BBQ field rats a quick, cheap and popular snack in rural Cambodia

Would you eat barbecued field rats while on holiday in Cambodia? Photo: AFP Relaxnews

As he tears off a leg of a charcoal-grilled rat at a roadside stall in western Cambodia, Yit Sarin hails the simple joy of rodent and rice washed down with beer. “It’s delicious,” he says of the snack.

Barbecued field rats are not everybody’s idea of a tasty treat, but in Cambodia’s rural Battambang province they are popular as a quick – and cheap – snack, with small skewered ones going for US$0.25 (about RM1) each while larger rodents can cost US$1.25 (RM5.10).