Spiders on the menu as nation's northeast embraces slow food

Welhite Naro proudly proffers his fried spiders and grilled crickets along with a somewhat less exotic dish of millet and squash - a small sample of the disappearing delicacies of India's remote northeast.

Naro is a farmer from Nagaland, one of the eight states that make up northeast India - an area connected to the rest of the country by only a narrow sliver of land and with its own distinct cultural and culinary traditions.

"This is a snail collected from the paddy (rice) field," he told visitors at a recent international food fair as he encouraged them to taste his produce.