Thailand: Sea Cicadas

CK made it clear from the get-go that she was in Phuket for one thing and one thing only: sea cicadas.  She saw them on Andrew Zimmern's show and she absolutely had to have them.

We actually found them all over Patong Beach our first day in Phuket.  You couldn't take two steps without the little critters being washed over your feet by the waves.  

We kept thinking that we would be able to find them in a restaurant, so we weren't in a rush until all of a sudden we only had one day left and we'd yet to have them.  Then we learned something that nearly crushed CK.  According to the receptionists at our hotel, restaurants don't serve sea cicadas in Patong.  Say what?  The only way to eat them is to catch them yourself and then bring them to a restaurant.  

Guess where we went?  The beach.

Aaaaaand what do you know?  The little buggers were nowhere in sight.  CK was devastated.  I swear I saw tears shimmering in her eyes.  

So when AG asked me to head back to the hotel first without them, I assumed he wanted to comfort CK.  

I waited at the hotel for hours, watching the Olympics by myself.  Just when I was going to give up on dinner and go to bed, CK crashed through our door and shoved this bottle in my face:

SEA CICADAS!!  It was a miracle!

But before I could get properly excited, CK jerked her knee up and all I could see was a bloody mess.  And once again before my brain could catch up, CK threw me for a loop by thrusting the giant rock on her left hand into my face.

Giant rock.

Left hand.

Processing...

OMYGAWD.

I was still squealing when we arrived at the same food stand we ate at the night before:

The young man at the stand was kind enough to wash and fry our sea cicadas for us:

The finished product:

The texture and taste kinda resembled a soft shell crab:

So how did AG and CK make it happen, you ask?  The Lord heard CK's prayers and sent an angel in the form of a chubby little Thai boy who seemingly was able to pluck sea cicadas out of nowhere.  He tried to teach them how to look for sea cicada whiskers in the sand, but they just weren't getting it.  In the end, CK and AG paid the kid 100 baht for his bottle of sea cicadas.

And that, my friends, is how we got to eat sea cicadas on our last day in Phuket.  Praise Him.

We didn't stop there though.  The night before, we couldn't help but notice that the stand next to us had continuous traffic.  The menu was completely in Thai, so we sent AG to check it out:

He managed to figure out that most of the people were ordering catfish:

Wow.  Just wow.  The first one we ordered was non-spicy in consideration of me.  AG wasn't satisfied, so he ordered another one.  Spicy.  And boy, was it spicy.

This just proves that when traveling, always observe what the locals are eating.

And before I sign off, congrats again to AG and CK!!