If you ever find yourself in An Giang, be sure to visit Tinh Bien Market, one of the largest wholesale markets in the Mekong Delta. This bustling marketplace is not only a popular shopping destination for locals but also attracts many tourists with its diverse offerings, including a unique delicacy: insect cuisine.

Located near the Tinh Bien – Phnom Den International Border Gate in Tinh Bien town, An Giang province, Tinh Bien Market is a vibrant hub of commerce, attracting not only local shoppers but also traders from Cambodia.

Tinh Bien Market is one of the largest wholesale markets in the Mekong Delta.

The market is at its busiest from the first lunar month to around the fifth, as many visitors come to attend the Ba Chua Xu Nui Sam festival and take the opportunity to shop at the market. Here, you’ll find a wide range of products, from specialties of the Seven Mountains region to various dried and fermented foods such as fermented fish, dried and puffed tra fish, dried snakehead fish, and fermented sặc fish, as well as imported consumer goods from Cambodia and Thailand.

What sets Tinh Bien Market apart is its reputation as the only “spring medicine” market in the Mekong Delta, specializing in a unique assortment of insects, scorpions, queen ants, snakes, centipedes, and geckos, which are particularly favored by men. In the past, these insects and reptiles were mainly imported from Cambodia. However, over the last three years, the pandemic has disrupted imports, leading to a significant decline in the availability of these goods.

Gone are the days when vendors would cook and offer insect delicacies to tourists. In its heyday, the market buzzed with activity, selling hundreds of scorpions a day, along with other insects. Now, it’s a much quieter affair, with some days passing by without a single sale.

Insects are sold in various forms, both alive and prepared.

Most of the products currently available at the market are sourced locally by hunters who scour the surrounding areas, including Cam Mountain, to ensure a continuous supply for this one-of-a-kind market in the Mekong Delta.

The insect market in Tinh Bien caters to its male customers by offering both live insects and those already soaked in alcohol. In addition to tourists, many traditional medicine shop owners from other provinces come here to buy insects in bulk.

Vendors recommend drinking a glass of insect-infused alcohol after each meal for a month to experience its full effects. While there may not be scientific studies to back up these claims, word-of-mouth testimonials over the years have spread the belief that traditional medicine containing geckos, queen ants, scorpions, and other insects is a “miracle cure” for male virility.

Scorpions at the market vary in price.

Scorpions at the market typically range from VND 18,000-20,000 per scorpion, queen ants from VND 4,000-5,000 each, and king ants around VND 40,000 each. Soaked snakes can cost anywhere from a few hundred thousand to over VND 3,000,000, depending on the type.

The scorpions found in Cam Mountain have a distinctive black color and large pincers, setting them apart from those found elsewhere. To catch the largest and fattest scorpions, hunters must venture deep into the mountain’s crevices, equipped with shovels, tongs, and buckets.

Traders revealed that the insects and reptiles sold at the market are believed to be “energy boosters” for men, aiding in enhancing virility, reducing aches and pains, relieving back pain, and supporting kidney health. However, it’s challenging to determine whether these insects truly possess aphrodisiac properties or if their effectiveness is purely psychological. Moreover, infusing alcohol with these creatures carries inherent risks due to the potential toxicity of certain insects.

Beyond the insect-soaking alcohol, visitors will be amazed to find numerous stalls frying and roasting insects for immediate consumption. The brave of heart can indulge in a variety of insect dishes, including crispy fried mole crickets, bamboo leaf-stirred crickets, crispy scorpions, roasted silkworms, snake crickets, bitterns, and even spiders. On rare occasions, you might even come across more exotic delicacies, such as the venomous cobra and rattlesnake.

With its array of insects prepared in various mouth-watering ways, from crispy fried to salty grilled delights, it’s no wonder that the Tinh Bien border market has earned its reputation as the most famous insect market in Vietnam.

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