Updated on 13 October 2026. The original 2007 post is kept below.
Welcome to Cambodia’s spider town
The roasted spiders in the video are Cambodian tarantulas, called a-ping in Khmer. The most famous place to try them is Skuon, a market town on the road between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap that Cambodians know as “spider town”. Vendors fry the palm-sized spiders with garlic, salt and sugar until crispy. Female spiders cost more because of the eggs in their abdomen.
Cambodians have eaten tarantulas for generations, but they became widespread during the Khmer Rouge years in the late 1970s, when famine forced people to eat whatever they could find. After that, the spiders stayed on the menu and became a snack people genuinely enjoy.
The bad news is for the spiders’ future. Reporters from AFP and ABC News have found that deforestation and over-hunting are making a-ping scarcer and more expensive. So if you’re brave enough to try one, it’s a snack with a lot of history, and it’s crunchier than you’d expect.
More legs: scorpions on a stick and giant roasted ants.
