For its Halloween night menu, Typhoon restaurant...

For its Halloween night menu, Typhoon restaurant in Santa Monica has put together a feast that includes conger pike mouth and throat soup, crickets (Taiwanese-style), grilled eel curry with pumpkin, water bugs stuffed with ground chicken, Chambai ants and crispy fried sea worms.

And, to wet your whistle, may we recommend the Manchurian ant margarita (with the rim of the glass coated with ants and ground chili pepper)?

Enjoy!

Guide to Adventurous Dining (cont.): If that menu at Typhoon has your mouth watering, here are some pre-Halloween considerations (see accompanying):

* A vegetarian dish with your own personal sauce (from Gwen Garcia).

* A meat dish that just can’t be beaten (from David Gold).

Test-kitchen mystery: Richard Lorentz encountered a couple of signs that made him “wonder what kinds of experiments they are able to perform, since they seem to be restricted to using water only” (see photo).

Molehills: Speaking of the differences between the two coasts, ESPN radio’s Colin Cowherd asserted that folks out here don’t know the difference between mountains and hills.

He recalled driving with a real estate agent in Southern California who confided to him at one point, “You want to live on this side of the mountain.” Cowherd stared out his window, “looking for Kilimanjaro.” Finally, he asked her what peak she was talking about. The agent responded: “Oh, darling, we just drove over the mountain.”

College daze (cont.): They’re a bit late with their homework, but I’m still accepting readers’ submissions of pseudonyms for colleges.

Said Kevin Sullivan of La Crescenta: “My father, who was raised in the Glendale area but now lives in Nevada, likes to recall his days at SMU -- Southern Montrose University, aka Glendale College.”

And Kirby Furlong wrote that “for many years, cows could be seen roaming in Pierce College’s open fields off Victory Boulevard in Woodland Hills.”

“Hence the nickname: Moo U.”

miscelLAny: The feud between Laker stars Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant apparently extended even to the taping of their ankles by trainers. That’s the word from ex-Lakers coach Phil Jackson in his new book, “The Lost Season” (co-written with Michael Arkush).

Says Jackson: “Shaquille won’t allow himself to be taped before a game by Gary Vitti because he’s too aligned with Kobe. Kobe won’t let Chip Schaefer, Shaq’s guy, tape him.”

Too bad the two stars couldn’t have sat down together and worked out their problems over a couple of Manchurian ant margaritas.

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATimes, Ext. 77083; by fax at (213)237-4712; by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012; by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.