I didn't know these were edible!

Take a look at this:



Thai Maengda Talay. Yes--horseshoe crab. Importfood.com is a premier Thai food import site in the USA. See their article at http://importfood.com/bangsaen_seafood.html .

-Paul W.

Not on MY plate!

Richard Fortey, the British paleontologist, wrote a book called "Trilobite!" a few years ago. I really enjoy his books. Trilobites appear to have gone extinct at the end of the Permian, some 250 million years ago, and Fortey is an expert on these little critters. Horse-shoe crabs aren't very closely related to them but are closer than most invertebrates these days, and so Fortey gamely dug in when he was served Horse-shoe crabs somewhere in Laos or Thailand. What really interested him was that the crab he was served was pregnant, and the eggs were located in a swelling in the "forehead." This is exactly what a pregnant trilobite looked like, apparently. Maybe that is where the old "brow of Zeus" legend originated?

Most invertebrates have an inverted body plan from us. Our nerve cord runs down the middle of our back, and the digestive track is ventral. When you remove the "vein" from a shrimp, which runs down the back, it is really the digestive tract and intestine. The nerves run down the front.

I don't really have an urge to eat a horse-shoe crab but it is interesting that they are available.

Frank

Wow - that's some website. Between the, um, appetizing pictures and the assertion that one would be eating a "flying insect"(?), I'm not sure I'll be ordering any maengda anytime soon.

Very interesting, though.

vegetarianism is looking better all the time.....

Wow - that's some website. Between the, um, appetizing pictures and the assertion that one would be eating a "flying insect"(?), I'm not sure I'll be ordering any maengda anytime soon.

Maengda look like huge cockroaches.

Horseshoe crabs (Limulus) are not insects, though. Like insects and crustaceans, they are arthropods, but they are in a different order from insects and crustaceans. These creatures appear in the fossil record way way back to the Paleozoic Era and specimens not very different from the modern creature appear contemporary with the trilobites.

There are some very tasty and more conventional recipes and ingredients on the importfoods.com website. I highly recommend it as a source for Thai ingredients.

-Paul W.

Richard Fortey, the British paleontologist, wrote a book called "Trilobite!" a few years ago. I really enjoy his books. Trilobites appear to have gone extinct at the end of the Permian, some 250 million years ago, and Fortey is an expert on these little critters. Horse-shoe crabs aren't very closely related to them but are closer than most invertebrates these days, and so Fortey gamely dug in when he was served Horse-shoe crabs somewhere in Laos or Thailand. What really interested him was that the crab he was served was pregnant, and the eggs were located in a swelling in the "forehead." This is exactly what a pregnant trilobite looked like, apparently. Maybe that is where the old "brow of Zeus" legend originated?
Frank

Did he enjoy it, Frank ? The photo on the website Paul provided seems to show a shell full of eggs...

Hmm - almost makes Trepang look appetising.....

Did he enjoy it, Frank ? The photo on the website Paul provided seems to show a shell full of eggs...

The book is at my office -- but I seem to recall he found it strong and oily tasting, so no not really.

Frank

To put it all in perspective:

I don't see how anyone who rhapsodizes over lobster can run away screaming from horseshoe crab.

Both arthropods have about the same complement of legs and pincers of various sizes and types.

Both turn a lurid color (red, in the case of lobster; silver, in the case of horseshoe crab) when cooked.

In both cases female specimens come replete with lots of eggs, and that seems to be prized by the cognoscenti of each of the creatures.

I'm with the convicts of early North America, who engaged in prison riots because they were served those sea vermin (lobsters) so often, as opposed to real food that ordinary, respectable people would eat.

-Paul W.