Eating Insects

I've had ants and crickets. The ants were store bought candies. The crickets were homemade by a coworkers mom. Both were good.

Anyone else eat bugs?

closest thing to a bug i'll eat is a lobster or crab

About a pound a year, as do most Americans.

Everyone has eaten bug (parts)! There is some in every grain, processed vegetable that you buy.

I had chocolate covered ants. So long ago I don't really remember. I would certainly try any properly prepared, except maybe roaches, spiders......

I've had protein bars made with cricket flour. Got them at the hippie grocery store near me. They weren't that great.

max384 said:

About a pound a year, as do most Americans.

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You ride. You flip up that visor and you get bonus bugs.

I took one this spring that sounded like a rock on my visor.

And what I mean is on purpose, you jack wagons.

Ate a tarantula in Cambodia ...legs were a bit crispy and the body was a tad fishy

schematix said:

closest thing to a bug i'll eat is a lobster or crab

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Not even that for me.

Nope.

I got dried crickets in China or Japan. Flavor was OK, but the idea was not. After a sample from the bag, I was done. Jiminy.

I've eaten crickets, grasshoppers, meal worms, grubs (part of survival training), accidentally swallowed a fly once; and ate part of a tarantula (leg) when the author of this insect cookbook:
http://www.thriftbooks.com/w/eat-a-...n=0898159776&pcrid=70112897712&pkw=&pmt=&plc=
cooked up the tarantula during an interview. He fried it, so it tasted mostly just greasy & chitinous. The grubs were cooked & headless, learned to leave the heads with meal worms; way too tough & crunchy, so are legs. I might try some exotic insect dish at some point, but other than that, not unless I was starving.

I've had seasoned larva and dried crickets (I think). Bought them at a candy store in an amusement park. They weren't very good. Dry and mostly flavorless. Like eating cardboard pieces with pickling powder sprinkled on.

I'm down for it if anyone wants to share some with me and promise I won't get sick from it. I'm not necessarily going to go out and hunt down some bugs for the fun of it. I think that could be identified as the first event that indicated my eventual decline into insanity.

I'm a pretty adventurous eater, but I have a mental block against eating bugs. I know they do it around the world without incident, but I can't get rid of the mental image of having to pick legs and exoskeleton out of my teeth afterwards.

I do this as a kids science thing - on paper non eating them in indefensible if you're ok with eating meat. I make Cajun fried buffalo worms, mealworm brittle and cricket brownies. The buffalo worms are the most popular. I'd eat them regularly if my other half didn't object so much. Next year I plan to try cooking with drone larvae from my bees.

Now I have a craving for mealworm brittle...

I think I'd be okay with eating bugs if they're not still bug-shaped when I eat them; I've heard of places where people catch thousands of tiny flies with nets and then press them together into patties that they then fry up, for example.

It's like the old saying, "Insects is best!"

Homercidal said:

It's like the old saying, "Insects is best!"

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Ouch! That pun HURT!!! :rockin::rockin::rockin:

I've had fried crickets on a sushi roll. It tasted like any other fried food.

There's a beetle (name starts with ch or something) that is used to provide the red coloring in a lot of foods like jello and macaroni + cheese. I've seen it listed right on the ingredients (it doesn't say "beetle", just the unrecognizable name).

passedpawn said:

There's a beetle (name starts with ch or something) that is used to provide the red coloring in a lot of foods like jello and macaroni + cheese. I've seen it listed right on the ingredients (it doesn't say "beetle", just the unrecognizable name).

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I had to look it up to remember. It's Cochineal (sp?). Dried bugs from South America.

Mud bugs count? I luv them!

Never intentionally.

As long as there are still pigs, cows, chickens, and fish I don't have to.

"Cockroach might taste like pumpkin pie but I wouldn't know 'cause I'll never eat the filthy m!%$@&ker"

passedpawn said:

There's a beetle (name starts with ch or something) that is used to provide the red coloring in a lot of foods like jello and macaroni + cheese. I've seen it listed right on the ingredients (it doesn't say "beetle", just the unrecognizable name).

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Cochineal. It's really just bug juice. They squish the bugs & use the liquid as a "natural" dye. It's in pink grapefruit juice, candies, sauces, all sorts of things. Most people haven't a clue they're eating/drinking the bodily fluids of insects when they consume products that contain "cochineal extract."
Regards, GF.