- Mike Sula
- Klin maeng da
I never pass up a chance to make insect sauce, so I was thrilled when Friend of the Food Chain Leela Punyaratabandhu offered to send me some water-bug essence she brought back from Thailand. Maeng da na essence, or cà cuống essence as it’s known in Vietnam, is a pheromone collected from the male Lethocerus indicus, a fearsome-looking denizen of rice paddies that makes our common cockroach look positively Lilliputian. The critters are not uncommonly eaten as a street snack, but the essence is prized as an additive to sauces and soups. Sadly the bottle Leela had for me didn’t survive the trip to the post office, but she sent along some artificial bug juice that she says compares to the real stuff the way artificial vanilla does to real vanilla. Comprised of propylene glycol, trans hexyl acetate (a component in bee pheromones), trans ethyl acetate (used to decaffeinate coffee beans), and dimethyl sulfide, it smells strongly of overripe bananas, and little bit goes a long way.
Artificial klin maeng da appears from time to time at our finer southeast Asian markets. Currently they have it in stock for a little over a buck a bottle at Thailand Food Corporation (4821 N. Broadway). Why not add a little arthropod aphrodisiac to your food today?
