Back home, in New York, I'd have left the store with a different breed of Oriental groceries. But I was visiting family in Santa Rosa, and some things — even thoroughly frozen, discreetly wrapped, and intended solely for my own consumption — just don't belong in an unsuspecting cousin's home.
Phnom-Penh is crowded, pleasantly, with with products from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japan, and the Philippines; Cambodia, Laos, and other neighbors, too, I imagine, if only I'd looked long enough. Eventually I walked away with a snack packet of Growers brand "savoury hot" "less grease" peanuts (100 g.; $1.89), from the Philippines, which proved to be small, hard, not-so-hot nut fragments. But for anyone in Sonoma who's looking to experiment with entomophagy, here's a ready source of silkworm pupae, fried spiced grasshoppers, and giant water bugs; look for them in the freezer aisle, all the way in back and to the left. How to handle the housemates is up to you.
Phnom-Penh
923 Petaluma Hill Rd. (near Santa Rosa Ave.), Santa Rosa, California
707-545-7426
