, and packing vicious, venom-soaked fangs, the burrowing arachnids common to the jungle around this bustling market town do not appear at first sight to be the caviar of Cambodia.But for many residents of Skuon, the ‘‘a-ping’’ — as the breed of palm-sized tarantula is known in Khmer — are a source of fame and fortune in an otherwise impoverished farming region in the East of the war-ravaged southeast Asian nation.‘‘On a good day, I can sell between 100 and 200 spiders,’’ said Tum Neang, a spider-seller. At around 300 riel (US 8 cents) a spider, the eight-legged snack industry provides a tidy income in a country where around one third of people live below a poverty line of $1 per day. The dish’s genesis is also a reminder of Cambodia’s bloody past, particularly under the Khmer Rouge, whose brutal four years in power from 1975-1979 left an estimated 1.7 million people dead, many through torture and execution.Turning back the clock hundreds of years, Pol Pot’s ultra-Maoist guerrillas emptied Cambodia’s vibrant cities and destroyed businesses and universities in a bid create a totally agrarian, peasant society. ‘‘When people fled to get away from Pol Pot’s troops, they found these spiders and had to eat them because they were hungry,’’ Sim Yong, a 40-year-old mother of five, said. ‘‘Then they discovered they were delicious,’’ she said, proffering a plate piled high with greasy fried arachnids. ‘‘And our spiders are by far the best in Cambodia.’’Conservationists and vegetarians might blanche at the relentless pursuit of so many spiders for the sake of a snack, but locals are confident the arachnid population will hold up.Indeed, the only time a crisis threatened was around the Millennium when an extra-large number of spider-eaters passed through Skuon on their way to celebrate the New Year at Angkor, the stunning 1000-year-old temple complex in the northwest.Like many of her fellow Cambodians, Chor Rin, a 40-year-old market stall trader, swears by its medicinal properties — especially when mushed up in a rice wine cocktail. ‘‘It’s particularly good for backache and children with breathing problems,’’ she said, dipping a glass into a jar of murky brown liquid, at the bottom of which sits a rotting mass of hairy black legs and bloated spider bellies. ‘‘They are becoming more and more popular, but I don’t think there’s much demand from Europeans yet,’’ said spider-trader Chea Khan. (Reuters)
