Perfect for rat stew, rat soup, rat pie, and the ever-popular... ratatouille!

Image © Linda Duits, used with permission.

Linda Duits' road trip to Southern Laos rustled up a lot of surprises - among other things, that rat is a delicious delicacy sold from bus to bus on the Laotian roads. Check out the picture above - rat on a stick, being gleefully hawked on the way to Savannakhet.

Laos isn't the only Southeast Asian country crazy for edible rodent - Cambodia now exports 50 tons of rat to Vietnam annually ("Cambodia's rats welcomed by Vietnamese gourmets", China Daily).

Granted, these aren't your icky sewer rats. These are healthy country rats that live off the acres of rice fields in the area - enterprising farm boys catch the rats at night and sell them for about a dollar per kilogram.

A Cambodian middleman reports that the Vietnamese were more innovative in the ways of rat cuisine - "Most Cambodians only know a few ways to cook it, but in Vietnam they know many dishes, such as soups, curries and fried rat."