# Yummy Food I Picked Up At The Wet Market



## Sdaji (Apr 4, 2020)

Though not related to the origins of the current pandemic, a lot of people are making jokes about bats and wet markets and a lot of people probably think things actually did start at the wet market (totally debunked incidentally, if anyone is wondering - there were people with the virus well before the first cases at the market occurred). Either way, this seems sort of topical.

I bought 10 of these at the local wet market while staying with a family in northern Laos. The family were all locals and I assumed they would be keen to share them but to my surprise they weren't keen, so I ended up with a huge feast that night. Cooked them up on the barbecue, very yummy! Previously I'd only had them cooked by other people, mostly in Thailand.

Due to Mr. Corona coming to join the global party I'm now trapped in Australia, and I definitely miss the Asian wet markets already!


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 4, 2020)

Sdaji said:


> Cooked them up on the barbecue, very yummy!


I prefer my bats battered.


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## Pythonguy1 (Apr 4, 2020)

Give me Hungry Jacks over a bat any day! (shame that they're closed)
Cant believe you actually ate that thing Sdaji!


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## wolfman (Apr 4, 2020)

Josiah Rossic said:


> Give me Hungry Jacks over a bat any day! (shame that they're closed)
> Cant believe you actually ate that thing Sdaji!



Try grilled fruitbat in a curry - yummy ! I had it on Seychelles; a gamy, slightly peppery taste - very nice. If you really eat the crap food from Hungry Jacks you can eat bat & fruitbat any time; just think of “hare with wings”...[emoji4]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Herpetology (Apr 4, 2020)

No trying dog?


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## Shaughan (Apr 4, 2020)

I've eaten every kind of animal they all have there own taste and I have to say I haven't found anything I haven't liked so far things I mite only have eaten once but I can say I've done it
[doublepost=1585958112,1585958019][/doublepost]I say I've eaten every animal I can get my hands on there are still some I need to try lol


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## Bl69aze (Apr 4, 2020)

do you eat the wings aswell?? or just the meaty bits?


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 4, 2020)

Call me boring or a square but I'll stick with my good old smashed avo and fried eggs on toast for breakfast.


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## Shaughan (Apr 4, 2020)

Bl69aze said:


> do you eat the wings aswell?? or just the meaty bits?


Just the meaty bits unless deepfryed then the wings r like chips lol


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## Sdaji (Apr 4, 2020)

Flaviemys purvisi said:


> I prefer my bats battered.



Spoken like someone who has never eaten bat!
[doublepost=1585995113,1585994999][/doublepost]


Josiah Rossic said:


> Give me Hungry Jacks over a bat any day! (shame that they're closed)
> Cant believe you actually ate that thing Sdaji!



Give me bats over that garbage any day. I've eaten more animals than most people have heard of and I've eaten the common mans' food in the slums of multiple third world countries and Hungry Jacks type food is down with the absolute worst of everything I've ever eaten!
[doublepost=1585995263][/doublepost]


wolfman said:


> Try grilled fruitbat in a curry - yummy ! I had it on Seychelles; a gamy, slightly peppery taste - very nice. If you really eat the crap food from Hungry Jacks you can eat bat & fruitbat any time; just think of “hare with wings”...[emoji4]
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



If you curry it the meal becomes about how good the chef is rather than how good the meat is (first time I had bat it was in a sort of Thai curry, cooked by my friend's Thai mother in a small town in north eastern Thailand). I've heard a few people describe bats as peppery but have never found that myself, so I wonder if it's just that some people cook them with pepper, haha. I'm totally with you on the HJ side of things!


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 4, 2020)

Sdaji said:


> Spoken like someone who has never eaten bat!


Yeah true. I've never illegally killed protected wildlife for food.


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## Sdaji (Apr 4, 2020)

Herptology said:


> No trying dog?



I've eaten dog in multiple countries. If you're interested I'll keen it in mind and next time I come across pictures when I'm looking though old files I'll stick something up here.
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Flaviemys purvisi said:


> Yeah true. I've never illegally killed protected wildlife for food.



Are you implying I have?


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 4, 2020)

Sdaji said:


> I've eaten dog in multiple countries. If you're interested I'll keen it in mind and next time I come across pictures when I'm looking though old files I'll stick something up here.
> [doublepost=1585995638,1585995367][/doublepost]
> 
> Are you implying I have?


Not at all... you said I've never eaten bat... I live in Australia, not abroad... bats are protected here... I've never taken a protected bat for food.


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## Sdaji (Apr 4, 2020)

Shaughan said:


> I've eaten every kind of animal they all have there own taste and I have to say I haven't found anything I haven't liked so far things I mite only have eaten once but I can say I've done it
> [doublepost=1585958112,1585958019][/doublepost]I say I've eaten every animal I can get my hands on there are still some I need to try lol



Awesome. I've tried just about everything I've been able to find and afford, the main foods I avoid are unethical or endangered. I've enjoyed the vast majority of foods I've tried but I can definitely say there are some things I don't like. I'm not particularly a fan of foods made with chyme (though I have eaten it many times and almost always it has been with families in Laos and Issan and I'm usually in such a happy mood out there I'm enjoying everything anyway), I don't like small snails (due to all the grit and $#!t which is impossible to sort out) but like large snails, there's one vegetable which grows on trees in Laos and east Thailand (locally called lin mai which translates to tree tongue) which I think it utterly disgusting, and I generally try to avoid tofu. Actually, other than processed foods that's about all I can think of which I don't like.

Do you have any featuring prominently on the wish list? Porcupine is one of my favourites, and several other rodents are also really good.

As someone who has eaten a large number of animals, would you agree that while people who have barely eaten any say that everything new tastes like chicken, the only animal you've ever eaten which tastes like chicken is chicken?
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Flaviemys purvisi said:


> Not at all... you said I've never eaten bat... I live in Australia, not abroad... bats are protected here... I've never taken a protected bat for food.



I've never eaten bat in Australia, although up north I've been invited by aboriginals (who are legally allowed to kill and eat them) to come join them to eat them. I'm not entirely sure about the legalities of that, give that I'm not aboriginal (heh, hooray for blatantly racist laws). You might have been outside Australia though, I have no idea 
[doublepost=1585996546][/doublepost]


Bl69aze said:


> do you eat the wings aswell?? or just the meaty bits?



I eat the wings. The ones pictured above were done on the BBQ so the skin went all crispy, a bit like bat crackling. Yummy! I also eat the wing bones, they're flying animals so the bones are pretty light, and after the flame grilling went nice and crunchy. I eat chicken wing bones too. Most people who eat bats don't eat the bones, but many (most?) eat the wing skin. Skin of many animals is a common food in that part of the world. Buffalo skin in that region is particularly popular, usually not eaten as part of a meal with buffalo, just the skin cooked up without any other meat. They stew it and it goes sort of gelatinous.
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Flaviemys purvisi said:


> Call me boring or a square but I'll stick with my good old smashed avo and fried eggs on toast for breakfast.
> View attachment 328888



I like eggs and avocado on toast too  Not so fond of the bread, but eggs and avocado are up with my favourite foods


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 4, 2020)

I'm all for indigenous Australians being allowed to lawfully obtain their traditional foods, provided that the methods by which they obtain them are also traditional... years ago I unleashed a tirade on a mob known as the Tabulam turtle divers. Turtle diving is a tradition being kept alive by the Wahlubal people of the Bundjalung Nation near Tabulam in northern New South Wales. The tradition is still practiced to this day but the locals have incorporated modern methods by using goggles, snorkels and fins... that to me is outrageous.


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## Sdaji (Apr 4, 2020)

Flaviemys purvisi said:


> I'm all for indigenous Australians being allowed to lawfully obtain their traditional foods, provided that the methods by which they obtain them are also traditional... years ago I unleashed a tirade on a mob known as the Tabulam turtle divers. Turtle diving is a tradition being kept alive by the Wahlubal people of the Bundjalung Nation near Tabulam in northern New South Wales. The tradition is still practiced to this day but the locals have incorporated modern methods by using goggles, snorkels and fins... that to me is outrageous.



I think having laws which apply differently to different people based exclusively on race is about as blatantly racist as anything ever could be. I mean, that is literally saying that whether or not you are allowed to do something is determined by what race you are. If that's not racist, what is?


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 4, 2020)

The world is racist. Australia is the most racist continent on the face of the earth. It is what it is... it'll never change. Indigenous Australians were here 60,000 years... we've racked up 232.... who are we to make laws to govern them??


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## dragonlover1 (Apr 4, 2020)

As an older Aussie who has never left our shores, I obviously haven't eaten all the things available overseas. But I have eaten snake,croc,emu and roo as well as the usual yabbies etc. Some are quite nice and some are so so. But if this virus turns into a global recession I might find myself eating my reptilian friends as a last resort. Think about that Kev, will you starve or eat your turtles?


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## Sdaji (Apr 4, 2020)

Flaviemys purvisi said:


> The world is racist. Australia is the most racist continent on the face of the earth. It is what it is... it'll never change. Indigenous Australians were here 60,000 years... we've racked up 232.... who are we to make laws to govern them??



I agree the world is racist. I think it's incredibly funny that you think Australia is the most racist place on Earth! Haha, you obviously haven't spent much time outside of western countries! Immerse yourself in a lot of other cultures and you'll see racism that completely makes anything in Australia look like whatever the opposite of racism is. China is probably the most racist country, Australia doesn't rank highly at all. In many countries, to say that one race is superior to another is like saying the sky is blue or water gets things wet.

Who are "we" to make laws to govern "then"? Haha, sounds like you're pretty racist yourself  What race is the Australian government? The government is not a race! The people who make up the government are not all the same race, and Australians (Australian is a nationality, not a race) of any race can be elected by Australian voters of any race.


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 4, 2020)

You can call it however you see it and whatever you want... makes zero difference, there's huge divides in this country and always will be... as for what goes on in other countries... I couldn't care less. I'm not sure how much of Australia you've travelled and racism you've encountered during those travels, but if it's half of what I have then it's a lot.
Ask any aboriginal if the government has ever given them a fair go... race or nationality.
I respect your view that you find laws surrounding the permissions of indigenous Australians racist... I not so much, I believe they should be allowed to maintain traditions BUT it must be authentic... no shooting down bats for food with a .410... using spearguns to catch Australian Bass or snorkels fins and goggles to collect freshwater turtles.
[doublepost=1585999146,1585998855][/doublepost]


dragonlover1 said:


> Think about that Kev, will you starve or eat your turtles?


Mate I would eat my left arm before I ate my turtles... purvisi are almost extinct in the wild. Not gonna happen on my watch.


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## Sdaji (Apr 4, 2020)

Flaviemys purvisi said:


> You can call it however you see it and whatever you want... makes zero difference, there's huge divides in this country and always will be... as for what goes on in other countries... I couldn't care less. I'm not sure how much of Australia you've travelled, but if it's half of what I've done then it's a lot.
> Ask any aboriginal if the government has ever given them a fair go... race or nationality.
> I respect your view that you find laws surrounding the permissions of indigenous Australians racist... I not so much, I believe they should be allowed to maintain traditions BUT it must be authentic... no shooting down bats for food with a .410... using spearguns to catch Australian Bass or snorkels fins and goggles to collect freshwater turtles.
> [doublepost=1585999146,1585998855][/doublepost]
> Mate I would eat my left arm before I ate my turtles... purvisi are almost extinct in the wild. Not gonna happen on my watch.




I've travelled plenty of Australia, when up in NT I sit down and drink VB with the black fellas, have the popo come to try to rescue me and I tell them I'm fine, I have white locals look at me with utter contempt and disgust (I'm worse than an abo, you see? They were born abo, they can't help it, but I'm *choosing* to be a traitor to my race, etc). I know what it's like, I've also spent years in Asia, and I can totally tell you that Australia is by absolutely no means particularly racist by global standards. No western country is, and western culture is among the least racist in the world (though northern Australia is very racist by western standards).

Heh, I could throw your own standards back on you - who are *you* to tell *them* what they can and can't do? etc etc

Talking of shooting bats, the last time I was in NT (a few years ago now since I've been up there, it was in between trips to Asia) I said down with some black fellas at a roadhouse a few hundred clicks north of Daily Waters, and had the usual disgust directed at me from the girl who'd reluctantly sold me a VB. The were telling me about eating turtles and bats etc. I asked how they hunt the bats, if they used a rifle or boomerang, and I wish I could send a voice clip of my best imitation of the black lady saying "neer, we jus hid eem wiv a stick!" haha, it was brilliant. We had a great afternoon. If I hadn't had a plane to catch out of Darwin two days later I would have accepted their invitation to stay at their community.

While I would literally bet if push came to shove you'd eat your turtles before your arm, hey, I wouldn't be 100% surprised to lose. Not sure why you felt the need to say it though.


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 4, 2020)

I grew up in the remote upper Macleay valley with the Dunghutti people. I have many paintings of turtles gifted to me by them. I have zero indigenous heritage whatsoever but the utmost respect for those people. 

That's a bet you would lose... perhaps not literally my arm but I would definitely eat my dog or wife's cats before my turtles. Turtles aren't like snakes... you can't grow them up from hatching and breed them in 2 years... You wait 20 years to get something to breeding age you ain't eating it... period. Lol ps that was a reply to Dragonlover, not you John... that's why I mentioned it.
[doublepost=1586000767,1586000381][/doublepost]All this has put me in the mood for some good old King Billy Cokebottle AKA Louis Beers.


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## Sdaji (Apr 4, 2020)

Flaviemys purvisi said:


> I grew up in the remote upper Macleay valley with the Dunghutti people. I have many paintings of turtles gifted to me by them. I have zero indigenous heritage whatsoever but the utmost respect for those people.
> 
> That's a bet you would lose... perhaps not literally my arm but I would definitely eat my dog or wife's cats before my turtles. Turtles aren't like snakes... you can't grow them up from hatching and breed them in 2 years... You wait 20 years to get something to breeding age you ain't eating it... period. Lol ps that was a reply to Dragonlover, not you John... that's why I mentioned it.



Haha, I wouldn't bet against your dog winning against the turtles, and I'd be ashamed if you'd eat your turtles in preference to cats! Seems like I actually was dead on the money 

Sounds like a great place to grow up. I grew up in suburban Melbourne and always dreamed of being in such a place.


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 4, 2020)

One of my best mates grew up in Melbourne... Blackburn precisely... he's 44, an accountant and never lived anywhere else.. he regularly contacts me with photos of wildlife he's encountered in his concrete jungle that he wants identified... just last night I got pics of a brushtail possum. Lol top bloke, best of the best but he'd be completely lost if he lost sight of the city lights and ventured out into the big green yonder.


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## Sdaji (Apr 4, 2020)

Flaviemys purvisi said:


> One of my best mates grew up in Melbourne... Blackburn precisely... he's 44, an accountant and never lived anywhere else.. he regularly contacts me with photos of wildlife he's encountered in his concrete jungle that he wants identified... just last night I got pics of a brushtail possum. Lol top bloke, best of the best but he'd be completely lost if he lost sight of the city lights and ventured out into the big green yonder.



Haha, I'm well familiar with Blackburn, I was walking distance from Blackburn when the travel bans came in and was unable to return to Asia, and... here I am trapped. No shortage of Brush-tailed Possums in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne! Haha! They're one of two native mammals you're likely to see in Blackburn  Three if you look up and see the bats! I'm impressed that at 44 he's still finding new species! Very impressed it took 44 years to find a possum in Blackburn!!! Haha!


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 4, 2020)

Ah well, least he won't starve if Coles gets stripped bare. Possum would go well in the slow cooker. He has 5 (he thinks) that live in his ceiling. He sent me a short video the other day... no joke, 50 magpies in his tiny front yard... he started feeding the odd one 18 months back and now he has his own personal flock. He's a real animal lover... there's about a dozen animal welfare organisations that he donates to monthly.


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## Sdaji (Apr 4, 2020)

Haha, yep, I'm sure they'd go well in a slow cooker. I actually can't say I've tried possum. Even common as they are I wouldn't really have the heart to clonk one for the sake of my belly, but maybe if I'm in New Zealand some time!


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 5, 2020)

I'm not 100% sure but I think VIC's laws regarding the trapping of suburban nuisance common brushtails are pretty relaxed... basically anyone can trap them and take them to be euthanised as it is completely illegal to relocate them more than 50m.


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## Sdaji (Apr 5, 2020)

Flaviemys purvisi said:


> I'm not 100% sure but I think VIC's laws regarding the trapping of suburban nuisance common brushtails are pretty relaxed... basically anyone can trap them and take them to be euthanised as it is completely illegal to relocate them more than 50m.



I'm fully aware that they're common as dirt, they frequently get clonked by cars, etc etc, but I do like them and would personally rather have one living around the house than cooked up and then in my belly. If for some reason I find myself faced with the task of dispatching a healthy one (which I agree is a more responsible option than relocating), I guess I'll go for it.


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## Flaviemys purvisi (Apr 5, 2020)

Living around the house yes.... in the ceiling no... if it was toilet trained not to defecate and urinate in the ceiling space I'd be OK with it... dad used to go into the back yard and lift the roof of our chicken pen and grab one of the several big coastal carpets that hung around and throw it up the manhole whenever we had a possum take up residence. They moved on pretty quick.


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## Ryan-James (Jul 11, 2020)

Yeah nah don't eat them ffs.
Same as my father and grandfather I'm a hunter and a farmer, I'm also an avid survivalist and honestly there's not much I wouldn't put in my mouth.
The thing that concerns me with fruit bats is when they die - that nothing scavenges them, no fox or dingo or crow or pig or goanna etc, they just rot completely untouched, this tells me straight up they are not for eating.
Oh I get it, in low socioeconomic areas/ countries it's an easy meal and they can be dispatched during daylight hours while they roost with nothing more than a throwing stick.


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## Sdaji (Jul 11, 2020)

Ryan-James said:


> Yeah nah don't eat them ffs.
> Same as my father and grandfather I'm a hunter and a farmer, I'm also an avid survivalist and honestly there's not much I wouldn't put in my mouth.
> The thing that concerns me with fruit bats is when they die - that nothing scavenges them, no fox or dingo or crow or pig or goanna etc, they just rot completely untouched, this tells me straight up they are not for eating.
> Oh I get it, in low socioeconomic areas/ countries it's an easy meal and they can be dispatched during daylight hours while they roost with nothing more than a throwing stick.



Not sure where you're getting this 'nothing eats bats' notion from, but humans among many animals (including pythons and monitors) have naturally been eating bats for millions of years, for as long as bats have been around. Bats form the staple diet of many pythons. Monitors will eat anything, very much including bats.

Incidentally, the bats I'm holding in this picture are not fruit bats, though fruit bats are commonly eaten by humans and other animals.


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## Ryan-James (Jul 11, 2020)

Sdaji said:


> Not sure where you're getting this 'nothing eats bats' notion from, but humans among many animals (including pythons and monitors) have naturally been eating bats for millions of years, for as long as bats have been around. Bats form the staple diet of many pythons. Monitors will eat anything, very much including bats.
> 
> Incidentally, the bats I'm holding in this picture are not fruit bats, though fruit bats are commonly eaten by humans and other animals.


Ah ok, yes. I'm referring to fruit bats/ flying foxes and I get the notion from being an ex cull contractor (pest control permit) on orchards and then again during the recent drought last summer we had them dying en masse on our farm, not arguing or nothing but if the crows ignore the piles of fresh carcasses and the old fox or wild dog walk straight past them then I reckon I will look elsewhere for a feed is all.


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## Sdaji (Jul 11, 2020)

Ryan-James said:


> Ah ok, yes. I'm referring to fruit bats/ flying foxes and I get the notion from being an ex cull contractor (pest control permit) on orchards and then again during the recent drought last summer we had them dying en masse on our farm, not arguing or nothing but if the crows ignore the piles of fresh carcasses and the old fox or wild dog walk straight past them then I reckon I will look elsewhere for a feed is all.



Plenty of things eat fruit bats, from our own species to the namesake of this forum, Aussie pythons. Not only do Aussie pythons and crows eat fruit bats, but here's a crow so keen to eat a fruit bat that it's trying to steal it from an Aussie python in the process of eating one!



























Foxes will of course happily eat bats, but if you have them dying en masse you'll probably find that the foxes will have very full bellies without touching enough of the bats for you to notice. Fruit bats of course have been an important part of the diet of aboriginal Australians for tens of thousands of years and they routinely eat them to this day.


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## Ryan-James (Jul 11, 2020)

Yeah righto, looks like you got me then, eat the bats then mate, you must have had better luck with your game camera set ups on fruit bat carcass piles than I did over 4 years.
Bon appetit


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## Lurker (Aug 2, 2020)

Although people have eaten bats for an extremely long time, often without any adverse effects, I believe that the time has come to take a good look at them as the likely vectors of incurable viruses and disease. Certain strains of ebola have been traced back to bats and they’ve likely carried it naturally for thousands of years, however there’s very compelling evidence that they’re to blame for Ebola outbreaks, as shown in this link here:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/bat-species-may-be-source-ebola-epidemic-killed-more-11000-people-west-africa

Eating monkeys can also spread Ebola and that’s because the monkeys eat bats, although admittedly that’s only in those countries affected by Ebola. So for me, eating bats is out since I consider the risk of disease from them is just too great and far outweighs any benefit of eating them. Russian roulette may be a good way to make fast and easy money but I don’t play it.


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## Sdaji (Aug 2, 2020)

Lurker said:


> Although people have eaten bats for an extremely long time, often without any adverse effects, I believe that the time has come to take a good look at them as the likely vectors of incurable viruses and disease. Certain strains of ebola have been traced back to bats and they’ve likely carried it naturally for thousands of years, however there’s very compelling evidence that they’re to blame for Ebola outbreaks, as shown in this link here:
> https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...epidemic-killed-more-11000-people-west-africa
> 
> Eating monkeys can also spread Ebola and that’s because the monkeys eat bats, although admittedly that’s only in those countries affected by Ebola. So for me, eating bats is out since I consider the risk of disease from them is just too great and far outweighs any benefit of eating them. Russian roulette may be a good way to make fast and easy money but I don’t play it.



Most of the outbreaks we've seen in our lifetime have come from domesticated animals. You could use this line of logic to say that we should stop farming animals or keeping domesticated animals and eat bushmeat. Bird flu (domestic poultry), swine flu (pigs, obviously), mad cow disease (your guess is fine), MERS (domesticated camels in the middle east) are the big ones we've seen in the last couple of decades. I'm by no means advocating a conversion from domesticated meat to bushmeat or anything, but I don't see a valid argument for stopping people eating bushmeat for virus reasons (conservation is another issue and in some specific cases there's a valid argument to curtail bushmeat for that reason). I've spent years in communities where bushmeat is a vital part of the local diet, and if you were forced to live there on the budget of a typical local you'd choose to eat it too within a few months (I was keen to jump straight in from day one, but that's another story). It's very easy to sit in a comfortable home in Australia and talk about what should be done in places you know nothing about.

The bats from the wetmarket story is now completely debunked for the Wuhan outbreak. It hasn't received much publicity because there's enough hysteria as it is, and the reality would absolutely freak people out.

What makes you think that bat meat is a good way to make fast, easy money??? I've only ever seen poor people selling it, they don't make a huge amount of money from them, and I can guarantee that if you were as poor as any of them, living in the conditions any of them are in, you would do a lot more than sell bats if it would improve your life. 

Interestingly, the countries around China where bats are commonly eaten and the virus first made its way to have very poor hygiene standards, poor healthcare, crowded populations and extremely low rates of the Wuhan virus, at least according to official figures. Make what you want of that.


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