Man bites frog: Sean Thomas samples some extreme cuisine

Ant: The humble ant is jam-packed with all kinds of vitamins and minerals; the only problem is that you have to eat an entire nest to get a decent meal. The taste is a little bit peppery and a little bit earthy, and the texture is a little bit scratchy. Only the bravest of the brave eat the inch-long queen; reports say that this seriously chewy creature has an extra oily "squidginess" all its own

Dried frog: Various amphibians are downed in south-east Asia: you can find frogs, newts, salamanders and multicoloured toads which have been skinned, fried, battered and grilled, and otherwise cooked up a treat. Perhaps the most unpleasant preparation - to Western tastes - is the dried frog. Like eating a very small, chewy, unhygienic, dead mermaid

Snake: Sean takes a bit of a snake, which he says "has a strange flavour, somewhat like eating the leg of an aged hare, though it is somewhat stringier"

Water beetle: The people of the Isan region in north-east Thailand are fabled for their adventurous eating habits: villagers go out at all hours to harvest many varieties of bugs. Big black water beetles, with their crackling, scrunchy moreishness, are regarded as a special delicacy

Tarantula: Sean Thomas holds up a decidedly unlovely spidery snack, which has been roasted in sugar, monosodium glutamate, and Knorr ready-mix sauce in Skuon, Cambodia

The Independent

The World Health Organisation reckons we'll need to look further afield for our food in the future – and get used to eating some pretty strange things. But how will we fare on a diet of insects, arachnids and small furry critters? Sean Thomas embarks on a culinary tour of Indochina to taste for himself

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