Seaweed always sounds so nutritious. I've been meaning to look for recipes for a while.
Please tell me mosquitos are one of those 1,400.
Now there's your authentic paleo diet.
Boy, never eat dung beetle when grasshopper is available.
Australian get very annoyed if you ask them whether witchetty grubs taste like chicken. Apparently they taste like pork.
I've eaten flying ants. They are not bad. Also Mopane grubs, which are kind of nice if you can get past the fact that they are basically maggots. I do not believe that either one will ever be a staple of western diets. The ick factor is simply too high.
I ate tobacco-flavored grasshoppers once.
Once.
My first ex-wife's grandfather was in the North Africa Campaign and spent an extended period of time caught behind lines without supplies and, IIRC, was even captured for a short time before managing to escape. She said he claimed that cockroaches tasted like Chiclets.
10. John the Baptist famously subsisted on locusts and wild honey. I picture him kebabbing the locusts on a skewer over an open fire and drizzling the honey over them as they cooked to keep them moist.
I see that Flippanter has seen Johnny Dangerously.
I've heard good things about cicadas.
I've eaten crickets. They taste like slightly undercooked potatoes.
12: Did you know your last name is an adverb?
When the Brood X* 17-year cicadas woke up, the nice entomologist on the radio said that they were completely harmless, but that dogs might eat so many that they puked.
* Coolest name ever! The Great Eastern Brood!
My sister's puppy did that with june bugs. My sister was very defensive if you mocked the puppy on that account.
That dog was also terrified of the UPS truck, but not FedEx or USPS.
My dog gets so excited when he goes swimming that occasionally drinks enough water to puke. On land he's really quite intelligent.
Thundersnow's (relatively new) dog has a possibly unhealthy obsession with a particular toy. It's a green squeaky ball thing, and for some reason the dog associates it with my house, even though it's long since been taken elsewhere. The obsession takes the form of the dog searching madly for that toy every single time he comes over to my house. It's kind of odd.
You could bring the toy back to your house. The dog is maybe not so much looking for it as requesting it.
I'm fine with eating kelp, but bugs are gross.
I'm certain I've eaten more bugs than kelp.
Bugs are gross, but mini-livestock isn't really a huge improvement.
19: How do you know which toy the dog is searching for?
24: Heh. The dogs all "Why does it smell faintly like cat shit everywhere."
24: The first time the dog came over coincided with the toy's introduction. At one point during the encounter, the toy was hidden up on a counter, accessible by scaling the couch. The dog eventually found it there, and now always reports immediately to that same spot upon arriving at my house. And then proceeds to keep searching in other spots where the magic toy once was.
I will be fine with eating insects as long as I don't have to know about it.
3: Please tell me mosquitos are one of those 1,400.
Do you have an indirect cannibalism scheme in mind?
I have had sago grubs, and fried crickets. They were fine. A+ would eat again (if necessary).
I've eaten chocolate chip mealworm cookies. You couldn't taste the mealworms. (That was when I was on the college debate team. Somebody was doing an inform about the environmental benefits of eating bugs and, at the end, he would pass around, "chocolate chirpies." I was always surprise at how many people would turn them down but it worked for me -- I still remember that speech (in particular I remember him talking about bug traps as an alternative to pesticides which were more expensive but which would be economically viable if there was a market for selling the trapped bugs. Seems like a good idea.).)
I once had some tiny ants get into some really good honey. I just kept using the honey and skimming the ants off my tea. I think I ate a fair number too. After a while I didn't mind.
If you think of it as putting a hat on the bear to keep him warm, you might remember to close your honey bottle.
I know an entomologist who is always trying to push mealworm cookies on people. You always have to watch out for that guy - and never trust any food that he brings to a party. I was not amused when I bit into a chocolate thing that turned out to be a cricket.
I bet I'd like a beer made with crickets, as my tastes tend to run a bit hoppy.
Real insect aficionados love a gin and tonic since they're so waspy.
Whenever an entomologist gives me food, I'm antsy.
Hiding insects in the food of unsuspecting diners isn't cricket.
We have an analogy ban. Why can't we have a pun ban?
39: that's basically the same as Kristallnacht.
The honeybee beer always gets me buzzed.
OT bleg:
People who rent cars more than I do: is a Fusion worth $3/day more than a Focus*? I'll be putting a LOT of miles on it over the course of 2 weeks, with the full family (sans dog) on board. I'm inclined to do it, but I don't want to piss away $45 that could be better spent.
* I realize there's a decent chance I'll be getting different actual models; you may substitute Altima vs. Sentra, or Cruze vs. Malibu, or C-class vs. E-class, or what have you.
If we pan buns, we could have a bakery.
42: For three bucks, I'd take the bigger car.
I'm certain I've eaten more bugs than kelp.
Try closing your mouth while biking.
The last time I rented a car, the guy asked me if I wanted to upgrade. I said no, I just wanted what we reserved - a four-door sedan. He said "How about [something Heebie has never heard of]?" I said sure, sounds great.
Then it turned out they were out of those. He said "How about this [other thing you've never heard of]?" I said sure.
We started doing paperwork. Kids are antsy, everything is taking a million years. Finally he's walking me through the signatures, and after I've signed a bunch of stuff he gets to "Sign here to agree to the upsale."
I was really furious and threw a mini-fit, because I'd specifically declined the upgrade. At the same time, we'd been there forever and the kids were so antsy and I didn't want to be there for another 30 minutes, so we ate the cost. I was pissed.
Try closing your mouth while biking.
This was my first thought as well. Probably because I have to learn that lesson again and again.
I was really furious and threw a mini-fit
If you can throw the car, it's too small.
My nose is almost worthless for passing air. It's like trying to breath through a straw filled with mucous.
You know what we'll be eating much sooner than 20 years from now? Mashed Potato Big Gulps. I'm thinking that the first stateside 7-11 with one of these should get a pâté vending machine to put beside it. Maybe with waffle cones.
42: For the kind of Focus you'd be getting from a rental car company, I'd say yes absolutely it's worth it. I just put 1,000 miles on a rental Fusion and it was a pretty damn good car (I mean, not super fun, but plenty comfortable and fairly fun to drive).
Don't you have two kids? Four people in a tin box sucks. Worth the $45!
a pâté vending machine to put beside it. Maybe with waffle cones
drooooooooool
To the OP, I've had crickets and some other kind of bug at a fancy restaurant. They were OK. I'm cool with eating grubs as long as there's no hydrogenated corn or rice product or whatever mixed in.
But these spiders, which I had a chance to try, I just couldn't stomach.
My museum hosts an annual event called Bugfest, and each year we serve buggy food to visitors at Cafe Insecta. Last year's menu was all mealworms and crickets (http://www.bugfest.org/cafe.htm), but in the past we've done scorpions (freeze dried), ants, and other insects.
We get around 10,000 visitors for the event, and folks stand in line for a long time to get into Cafe Insecta. The food is free, and many families consider it their lunch for the day (judging by the conversations I've overheard). While the kids make a big deal over it, I've seen literally hundreds of otherwise normal people eat bugs, happily. Granted, it's not a daily occurrence, but people overcome their cultural biases when they want to.
Part of the event is a Critter Cookoff: Local 'celebrity' chefs cook 3 dishes (appetizer, entree, dessert) for some 'celebrity' judges (usually newscasters). In my experience, the judges are more dramatic in their reaction to eating bugs than any of the regular visitors I've seen. They make a big deal over every bite, make faces, etc.
Dried mealworms can be ground into a flour and cooked into a wide range of dishes, and I personally couldn't tell a regular hushpuppy from a mealworm hushpuppy. It's the whole insects (with legs that get caught in your throat, ugh) that tend to put me off.
Lastly, I've learned that one way to REALLY impress pre-teen boys is to pick up a cricket and eat it without comment or fuss, as if it were a potato chip. "Mmmmm, bbq flavored."
I take the kids to BugFest every year.
Do you eat the buggy dishes, Apo? And are your kids duly impressed? The event has gotten so big & crowded that I hate to volunteer for it anymore, but I might see you there this year.
I've eaten the grubpuppies (though, as you note, that should impress nobody), but I have a mental block about biting into exoskeleton.
Do the scorpions taste like crayfish?
"Eating down the food chain" is the term of art here. Anyone for krill?
I have a mental block about biting into exoskeleton
No soft-shelled crabs for apo?
Never tried them. Biting into a bit of shell in scrambled eggs is similarly off-putting. Not a rational reaction, I'm aware.
I mean, shoft-shelled crab shells don't really mouth-scan as exoskeletons because they're, you know, soft.
If you put fresh cracked pepper on your eggs, you can pretend you bit into a piece of pepper instead of a shell.
What about lobster bisque? You're definitely ingesting essence of exoskeleton there.
don't really mouth-scan as exoskeletons
Then they probably wouldn't be a problem. Lobster bisque is good.
62: The scorpions were freeze-dried and then reconstituted as part of the dish that I ate, which was a stir fry. I wouldn't say they tasted like crayfish, though perhaps fresh, steamed scorpions would. The one I ate tasted like the sauce it was cooked in more than anything else. Texture-wise, it was a bit like soft-shell crab that has been cooked in sauce, not fried.
Contrary to 66, I find soft-shelled crabs to be not really soft at all, but chewy in a way that's vaguely off-putting to me. I don't really like them, and it's definitely the chitinous texture that bothers me.
FWIW, none of the bugs I've eaten have tasted like shellfish, even though they're all invertebrates. They tasted fibrous* & nutty, or a little bitter, mainly. But then, I am not a supertaster, and I tend to focus on the 'swallow quickly & brag copiously' portions of the event.
*I know 'fibrous' isn't a taste, but it's the best word I could come up with. Bland but tough/unyielding: Is there a word for that?
the chitinous texture
TWEETY LIED TO ME
Back on the veldt, soft-shelled crabs made a man weak and effeminate.
I do not find the shells of soft-shelled crabs chitinous. Are you sure you used enough butter. If I look at my recipe right here, it says it calls for "a shitload". Did you use a shitload of butter?
Speaking of things without much of a shell, my son got really upset that a slug didn't look like it was going to make it across a patch of pavement. Also, he called me a chicken. So, I picked up a slug. It wasn't very slimy, possibly because it really was drying out. It turned my finger orange.
I don't know, but I put it safely in some stranger's yard.
74: Oh, well, I must've misread. I thought it was a *shirtload* of butter. Considering that I was using Paula Deen's actual shirt as measuring cup, it seemed a sufficient quantity.
AB's old BF lived in Ghana with the Peace Corps for a couple-few years, and he got in the habit of eating shrimp shell-on. Once, inspired by deep-seated laziness, I figured I'd give it a shot (just the tail portion still on). It wasn't gross, but it was entirely unedifying, kind of like eating the apple core. "Oh look, this delicious thing is now worse."
BTW, are all of you saying that I shouldn't throw away wormy flour? Honestly, it's not the worms so much as their... webby... cocoons I guess? that gross me out. I mean, I don't love the presence of worms in my flour (and pasta and spices and chocolate), but the film of whatever-the-hell-it-is is really too much.
Making insects into a staple diet, like fusion and AI, is always twenty years away.