Kuala Lumpur - Soaring food prices have led to an increase in popularity of dog meat among many immigrant workers in Malaysia, a news report said Wednesday.

Indonesian worker Wagang Saring was quoted by the local Star daily as saying that high food prices and the need to send as much money to families back home had forced him and his friends to eat strays.

"Puppies are the best as their meat is tender.

"The meat gives us energy to work at construction sites. Three puppies will do for five men," he told the daily.

Saring, 37, was earlier seen hitting a stray puppy with a piece of wood.

Fellow Indonesian worker Marcel Jeheta, 30, said the large number of stray dogs provided ample supply of meat.

Jeheta, who hails from Indonesia's Flores Island, said dog meat was a popular source of protein back home.

Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Thu, who works at a factory in the central Selangor state, said many of her fellow countrymen were also eating more dog meat recently, the Star reported.

While dog meat is not widely consumed in Malaysia, several local restaurants serve the meat as an "exotic" dish, along with snakes, turtles and monitor lizards. (dpa)