Giant Ant Eggs

Known as a lower class food (along with small bird eggs), Giant Ant eggs are also known for their pungent, vinegar- like odor and flavor, which gets stronger the older the eggs are. They also transform from white to yellow, then orange and finally brown before hatching. The eggs are thin shelled and about 5-6 cm long, 3-4 cm across. Cooking by roasting or frying reduces the vinegar aspect and produces a more nutty, and caramel like flavor. The vinegar flavor is retained in boiling.  The eggs may be found year round and typically cost a copper or two per egg. Some develop a taste for the more mature, crunchier two week eggs, denoted by their yellow color and a forming giant ant larva.  Likewise the tart acrid odor and taste become familiar and desired.   There are even a few dishes that benefit from the piquant features of giant ant egg.   The harvest of eggs is a specialist job. In the dry season the giant ant colonies produce winged males that exit the colonies and scatter to the winds. Ant harvesters use nets to catch large numbers of these male ants. They kill them with fire or boiling water and then crush the bodies into a paste. This is jarred in glass or ceramic until use. The paste is used by harvesters. First they bathe to remove as much of their own scent as possible, scrubbing with sand and floral scented oil or soaps. Then the male ant paste is rubbed over the body and clothing. Harvesters approach the colony mounds and when confronted, the paste acts as a scent cover and the harvesters are treated as male ants seeking the queen. Low light sources are needed in the tunnels and harvesters will typically have a twine or thread spool they trail out behind themselves. Some use fluorescent paints to mark their way- though the ants may object to and remove them if they have scents the ants find objectionable. From the queen chamber the harvesters follow nurse ants with fresh laid eggs to nest chambers which they then load into bags or packs. They follow the trails back out, unmolested by the warrior ant guards.   The harvester job requires a tolerance for small confined spaces underground, contact with the giant insects and the stench of the ants and the colony. On occasion, harvesters may face hishaps where something causes the ants to attack.  Typically they do not survive to tell what may have provoked the ants.