ပုရစ်ကြော်စားခြင်းအကြောင်း
Almost everyone who knows me well enough knows the cricket story. As I always say, it all began on 19th Street in Chinatown. I was in my late teenage years then, out with my mates, enjoying some beers. One of my mates persuaded me to try crickets. I was terrified, especially by the heads of the crickets. Their big compound eyes and sharp legs were quite intimidating. This mate of mine was clever. He started by giving me the abdomen, the lower part of the cricket, then next were the hind legs. He broke them off and hand-fed me. Despite my fear, a part of me was curious enough to try it. Surprisingly, I liked it. That was how it all started.
That first experience remained my last for many years. There was a time I viewed eating crickets, insects in general, as something only uncivilised communities did. This perception changed after my visit to Cambodia. In Phnom Penh, before and after I paid a visit to the Killing Fields, I had a little read on the brutal Khmer Rouge, the genocide, the war, the poverty, and the hardships that forced people to scavenge and eat insects to survive. I realised that the habit of eating insects persisted even after the war ended in Asian. This understanding shifted my perspective on eating insects. Besides, I have also learnt about the nutritional benefits of eating insects, especially crickets. They are indeed an affordable source of nutrition in an era when good meals cost an arm and a leg. I even came across a report online that claimed that crickets are rich in protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and fibre, and may benefit gut health. They contain more calcium than milk, more fibre than green beans, and more than three times the iron found in spinach.
Despite this knowledge, I didn’t start eating crickets again until I arrived for work in Maungdaw. Back then I was living on an awfully poor diet, not due to financial constraints, but a lack of cooking skills. My nutritional balance was unquestionably off. I lived on fried eggs, potato salad, and tea leaf salad. There was a family who ran an eatery near my house. They sold alcohol and were famous for their potato salad that I often enjoyed. One day, crickets were available on the menu, so I thought, why not. The taste brought back memories of my first experience many years ago in Chinatown. I took this opportunity to encourage myself to have them often to make up for the nutrition I lacked.
Later in the year, I befriended a colleague from Sittwe office during her flying visit to our office in Maungdaw. I might have mentioned crickets in our conversations, and months later, she sent me a box of them mixed with fried beef, which she received from her mum in Mandalay. My roommate did not like crickets, so I had them all to myself. They were delicious. Sometimes I had them with rice, and other times they served as a snack with my beers.
Now that I am back home in Yangon, craving for crickets has returned. I found a shop in Hledan and bought a box of about twenty crickets. I ate them all in one go with a can of Coca-Cola. For the first time in my life, I had a severe allergic reaction. Big red spots appeared all over my body, and I had to resist the itching. It was not pleasant at all. When I told this to a friend, he joked that I should have had them with beer instead of Coke. Maybe he was right. To test his theory, I bought another box of twenty crickets today and had them with Coca-Cola. Guess what, the same reaction happened again. I think something might be wrong with my stigmina now.