fried bugs as a nutritious and tasty snack!

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E

Ecooper

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Last month I was in Bangkok, Thailand to attend CITES CoP 16. One free afternoon (my only free afternoon) I took the skytrain out to the Chatuchak (weekend) market—the biggest weekend market in the world. This market is incredible: it is HUGE (according to Wikipedia it covers over 35 acres and contains more than 5,000 stalls); it’s CROWDED. It’s a vast labyrinth of stalls, tiny shops and carts selling absolutely everything. It’s chaotic, confusing and utterly fascinating. I spent a couple of hours going through the live animals and tropical fish area.

The afternoon I was there the temperature was 35°C (95°F) and 100% humidity (or so it felt) and in the market there wasn’t a breath of air. After a couple hours I was absolutely dying—I desperately needed air conditioning, a shower and a gallon of water to drink. When I exited the market I came across a cheerful vendor who was selling a variety of fried insects as tasty snacks! I took the opportunity to take a few photos for my blog before I dashed back to the hotel to cool off...

Below is a nice photo of the vendor and a couple of examples of what he had to offer.

Cheers,

EC

www.macrocritters.wordpress.com



vender close copyright ernie cooper 2013_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr



grasshoppers 3 copyright ernie cooper 2013_filtered sm by ernie.cooper, on Flickr



pupae copyright ernie cooper 2013_filtered sm by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

 
95* and 100% humidity? Sounds like Alabama!

LOL, I'm rather partial to fried mealworms myself, and I'm just waiting for my crickets to get a bit bigger before they also get put in the frying pan. :chef:

 
Thanks for sharing. Brings back memories. The heat was unbearable during the hot season. I remember going to the Nia Lert market. Still have the knife I bought there.

 
Those pupa look mighty good!

I've always wanted to make a nice meal out of crickets or mealworms.

 
Ask for bondegi at an Asian grocery, they are silkworm pupae from Korea.

 
hibiscusmile said:
Always wondered about those for food, wonder if they have parasites? Wonder if they are cooked like pork to kill worms? wonder...... :blink:
Click to expand...
If you're going to eat them, probably best to cook first. Most bugs 'play' in dirt. That's also where eggs of intestinal parasites are deposited. Bon appetite! :chef:

 
Feeding these to mantids wouldn't be a good idea. The first red flag is the word "fried." Firstly, fried foods aren't on the mantid menu. Secondly, they are DEAD insects, and mantids eat live ones. Lastly, they were either fried been fried in animal fat or oil. (Pretty sure only those two, unless, of course, we are turning to fossil fuel and oil in the ground for our culinary pleasure. ;) ) Most oils decrease in nutrition and degrade from healthy to fattening when they are heated to high temperatures.

Quality mantis food? No.... Good for a daring person to snack on? Maybe. Good for a culturally diverse and interesting picture? yes, Yes, YES!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for sharing. :)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Do they just drop them in the frier or do they badder them first or how do they prepare them? I think I could try just about anything if it was fried.

 
Tony C said:
Ask for bondegi at an Asian grocery, they are silkworm pupae from Korea.
Click to expand...
I had silkworm in Bangkok and it was quite scrumptious, although the tarantula is much better. It sort of has three different flavors to it depending on what section of it you are eating. The grasshopper there tastes like dirt although there was one vendor that doused it with a bit of fish sauce and this crazy chilli pepper and it was very good. The maggot was also good depending on which vendor was cooking it. Ask for birds nest drink/soup, its bland in my opinion but you get to tell everyone you ate bird spit. :) If you can slip away to Cambodia you will find the most delicious breads since they were colonized by the French for so long. Whatever you do stay AWAY from the coagulated pig-blood soup and if you find yourself in Cambodia do not get sucked into Khmer Cheese. You will puke your brains out. Stuff is just rancide nastyness... to put it mildly. :) And yes, the heat/humidity there is nuts. However; after about a month to month and a half your body seems to acclimate.

 
I was thinking of trying grasshoppers this summer when they're nice and plump, I heard they taste like shrimp...yum, yum yum!

 
8656656240_659fee2619_z.jpg


Looks like the sign behind him has something to do with solar. I wonder if they were cooked by solar?

 

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