Hot Sauce Made With Ants—Would You Eat It?
Sept. 14, 2015 - Tourists visiting Kumarakapay, in Venezuela's Gran Sabana region, can enjoy a special hot sauce, kumache, with their meals. Restaurant owner Kendall Donals describes the process of collecting and preparing the ants and termites that go into the sauce, a tradition of the local indigenous people, whose ancestors relied on the ants for sustenance.
Transcript
KENDALL DONALS, RESTAURANT OWNER:
Most of the tourists who come here always
say ... "Wow, chicken from Kumarakapay is delicious ... and it's even
better with the famous Kumache sauce ... made from giant
ants and termites."
It's the most popular product we sell over
here. It’s delicious!
This is a small town that's also a tourist
hot spot. Here we have the famous hot sause, the Kumache.
And I'm a great salesman, because when I'm
roasting my chicken I go ... "Roasted chicken, roasted chicken ... with giant
ants and termites, and the night is going to be hot!”
We start with
the yuca ... the base in order to prepare
the hot sauce. First we have to peel the skin off, then
we shred it. And from here it goes to the Sebucan. Here
we see how the yuca is being squeezed, giving
us a liquid called yare. Then we take it to the stove where
it needs to boil for several hours. The substance will start to change color, from light
brown to dark brown. Finally, we bottle it and we're ready to make the Kumache hot sauce.
Here in the Sabana ... the termites are found within the lumps of
land that form all around. I think there's one close by. Here's a
termites' nest, see? They're starting to come out.
This is a tradition coming from our
ancestors, which was based on survival. Because,
you can imagine, in the Gran Sabana it's almost impossible to even find fruit. The aborigine is
used to eating yuca bread when going out whether to fish or traveling to other
towns that are far away. He might not have a fishing
hook but he will have a machete which he'll use to dig out some termites and
with a bit of salt and hot sauce he'll get the protein he needs. I mean, he
won't die. He'll subsist.
You have to squeeze its tail to get everything out. And then it is clean and ready.
First you have to cook the peppers in
boiling water, then you put them in a blender and liquify them. Then you go ahead and put the ants in a small pot. Remember
the Kumache that we made this morning? We add that into the mix.
Let's get some bigger ants out here. We add them, too. The hot sauce by itself is quite different. If you add termites and
giant ants it changes everything ... the taste.
Some say blended it's better, others say it's better with
a bit of a crunch, and so on. So, we just stir it a bit. See? This is, as we say, ready to
go.
Finally, you just add a little bit of
salt.
Well, tourists love this. People like trying new things, and if they
like it, they'll buy it from me. Look natural ... As
long as there are clients, I do well. But if there aren't, what can I do?
