Bamboo worms 500,000 VND/kg - supply cannot meet demand

Crispy fried bamboo worms with lemon leaves are a favorite dish of Hanoians.

Carrying a bag of white worms weighing about 2 kg and still crawling, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Quan in Giang Van Minh (Ba Dinh, Hanoi) boasted that these were bamboo worms. He had to wake up at 5am to ride his motorbike to the bus station and wait two hours to get this bag of worms.

He said this was his favorite dish, and he had to order it all the way from Thanh Hoa a week in advance. He divided the worms into two parts, one part to give to his parents, and the other part he used to make crispy fried bamboo worms with lemon leaves to treat his friends and wife and children.

This type of worm, when fried, is both fatty and crispy, extremely appealing. Mr. Quan had the chance to enjoy bamboo worms at this exact time 2 years ago, when he was working in Muong Lat (Thanh Hoa). At that time, he was treated to bamboo worms, a famous specialty of this region.

"At first, when I saw the bamboo worms as big as chopsticks and as long as two knuckles, stacked on the plate, I felt scared. Actually, I had only tried flying shrimp and silkworm pupae. However, when I tasted the first worm, I found it crispy, delicious, fragrant and fatty, very appealing. After eating one, I wanted to eat more, and just like that, I became addicted to this bamboo worm dish," Mr. Quan shared.

Ms. Ha Thi Thuy in Trung Hoa street (Cau Giay, Hanoi) also said that during this season, bamboo worms, also known as bamboo worms, are always her family's favorite dish.

"Looking at the plate of fried worms placed in the middle of the dinner tray is disgusting, but everyone in my family is addicted. My two children especially say that it's as crispy as potato chips, and I can eat the whole plate in one meal without getting bored," she said.

However, this worm dish is very rare, expensive and must be ordered a week in advance. Once purchased, she divides it into several meals, each meal processing 3-4 ounces to eat sparingly. The rest, she stores the worms in the freezer, takes them out to fry 1-2 times a week.

Mr. Le Van Tho in Hoang Hoa Tham (Ba Dinh, Hanoi), a trader of specialties from the Northwest region, said that bamboo worms are similar to chit worms. However, chit worms are often used to soak in wine, while bamboo worms are often bought for processing.

According to Mr. Tho, the bamboo worm season starts in September and ends in late October. This is the time when bamboo worms multiply, and the worms are the most numerous and fattest. People in mountainous areas such as Son La and Muong Lat (Thanh Hoa) often go into the forests, looking for bamboo trees with signs of wilting tops, shrunken and unusually short bamboo segments, then cut those segments apart, and inevitably find wriggling white bamboo worms inside.

This worm is quite rare, not all bamboo trees have it. However, if you find a bamboo joint with a worm, each joint can contain up to half a kilo of worms.

Previously, bamboo worms were brought home by people to feed their families. But now the demand for bamboo worms from urban people has increased, bamboo worms are sold to restaurants and eateries to make quite a lot of specialties.

As a specialty food, only harvested seasonally in the wild, bamboo worms in Hanoi cost up to half a million VND/kg, but the amount of goods Mr. Tho collects from his regular customers is still not enough to sell. Customers who want to buy must order a week in advance.

In particular, this type of worm is fresh, very difficult to transport, if not careful the worm will die, so when there is stock, he often transfers it to the customer who ordered it, ensuring that the worm reaches the customer fresh and avoiding loss.

According to industry experts, insects, including bamboo worms, when dead often produce toxins or the insect's body can be infected with toxic fungi, strange proteins... which can easily cause allergies and poisoning in humans when eaten with symptoms such as rash, dizziness, nausea... Therefore, you need to be more careful when eating, avoid eating strange insects, bright colors.

Before processing, it is necessary to soak insects in diluted salt water or lime water to remove all toxins from their intestines, preventing the risk of poisoning when eating./.

According to VOV