SINGAPORE: On his recent trip to Cambodia, Singaporean television presenter Danny Yeo ate smoked tarantula while filming for the food documentary, Wartime Food. In his interview with local news Lianhe Zaobao, Danny said that he had joined the locals of Cambodia in tarantula-hunting. The moment they caught a spider, they immediately removed its venom and put a branch in its heart for it to be dead.
Danny Yeo stated (translated in English): “I was told to find some branches to start a fire… At first I thought they were going to barbecue the tarantula, but they just smoked it over the ashes and said that it was ready to eat after five minutes.” He explained that the spider, with all its hair, tasted like a soft-shell crab.
“When I took the first bite, I thought that since they just smoked it for five minutes, if the tarantula was still alive, would it crawl down my throat?” he added.
In one of his Instagram posts, the presenter shared the process that he underwent in finding the tarantula. He also posted snippets on how they killed and smoked, and served the spider in banana leaves.
Danny Yeo stated in his post caption: “The things you have to do for the camera. And social media. Oh, the terrains, the trauma and the terrifying trials we go through.”
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
Netizens commented giving their thoughts and opinions on Danny’s adventure.
One IG user stated: “Work needs to be really tough, even if the heart is scared! Thinking of a comfortable swimming pool at night is worth it 😂”
Another IG user remarked: “😱that’s an extreme of no pain no gain!”
One more IG user mentioned: “You are so courageous! And surprised that a fellow Singaporean (city people) are not afraid of spiders esp. we don’t see them often!”