Insects as food

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The only reason a person should eat an insect is if there is no other food source available. Yuck! I've seen crickets, scorpions et al. on skewers in a side street in Beijing. I wasn't too keen on trying them (nothing has changed). But I suppose when you have a population of over 1 billion to feed, insects are the go.

 
jameslongo said:
The only reason a person should eat an insect is if there is no other food source available. Yuck! I've seen crickets, scorpions et al. on skewers in a side street in Beijing. I wasn't too keen on trying them (nothing has changed). But I suppose when you have a population of over 1 billion to feed, insects are the go.
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Why? I am into survival stuff and insects are the most abundant food source out there. Now I don't go around catching them around the house to eat but a few times a year I go out and spend a week or so with not food. In that case insects are on the menu.

 
When I ate meat, I'd try anything. So I could see eating insects, as long as they tasted good. They sound like a healthy lean protein source.

 
Rick said:
Why? I am into survival stuff and insects are the most abundant food source out there. Now I don't go around catching them around the house to eat but a few times a year I go out and spend a week or so with not food. In that case insects are on the menu.
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That sounds a little extreme there Rick. :huh: :lol: Although, I do like the alone time.

 
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I could see eating cooked grubs - i once ate a couple of grubs from acorn raw (not bad actually). I expect crickets would taste like they smell (bad) and spiders are not too tasty (especially the hairy ones).

The Aztec were major consumers of insects - cheap, self-replentishing, and very nutritious. They practiced aquaculture and farmed for fly eggs on mats of floating reeds. Supposedly the water fly eggs tasted like chicken eggs and were prepared scrambled.

My stomach turns at the idea of eating a green and hairy bug, but perhaps some were tasty - besides, katydids and locusts turn pink like shrimp when they are cooked! Supposedly these taste like bacon!

 
I dont think the taste would be the problem. I think i would not be the only one to balk at the texture of bug in my mouth. I imagine it would be akin to eating a small kiwi filled with snot. Yum yum...tasty stuff.

Saying that though, i think if i was offered the chance i would try some - i have a never say never philosophy (thats quite flexible at times when i want to say never though... ;) :p )

 
to my knowledge, most cultures which actually eat/ate bugs tend to cook them. Of course you have the odd raw tasty snack of a honey drop ant or a wheel bug (Mex), but from what I have seen on discovery channel of Mexico, Thailand, Africa - they are cooked. Tarantulas are cooked over fire, grubs are browned in a pan, fly eggs are lilkewise cooked, scorpions on a skewer - cooked. You get the picture.

Something about the kiwi filled with snot referred to by Olga is truly revolting - and that is exactly what spiders taste like (uncooked). I expect that a well cooked and seasoned spider would tase like a very small dungeness crab - but who knows.

I will leave it up to someone else to test that one out :)

 
yah im with rick i sometimes go on weeklong trips into the wilderness with no food, its kind of comforting to know that if kroger stopped selling food you would be able to survive the old fashioned way. grasshopper meat tastes alot like crab meat imo.

 

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