Jim Mc Anna: May 2008

Customer: Waiter - Waiter - what are these dead caterpillars doing in my soup ?

Waiter: Sssshhhhhh - everyone will be wanting them now !!!

Dried Caterpillars killed by a fungus being displayed in supermarket.

2.20 Ringit per packet (100g).

Dried caterpillars in packets of traditional herbal soup mix (about 7 Ringit/packet)

One of the most un-usual ingredients I have

come across are dead caterpillars in my soup !!!!

The above photo is taken from a very interesting article http://herbarium.usu.edu/fungi/FunFacts/Caterpillar.htm) about a chinese medicinal food item derived from a fungus that attacks the caterpillars (larvae of moths). Cordyceps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps )is a fungus which infects the caterpillars when they bury themselves to pupate. It feeds on the body like a mushroom, and then puts up a fruiting body stalk (see above), which scatters spores. In the days before 'cultivated' cordyceps, peasants would go out and try to find these odd grass-like stalks, and dig up the "root."

In Chinese the fungus is known as Dong Chong Xia Cao - 冬虫夏草 - literally

"winter worm summer grass"

I have come across packets in super-markets labelled 'Kangxi Cordyceps' and 'Dong Chong Xia Cao' which contain dried caterpillars, killed by the fungus (see above). They are often added to soups and have a rather nutty flavour, not unpleasant at all. I have noticed one of my local restaurants add them to their soup - I often wondered if they were some kind of root vegetable. There seems to be a significant difference in price between the different parts of Dong Chong Xia Cao (and also their origin). Today in a supermarket I saw 100g of the dried caterpillars being sold at 2.20 Ringit. This is extremely cheap - I can only assume these are the dead caterpillars produced from 'cultivated' Dong Chong Xia Cao. On the other hand in the Chinese Medicine part of same supermarket I was shown a 26 gram box of cordyceps being sold for 600 Ringit (one hundred pounds sterling). They looked like the dried grass-like part that comes above ground. At that price I assume they were picked in some remote mountainous region of China (possibly Tibet). Certainly that was the case for cordyceps I saw the next day if the label on their jar was accurate. I visited a Chinese Herb Shop in Sungei Wang Shopping centre. They had several large jars of Tibetan Cordyceps on display. The prices on the jars were 3879 Ringit for 37.5 grams and 10344 Ringit for 100 grams. That works out at about 103 Ringit for 1 gram of Tibetan Cordyceps - roughly 17 British Pounds per gram. For comparison I checked the price of GOLD today - 14.84 British Pounds/ gram! Perhaps that's why the sales-woman wasn't exactly very helpful when I was asking questions about cordyceps - after making it clear I didn't want to buy. She still didn't explain why the supermarket one were so cheap - "they're not really cordyceps" she said. "You mean your government allow people to sell dis-honestly labelled products ?" I inquired. I still think the cheap dried caterpillars are the products of 'cultivated' cordyceps. Despite the high price of Tibetan Cordyceps in that shop , a Chinese woman came into the shop to buy some while I was there. Unfortunately I was moved along the counter a bit by another sales-woam so I couldn't see how much the woman bought or how much she spend. She certainly had a least 10 cordyceps on the scale when I was looking. That must have cost quite a bit. Needless to say I was not given permission to take any photos in that shop. Pity. It is quite common in KL to see an armed security guard - with shotgun - outside gold shops in shopping malls (I kid you not - reminds me of 'The Westerns' where you always had someone 'riding shotgun' sitting on top of the Wells Fargo stagecoach!!). I am suprised they don't have one outside that Chinese Herbal Shop !!!!

The following day I visited a Chinese Herbal shop in Petaling Street, Chinatown, for further price comparisons. The boss there was very helpfull answering my questions on cordyceps. He had Tibetan cordyceps at 3188 Malaysian Ringit (RM) for 37.5 grams (ie. 85 RM/gram). For those people on a tight budget he also had cultivated Tibetan cordyceps at 50RM for 37.5 grams. To get an idea how much one wild tibetan cordycep would cost I asked him to weight one - it was 0.4 grams and cost 34 RM (ie. 5.6 British Pounds). I think one Tibetan cordycep in your soup would not impress anyone very much - but at over a fiver for ONE - surely no-one would expect many in their soup !!! I think his cultivated Tibetan Cordyceps are probably the best option from his shop for those wishing to try out the effects of cordyceps in their diet (I should mention cultivated cordyceps look differnt from wild ones. Photos of them can be seen at the links I give for manufactured/cultivated cordyceps). The following day I bought 25 Ringit worth of the cultivated Tibetan cordyceps. I will add some to soups or stews I make when I go back home - and see if they have any beneficial effects !?!?!?!

For recipes using this ingredient see:-

http://ellenaguan.blogspot.com/2006/05/chicken-huai-shan-cordyceps-soup.html

http://ellenaguan.blogspot.com/2006/06/green-carrot-cordyceps-soup.html

http://herbal.recipes.googlepages.com/recipes_9.html

More info on cordyceps see:-

http://www.yarchive.net/med/cordyceps.html

Health trial of cordyceps:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3638543.stm

Cordyceps in Northern Ireland:-

http://www.nifg.org.uk/cordyceps.htm

Potential of fungi used in Chinese traditional remedies:-

http://www.world-of-fungi.org/Mostly_Medical/James_Howard/James_HowardSSM.htm

Video about Cordycep capsules (contains nice animation about Cordyceps)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XNVQ4yrs0dg

For an article about damage to environment caused by diging for cordyceps in the wild:-

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-08/30/content_370124.htm

Article about a Malaysian company that cultivates cordyceps:-

http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/Industries/SMEs/cordy.xml/Article/