Fear Factor at Home - I ate worms!

Didn't know that worms are that expensive... o.k. not all types of worms... but cordyceps sinensis! The chinese name is 冬虫夏草. It's both a worm and a plant. Here's the wiki on it.

My mum bought some of these cordyceps sometime back, when they cost like near to $100 per 两. One 两 = 37.5g. So she was happily cooking 37.5g of these with some other herbs and black chicken. Then she saw this article in the chinese papers - '购买时须谨慎 假冬虫夏草流入市面' and realised that the pot of herbal chicken now could cost more than $1,500!! Lolz... quoting from the article:

正品虫草王每两的零售价1500元以上

Lolz... this is really funny. The article then explains the difference between fake and real stuff.

正品虫草王的虫体及虫头长出的真菌子座相连，虫体形如蚕，长3-5公分，直径0.3-O.8 公分。表面深黄色至黄棕色，有明显环纹20-30个，近头部的环纹较细，头部红棕色，虫体有8对足，中间4对较明显

Apparently the real worms have 4 visible pairs of legs...which leave some stump-like thingy. O.k. I got the pictures here.


Not clear? No worries, let me point out the legs to you:


Yupz I ate the worms. Common' if these worms really cost as much as what the articles say, aren't you going to eat them? Hee if fear factor gives me such worms to eat, I wouldn't mind participating. See this spoonful of worms... muaa haa haa... yummy.


See the pic below where only the 'plant' part was left? I ate the worm part... ahem.