I just ate what????

As I spend more time in Cambodia, I become more and more amazed at the differences in the type of food consumption from America. This past week, I found myself in several strange circumstances surrounding food so would like to share them. We went out to dinner to celebrate one of our house mate's last night in Phnom Pehn. I have eaten out for lunch and breakfast and lunch many times here, but usually eat in for dinner as we rotate cooking every night. My first feelings of confusion arose when the servers brought out two plates filled with raw meat, raw seafood, uncooked vegetables, finished off with a freshly-cracked raw egg. My initial reaction was to politely starve that night; however, I became relieved when the servers then brought out a gas-cooker and placed it in the center of the table. In most Khmer restaurants in Phnom Penh, it is seen as the norm for the diners to cook their own food- which actually seems like a novel idea to me!
While everything was cooking, the servers then brought out a plate of cooked beef strips with sauteed veggies. Keep in mind the lighting in the restaurant was dim! I asked someone what it was, and they replied, "beef with eggs." Seemed like a safe bet to me, so I dug in. I thought it was very good and took several chopstick-stabs of the dish until I noticed a perpetual crunch that seemed odd. Upon closer inspection, I found that I had just eaten several mouthfuls of not only beef, but also fully sized, whole tree ants (nice and crispy!) accompanied by their pearl-sized ant eggs!!! These ants were about 1-inch in length and contained wings and all. The mind is a funny thing- upon realizing what I was consuming I immediately grew extremely nauseous and lost my appetite. However, prior to knowing what I was actually eating, I was in blissful state of ignorant insect consumption.
After that incident, I have become more weary of how the Cambodian views of delicacy differ from my own. Last night, for instance, the girls set to boiling eggs after dinner. I was full from the mounds of fruit that one of the girls had brought back from her mother's farm (mango,coconut, pineapple, mangosteins, etc.-mmmmm!) so declined when offered an egg. Turns out that the eggs were not your run-of-the-mill boiled eggs, but were actually carefully selected based on the criteria that the ducklings inside them were nearly fully developed! I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a duck fetus inside of one of the eggs as my roommate Leak chomped merrily away at what she said was one of her favorite treats.

Other observations:Rice is eaten at every meal and hardly any food is kept inside the house but is rather brought fresh everyday from the outdoor markets. I ventured to the market the other day with my housemate Sandap and was somewhat taken aback to see many of the sellers squatting on the tables that they sell the raw meat from with bare feet in close proximity to the products! One thing for sure is that freshness is guaranteed- when Sandap purchased three small eels they were all fully alive until our vendor battered them on the head to make them just still enough so that she could behead them in one swift chop. I have decided that I enjoy the food more when I don't see its origin!! Keep in mind that my descriptions are coming from my skewed American view and that while some of them are enough to make one's stomach churn, they are viewed as perfectly normal in the eyes of Cambodians; my roommates explained the disgust they felt when just thinking of of a cheesy pasta dish that they once tried!

Just a note- I am not able to put up any pictures :( The only reason I could the first time was because I borrowed a person's laptop that accepted my camera memory card, and that person has long gone back to the U.S. However, I will definitely post many pictures with descriptions upon my return to the U.S. on June 25th.