Insects! page

[Cal.]

I'm very new to the PB life. I've been removing all non-PB items from my kitchen (by eating them ) over the past two weeks and am now down to the basics (on a budget) and loving it.

When preparing dinner yesterday evening a small insect scuttled out of the broccoli. I instantly (instinctually) squashed and removed it. Less than a second after this event I was thinking "I wonder what that would have tasted like?" and was actually hoping for another one to appear so I could try it.

I burst out laughing and wondered if that episode allows me full entry to the PB Club?

[joelwlcx]

Doesn't hurt to try... Remember, hunter-gatherers would/will collect bugs to supplement their diets.

[DFH]

I ate a scorpion in Singapore. It was fried on a cracker. It tasted like a fried cracker.

[dragonmamma]

I'd have to be really, really hungry to eat bugs. Either that or be with a group that was eating them; I think that would be a major psychological component of getting over the gag reflex.

[Lily Marie]

I wish I wasn't taught to be grossed out by bugs. I know that they are a natural part of my diet.

When I did an extended green juice fast, I didn't wash my veggies and I'm 99% sure I drank quite a bit of bug juice - haha
I still couldn't pick one up and crunch it, though.

[Diana Renata]

I'm a mealworm farmer. They're interesting. Not tons of flavor, but a neat little treat. It takes a lot of bugs to make a meal, however.

FWIW... they do taste better cooked.

[Aly]

It won't hurt to try. Just make sure it isn't poisonous. You have to know what you're eating. Go outside, collect a couple dozen bugs--grasshoppers, earthworms, catepillars--go on the internet, so a visual search on them on a bug website (maybe something like bugguide.net) and do a 'poison check'. After that, eat away at any non poisonous bugs!

But the golden rule of bug eating: do not eat any brightly-colored bugs. They are almost certainly poisonous.

Edit: I'd only suggest doing this is your own backyard though and only if you don't spray your yard with pesticides or herbicides. Also, here's an awesome article from Mark about insects: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/edible-bugs/

[spughy]

I ate lots of mosquitoes as a child, just because it grossed out my friends. (yeah, I was that kind of a kid - and to make it worse, I *still* do it, and I'm nearly 39). They don't taste like anything. The Bug Zoo here has lots of insect-based treats but they all have sugar in them so I don't eat them.

[Winterbike]

I'm a mealworm farmer. They're interesting. Not tons of flavor, but a neat little treat. It takes a lot of bugs to make a meal, however.

FWIW... they do taste better cooked.

I wanted to thank you for the info you gave me on starting a farm, the worms I got from the petshop are mostly adult beetles now, in a couple of months I'll have my own supply of bugs! Yay! Even the wife is starting to get on board and she said she would at least taste them.

[gojirama]

Thinkgeek has their toasted giant leafcutter ants on sale right now.