Angelina Jolie Admits Her Kids Eat Crickets
In an interview conducted while she was shooting an ad for Louis Vuitton's "Core Values" campaign in Cambodia, the 36-year-old actress reveals that she has introduced adopted her sons, 9-year-old Cambodian native Maddox and 7-year-old Pax (from Vietnam), to the local delicacies -- including fried crickets.
"My boys loved to eat crickets," says Jolie, who's a fan of the insect herself. "It's their favorite thing. They ate them like Doritos and they wouldn't stop. But they're good. They are like a potato chip."
Jolie uses the past tense because she eventually had to ban Maddox and Pax from eating the creepy-crawly creatures. "I was afraid they were going to get sick from (eating) too many," she smiles. (No word on whether Zahara, 6, Shiloh, 5, and Knox and Vivienne, 3, also partake of the tasty critters.)
But although she finds crickets to be a culinary delight, there are certain Cambodian dishes Jolie has opted not to sample. "I have yet to have the tarantulas on a stick or spider soup here," she admits. "I don't know if I can get around the fur, but you gotta try everything."
Cambodia holds a special place in Jolie's heart. She first discovered the country in 2000, while filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider there, and subsequently contacted the U.N.'s refugee agency U.N.H.C.R. to see if there was a way she could help. Jolie began to tour refugee camps, which was a first step in her now famous goal to aid the plight of refugees worldwide. She was eventually named a U.N.H.C.R. goodwill ambassador and adopted her first child, Maddox, from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia, in 2002.
Jolie has said that she wants to introduce her various children to their native cultures, so eating crickets is certainly a part of that for Maddox and Pax. But Jolie also admitted to New York magazine last year that one of her favorite snacks is cockroaches -- though she wouldn't recommend popping a fully intact one into your mouth. "There's this very pointy bit on their stomach you just can't eat," Jolie said. "You have to kind of pop that off."
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