Ethnic Eats – Sampling the World’s Cuisine Without Leaving Vancouver

Photo courtesy of Edible.com.

This morning’s mail found a link to Edible.com in my inbox (courtesy of Daily Candy), an online shore that sells the sorts of things that I would call technically edible. Hornets and worms and pearls, and that sort of thing. The sort of thing that people will ingest just because they can (or were dared).

What I love about it is that instead of marketing to adventure seekers and practical jokers, they have a beautiful site (albeit with a huge amount of spelling errors) that generally tries to sell the flavour and health benefits of the products.

The chocolate covered scorpions are apparently “similar to Kit Kat in texture”and the giant toasted leafcutter ants have a “nutty, bacon-like taste”. The scorpion vodka warns to “please be careful of the sharp stinger” and suggests that it might be a more exciting garnish on a martini than an olive. And so on, from canned crocodile to pearl dust to lizard lotion.

I was almost tempted, but I knew that whatever I ordered would arrive and I would likely lose my nerve. It does make me wonder how many orders they get though. I wonder if it’s a measure of how far the exotic has come to be familiar. What do you think?