Updated on 13 October 2026. The original 2012 post is kept below.
Bats on the barbecue: who does that?
The video in this post is gone, but the dish isn’t imaginary. Fruit bats are eaten in parts of Asia, Africa and the Pacific. In Palau and Guam, fruit bat is a traditional dish, and in 2020 a Chinese travel host’s 2016 video of bat soup in Palau went viral when people wrongly claimed it was filmed in Wuhan. Fact-checkers at France 24 traced it back to Palau.
Pacific Islanders defended the dish as part of their food identity, as ABC Pacific reported. At the same time, wild bats can carry viruses, so handling and eating them carries real health risks.
So, might it be tasty? People who eat it say yes. Should you try it at home? Firm no from us. Stick to the bat-shaped cookies at Halloween.
More bat business: bat soup in Palau and Happy UglyFood Halloween.
From the 2012 original
(The original video in this post is no longer available.)
Who knows, might be really tasty too.
