Hey Don't Swat Them! Those Bugs are Dinner!
If the thought of eating insects puts a look of horror on your face, you’re actually part of the world’s minority. From the beginning of time, people have enjoyed insects as food and that tradition continues today.
According to Gene deFoliart, a professor of emeritus of Entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, early man (and woman) ate bugs to survive. To determine which bugs were edible, they observed what animals ate and followed suit. “Eating insects certainly is an old tradition,” he said.
Pliny, a first-century Roman scholar and author, noted in his writings that beetle larvae raised on flour and wine were a favorite treat of Roman aristocrats. Even the Greeks got into the act. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher and scientist, wrote about the ideal time to harvest cicadas and also stating that males are the tastier food at first, but after copulation, you can’t go wrong with the female cicadas which are then filled with eggs.
In the Old Testament, St. John the Baptist supposedly lived off of a diet of locusts and honey when he lived in the desert while the Paiute Indians actually staged hunts for wingless Mormon crickets in the 19th century. They would dig a series of large trenches, cover them with straw, then would drive hordes of crickets into that trip, setting the straw on fire and burning the crickets alive. Afterwards, the Paiute women would gather the charred bugs, which they would have as their meal with bread as their starch.
Today, bugs still remain a traditional food in many cultures across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For example, during the spring rainy season, winged termites, whether they are fried, roasted or made into bread, are a steady part of the Ghanian diet. South Africans eat their insects with cornmeal porridge. Chinese beekeepers, to be considered virile, are regular consumers of larvae from their beehives. Traditional Latin American dishes could include cicadas, fire-roasted tarantulas, ants and even ant eggs.
Interestingly enough, even though half of the world’s population enjoy eating bugs as a part of their diet, these little critters haven’t gained any popularity in either the United States or Europe. One reason is that after Europeans started to become more entrenched in farming, insections were seen more as a plague that destroys crops than as a food source. It’s also a cultural thing since what people choose to eat is conditioned by what they were raised to eat and enjoy. Most Westerners consume food like shrimp, lobster along with pork and oysters that other cultures would cringe at seeing on their plate.
There is a new movement though to classify bugs as “eco protein”, a food that is good for you as well as helpful to the environment. Hamburger, for example, has around 18 percent protein and 18 percent fat compared to cooked grasshoppers that contain up to 60 percent protein with just 6 percent of fat. Bugs also have the added advantage of having fatty acids that are unsaturated and therefore, healthier.
Another argument for adding bugs to one’s diet is that insect farming is definitely more efficient than cattle production. 100 pounds of feed only produces 10 pounds of beef while the same amout of feed yields a quadruple amount of crickets. Do you know what’s one more thing to think about? As stated by Dr. DeFoliart, “People are poisoning the planet by ridding it of insects, rather than eating insects and keeping artificial chemicals off plants that we eat.”
For those of you who are looking for bug dining experiences, the best place to start are ethnic restaurants that already have a cultural history of eating bugs. Earlier, I even mentioned some representative parts of the world like Asia, Africa and Latin America that could serve as guidelines for your search. In fact, the picture that’s a part of this article is guacamole topped with dried grasshoppers, a dish that I had at a Mexican restaurant. To give some of you a head start, I’ve actually listed some restaurants below. Check them out and hopefully, you’ll post a Menuism review so that we can get an insider’s take on enjoying grasshoppers, ants and any other creepy crawlers.
Typhoon
3221 Donal Douglas Loop South
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 390-6565
http://www.typhoon.biz/
Scorpions, Crickets, Ants & Sea Worms
Kang Tong Degi
3702 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland CA 94609
510-658-2998
Silk Worms and Chrysalis Soup
Hot Lix
966 Griffin St
Grover Beach, CA 93433
(805) 473-0596
http://www.hotlix.com/
Insect Candy
Sticky Rice
4018 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60618
(773) 588-0120
http://www.stickyricethai.com/
Bamboo Catepillars and Red Ant Eggs
Tu Y Yo
858 Broadway
Somerville, MA 02144
(617) 623-5411
http://www.tuyyo2.com/
Grasshoppers
