Grilled honeycomb

Grilled honeycomb or grilled bee honeycomb with bee larvae is considered a street food delicacy in Cambodia, Laos and Northern Thailand.

Names
Known as hang peung in Thailand, it is referred to in Khmer language as baby bees kun khmom (កូនឃ្មុំត្រួយរាំងបែបខ្មែរ) or grilled honey khmom ang (Khmer: ឃ្មុំអាំង) and as maeng pherng in Laos.

Preparation
Honeycomb are harvested from the forest during rain season and they are seasoned with salt, chili, and spring onions, before being grilled. Wrapped in a waxy green banana leaf with char around the edges, the honeycomb is shaped like a corncob and is served fresh off the grill with its white bee larvae, still housed in the honeycomb hexagons. The bee larvae are voluntarily kept within the honeycomb during the preparation as in some Asian countries, honey bee worker or drone pupae (in their white stage) are consumed by humans after pickling or boiling.

Taste
When cooked or dried, honeycombs tend to retain their shape and are agreeably crunchy, presenting an intense nutty flavour. Described by one chef as tasting like “fatty honey,” the larvae survive on beebread, “the slightly fermented pollen stores of the hive,” lending to their subtly sweet flavor. While it remains a widely popular delicacy during rain season in Southeast Asia, it has also found to be distasteful by many as people cringed after watching food bloggers eating grilled honey bee larvae. It is not a cheap street food but an expensive delicacy. "It is a very weird taste still, but it subtly mixes sweet and savory together and creates something truly unique [to] taste."

Nutrition
Bee larvae packs a particularly strong punch of protein. Research into the nutritional value of honey bee brood indicates that it is high in carbohydrates and protein, contains all the essential amino acids. Brood is a good source of phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and the trace minerals iron, zinc, copper, selenium and most of the B-vitamins, as well as vitamin C and choline.