my father, together with my ma picked me up from the airport last monday after my short weekend trip in aberdeen, hongkong. it was past six in the evening so i thought of inviting them for dinner and so my ma wouldn’t have to exert time to cook for us when we reach home.
there is this local restaurant in angono, rizal well-known to many for they serve “exotic” dishes. in my 10 things i have not done before post one of the things i have to do was eat an insect delicacy. i decided then to treat my parents for dinner on this restaurant.
balaw balaw restaurant is also a folk art museum. wood carvings and impressive paintings are displayed around the place. it has not changed much since i first visited years ago.
we were the only guests when we entered the restaurant for most likely it was a monday, complimentary bottled water was served the moment we sat on their steel-frame wicker chairs.
my main purpose of dining at balaw balaw was not to fill my tummy but to eat an insect (LOL!). my ma handed me one of the menu books and showed me the page of exotic dishes as she said: “ayan yung insekto na kakainin mo” (there’s the insect you’re about to eat) LOL again!. i love my mother! she just mentioned it a-matter-of-factly! 😀
kamaro or mole crickets are thick-bodied insects about 3–5 centimetres (1.2–2.0 in) long, with large beady eyes and shovel-like forelimbs highly developed for burrowing and swimming. it is most commonly found on ricefields, but i have actually seen some of them in our own backyard! here is one close-up picture i found on the net – just imagine eating this, haha!
out of my persistent determination, i ordered one. i asked the server on how they cook it, he said it’s fried with garlic and some oil, i told him to have it cooked well done! my ma ordered some crispy fried native duck, pinakbet and binagoongang rice. after waiting for a few minutes my kamaro dish arrived in our table.
seriously, it does not look palatable. it’s a bunch of dead squirmy bugs served in a banana leaf. my parents told me they use to eat this in the province when they were kids but cooked differently (they are kapampangan). i read from other articles that it tasted like peanuts, popcorn or chicken. armed with my sweet sago-gulaman beverage i ate a small-sized one. the taste did not registered in my brain. i ate some more and still, it was not the taste that retained in my brain but the consistency in my tongue. the part of the head was crunchy, the body is like soggy and my tongue can figure out the insect wings inside my mouth. eeew!
i asked my ma why it was like that and she said the crickets were not freshly caught and cooked. the fresh ones she said will have juices from the crickets abdominal part bursting inside your mouth . . . now that is nasty!
sensory replays 
i am imagining tita nenita while reading your post. i thought she’s so spontaneously giving you the menu of those insects.
how’s the smell of those earth-forsaken creatures? mukang ambantot, were they? 🙂
may ganyang dish sa cabalen during one of our buffet-pig-outs. deadma namin ni ite.
we also saw a hawker stall in hat yai thailand selling those. deadma din.
i noticed your camera caught a bit of those angono-higantes made as part of the balaw-balaw table centerpiece. kung iuuwi mo as souvenir (read : nenenokin!), parang nakakatakot. i know gabby would say, “parang stuff ng mangkukulam or witch”. no pun intended because what i meant was, they’re actually gigantic, right? and there they have it as miniatures-parang “honey, i shrunk the kids” version (does my statement sounds more socially acceptable? baka maging persona non grata ako sa angono). LOL!
seriously, i like your the second photo. nicely done. so, can you enumerate the names of the angono artists who did those pieces? *jokes* 🙂
ps : kuya rob, obvious ang motibo mo sa balaw-balaw e. pwede naman kasi sa jollibee or chowking mag dinner, sukat exotic ang trip. o sya. o sya! 🙂
.. she’s being herself gelo, haha. the crickets do look smelly pero tinago na nung garlic siguro yung amoy?!
.. they actually sell some of those doll-like papier mache higantes in the restaurant. mga “blancos” lang ang alam ko na artists sa angono e! hehe.
.. well oo nga, it’s for my ten things i have not done before post, i won’t be able to finish them all by the way, idagdag ko next year yung mga di ko nagawa.
you know this is not a palate teaser, this is a palate assault! what is wrong with you? 😆 anyway, i’m glad you nailed another one off your list. we should post about our achievements, maybe near new year? let us agree on a date para sabay tayo! tutal this is our journey together, at least i thought about it that way! 😀
.. hahaha! well it was included in the list so no choice! lol.
.. yeah we can do that pm. ikaw na magdecide on what date and send me a message.
maybe we should be careful what we put in next year. these things can be bad for us you know? let us do it a day after christmas is that cool to you?
.. let’s not include anything “life-threatening” on the next list pm! haha. 26th will be good.
ya let’s do that! oh man i’m so excited to read your list rob. 😀
.. okay! 🙂
oh my, exotic kung sa exotic! haha! the most adventurous thing i’ve eaten is grasshopper ata.. if you call that exotic! haha!
.. tipaklong! haha, parang mas malalaki ata yun grace!
this is the same restaurant that andrew zimmern featured on his bizarre foods show. i know because i’ve seen the phil episode a 100 of times i think.
.. i also saw that ewok, he tasted some of those uok (beetle larvae).