Flu fears, rains buoy Cambodia rat exports to Vietnam

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

CHREY THOM, Cambodia (Reuters Life!) - Stir-fried or grilled, Vietnamese can't seem to get enough of Cambodian rat meat, and the global influenza outbreak as well as recent heavy rains have proven a boon for both consumers and exporters.

In Chrey Thom, a Cambodian town on the border with Vietnam, motorbike after motorbike carries wooden cages full of hundreds of the plump, furry, brown rats.

The rains in the Mekong Delta area have helped boost the Cambodian trappers' catch, as more rats rush out from their flooded holes and into waiting cages.

"There were so many rodents we just can't eat them all, so we need to export lots more to Vietnam," Cambodian rat trader Kang Chanthan told Reuters. "It's good business."



Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-39692420090518

[Buzz Clik]

1. Rat on a stick with noodles.

Yummy!

[MineralMan]

2. Yah, most of us here don't eat rodents.

But some do. I've eaten many, many rabbits, and had a guinea pig once in a Peruvian restaurant in the US. Lots of people eat squirrel here in the US, too, and I know that muskrat and nutria are also eaten by some.

So, the use of these water rats, more like muskrats than the rats we're used to seeing, isn't surprising at all. I haven't had an opportunity to eat one, but I would if I were visiting that part of the world, I have no doubt.

I can't see any reason for the squeamishness exhibited in thread like this. It's animal protein, after all.

[grantcart]

3. For accuracy these rats are field rats only

I don't believe that they eat the more unhygenic rats found in urban areas.

[BoneDaddy]

4. What a great way to control the rat problem

YUM. Hell I have eaten rabbit and squirrel, rat if probably not much different

[pansypoo53219]

5. BUT ANSWER THE QUESTION-

does it taste like chicken?