Ant egg hunting season

Khmer people catch ant eggs

Hard work through the forest

Early in the morning, arriving early in the Bay Nui area, we will easily see people looking for ant eggs. In the summer, children and their parents wander through the forests looking for ant nests. Every year, when the rainy season comes, the weather in the mountains and forests is cool, trees sprout and grow. Countless forest creatures thrive and develop, including ants that find secluded, cool places to nest and lay eggs. Understanding this characteristic, the Khmer people equip themselves with tools to trek through the forests and mountains to find ant eggs. Having the opportunity to go with Chau Da to catch ant eggs, we can see the full interest of this unique "job".

His tools are just a long bamboo pole with a plastic basket hanging on the top to catch ant eggs. Every day, Chau Da and his relatives go through the rarely visited mountain ranges to find ant nests. Chau Da said that in the past, Bay Nui was still wild and had many yellow ants making nests. However, in recent years, many mango orchards have used fertilizers and pesticides, so the ants have to find high places on the mountains to make their nests. To harvest many ant eggs, one has to travel dozens of kilometers to find their nests. The type of ants that Chau Da catches eggs to eat are mainly yellow ants.

Chau Da said that in the past, when the rainy season came, any family that wanted to eat yellow ant eggs would just go to the backyard and lightly poke the nest with a bamboo stick, and countless ant eggs would fall into the basket. However, in recent years, yellow ant nests have gradually decreased. According to Chau Da, the areas where yellow ants nest the most are on mountains that are rarely visited. Now, this species of ant is very clever, because many people hunt for their eggs. Confiding in us for a while, he took a bamboo stick, held it high up on a yellow cajuput tree, and gently shook it into the ant nest. The yellow ants were disturbed, and they crawled out and covered the basket. Many of them quickly ran along the bamboo stick, crawled onto Chau Da's body, and bit him dozens of times. The pain from the bites was so great that Chau Da quickly brushed them off continuously...

Ant eggs stir-fried with onions

Expensive specialty food

We were also bitten all over by a swarm of yellow ants that had broken their nest, causing a lot of pain. To escape from the ants, I had to run far away from their nest. Yellow ants are very cunning, after biting they just cling to our bodies. To escape from the ants' sharp claws, the only way was to brush them off with your own hands. Because after biting, they cling to us forever and never let go. In the past, before harvesting mangoes, gardeners had to rub wood ash all over their bodies. Because the ash had a slightly salty taste, the ants clinging to our bodies caught the scent of the ash and fell off by themselves. Seeing us grimacing, Chau Da and the children smiled brightly as if teasing us. Chau Da said that, up to now, he had been catching ants for more than 20 years, it seemed like he had been bitten by yellow ants more than he had eaten rice.

Having just finished catching this nest of yellow ants, Chau Da quickly poured the eggs into the bucket. After that, he continued walking a bit, then stretched the bamboo pole up a tall tree to catch another nest of ant eggs. Having just finished catching the nest of ant eggs, Chau Da pulled down the net, the ants continued to bite his legs. Chau Da quickly stepped on the ground to let the ants fall down. Occasionally, I saw him still grimacing because of the ants' bites. Only those who followed the locals to catch ant eggs for the first time could fully appreciate the hardship of this "profession". Anyone who accidentally stood next to the ant egg hunter would be bitten by them. Seeing Chau Da being bitten by ants, I burst out laughing.

Looking at the crate, there are countless ant eggs. To keep the ant eggs fresh, people have a very simple way of doing it. They put salt water in the crate to keep the ant eggs from spoiling during the catching process. When the ant eggs are brought home, washed and sold at the market for 250,000 VND per kilo. Through the hands of the processor, the ant eggs will become many famous delicious dishes. Of which, the 3 most popular delicious dishes are ant eggs stir-fried with pork belly, ant eggs braised with pickled cabbage and ant egg soup cooked with wild sorrel leaves.

Mrs. Neang Nhay is one of the people who specializes in catching and processing ant eggs. She said that for sour ant egg soup, just boil water and then put the ant eggs in to cook with giang leaves and thinly sliced banana trees to create a delicious dish with rich flavor. Some places also prepare ant eggs to cook with duck hotpot, ant eggs stir-fried with onions... Slurp each spoonful of hot ant egg soup, the tiny eggs like broken rice grains, the fatty and rich taste, the pungent sour taste of ant eggs mixed with the mild sour taste of giang leaves, the astringent taste of banana trees, creating a unique flavor that diners will find hard to forget.

This season, going to Bay Nui along the rural roads, you will see Khmer people catching and selling ant eggs. When people on the road see ant eggs, they immediately stop to buy them.

LUU MY

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/mua-san-trung-kien-a424018.html