No, I’m not talking about the aging German pseudo-metal band that are considered the paradigm of good rock music in Thailand, I’m talking about maing bpong – the big, black, ugly looking beasts that can kill with a sting from their tail.

When Marty was here recently he made me look like a gutless wonder when he ate a fried grasshopper after I’d revealed that I wasn’t game to try any of the traditional thai delicacies such as:

silkworm lavae

and **maing da – giant water beetles

So I went one better, and…

When I showed the above video to some of my thai colleagues, even they writhed and squirmed as I chowed down on the creatures’ squishy little head.

Not surprisingly, it didn’t taste like chicken.

** Incidentally, one of the thai words for a pimp is ‘maing da’, due to the odd mating habits of the male of the species. Apparently after mating with the female, the male maing da crawls up onto the females’ back, and never sets foot on the ground again. For the rest of his life he enjoys the free ride and lives off of food that the female is able to forage.