# I finally started eating insects **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 28, 2013, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730 "2013-07-28T11:04:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Girlundone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Girlundone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girlundone)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/21 "2013-07-28T22:50:07Z")
[QUOTE=araminty] You don’t want to eat hissing roaches. They store nitrogenous compounds in their tissue to deter predation - think urea/ammonia. Not tasty to humans. [/QUOTE] Great…_now_ you tell me… [QUOTE=Leaffan] I would try it, maybe, on a dare or something. But why? I mean, did you run out of “normal” food or something? [/QUOTE] I dont know why Mangetout did it, but I actually think it’s pretty cool to push past an aversion that is based on cultural conditioning. ETA…we cross posted. I do see why Mangetout did it now. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/22 "2013-07-29T00:44:58Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > So, **Mangetout,** you’re living up to your name. 😉 I know, right? **Man, Get Out** of here! 😃 > [@Girlundone](#): > > Ok…but are they considered meat? Yeah during Lent/Fridays, bugs are okay. If you’re Jewish and kosher, only locusts are allowed. I guess the ancient Jews realized, locusts are dicks, and we can make an exception for these bastards. I think if you’re less strict about your diet, grasshoppers might be okay? (Since the Torah/Talmud isn’t so specific). I could’ve had cricket sushi, but I pussed out. No, not at the insect, but that they wanted to take pictures for their website mid-munch and I value my soul. I did eat a mealworm once. Re: the OP: yes, there was beer. > [@Filbert](#): > > I’m an insect-eating vegetarian, so there’s at least one around 😃 Put 100 vegetarians in a room, and you have 100 insect eaters. You’re just the only one who admits/knows it. Remember kids, the FDA considers at least 1 insect per 50 grams of cornmeal, or 25 insect parts per 25 grams to be two much. But 20 chunks and you’re good! [Obligatory link](http://www.thesneeze.com/2005/steve-dont-eat-it---silkworm-pupas.php) (mmm… silkworm pupae) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/23 "2013-07-29T12:11:08Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Put 100 vegetarians in a room, and you have 100 insect eaters. You’re just the only one who admits/knows it. Remember kids, the FDA considers at least 1 insect per 50 grams of cornmeal, or 25 insect parts per 25 grams to be two much. But 20 chunks and you’re good! Well, it’s 100% of \*everyone \*really, isn’t it? But really, we’re talking about intentional consumption. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/24 "2013-07-29T14:11:15Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I don’t really like handling most insects/spiders - I’ll grab a housefly to throw it out of the window (actually, I feed them to my gerbils), but big house spiders are usually a glass and postcard job for me - not so much because I’m scared of them, just because they’re fast and squirmy. > > I’ve caught and eaten quite a variety of crustaceans, and have eaten many more varieties in a restaurant setting, but although intellectually, it’s easy to say that there’s no logical difference between eating a cricket and eating a shrimp, in a culture where it’s not normal, putting that intellectual logic into practice is quite a different matter. > > It’s definitely easier after the first time. I purposely used alcohol both to lubricate my inhibitions, and on standby to wash down my first insect if it turned out to be nasty. > My biggest fear was that the outside would be tough like a bit of popcorn shell and the inside would be semi-liquid and squirty. At least in the case of fried mealworms and grasshoppers, neither fear was realised - they’re gently crispy with a slight meaty-protein chewy-ness to them - as I say, crispy chicken or duck skin is the nearest analogue I can think of - or maybe the crispy edge of a thin pancake. > > Now I’ve broken the barrier, I’m really looking forward to including more insects in my diet - in fact I went out at dusk this evening and caught a load more grasshoppers (they’re in the freezer now). I’m not really keen to try some things - for example, I saw Bear Grylls eat a live longhorn beetle - and it didn’t look like that was in any way pleasant. Anthropologist Marvin Harris, in his book _Good to eat/the Sacred Cow and the Abominable pig_, makes the point that the insects and arthropods that get eaten the most are those that are easily caught, contain a lot of edible muscle tissue, and (as a byline, really) don’t carry disease. You CAN eat ants, but, unless you’re out on the savannah and there’s nothing else, they’re not a good bargain – they’re mostly chitin and little meat, and they bite and sting. As pointed out above, cockroaches aren’t chemically welcoming. Also, despite David George Gordon’s giving a recipe for centipede, most of them aren’t really edible, either. What is edible is, for instance, the grasshopper, which you’ve got. They have a prodigious muscle for jumping. Silkworm larvae were good eating, mainly because they have a lot of muscle tissue and they were a ready byproduct of silk manufacture (kind of like the British eating mutton as a byproduct of the wool industry). Insects that are mostly “goop” and “bug juice” don’t really provide a lot of nutrition. but Giant Water Bugs in Southeast Asia are both big and well0muscled. They eat them like tiny lobsters, pulling the meat out with tiny bamboo picks. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/25 "2013-07-29T14:26:05Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > And beaver and muskrat. I thought the muskrat dispensation only applied to Catholics in southeastern Michigan. Also, capybara is okay for Lent (not sure if it’s only in some places or universally.) ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/26 "2013-07-29T15:00:12Z")
Crickets are a delicacy in a part of Japan that I used to live in and when we compiled a recipe book from a bunch of English students, we got Inago Tsukudani recipes. The students all said to catch the crickets and leave them in a paper bag or cardboard box overnight to allow them to empty their guts first. They don’t freeze them first, the advice was to tip them out of the bag and get the lid on quick!!! tsukudani is usually done with soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar and sometims a bit of hot chilli pepper, and is more often used with small inch or so long fish. You pan fry the things, then add the flavouring and continue stirring and mixing till the whole thing has gone sticky and coated the fish/crickets so there’s no liquid left but it hasn’t burned. They keep in the fridge several weeks after that. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/27 "2013-07-29T16:14:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Anthropologist Marvin Harris, in his book _Good to eat/the Sacred Cow and the Abominable pig_, makes the point that the insects and arthropods that get eaten the most are those that are easily caught, contain a lot of edible muscle tissue, and (as a byline, really) don’t carry disease. You CAN eat ants, but, unless you’re out on the savannah and there’s nothing else, they’re not a good bargain – they’re mostly chitin and little meat, and they bite and sting. As pointed out above, cockroaches aren’t chemically welcoming. Also, despite David George Gordon’s giving a recipe for centipede, most of them aren’t really edible, either. > > What is edible is, for instance, the grasshopper, which you’ve got. They have a prodigious muscle for jumping. Silkworm larvae were good eating, mainly because they have a lot of muscle tissue and they were a ready byproduct of silk manufacture (kind of like the British eating mutton as a byproduct of the wool industry). Insects that are mostly “goop” and “bug juice” don’t really provide a lot of nutrition. but Giant Water Bugs in Southeast Asia are both big and well0muscled. They eat them like tiny lobsters, pulling the meat out with tiny bamboo picks. Larvae and pupae are a good bet - as long as they’re not toxic or noxious (so in general, the ones that are protected by being hidden away underground, or deep inside timber, etc) - as they’ve spent a lifetime collecting food reserves for their adult form. Anything else where the adult form is ephemeral (cicadas, mayflies) is probably also a good bet, if you catch them as soon as they emerge, and especially if (as with the aforementioned) their strategy is to overwhelm predators by sheer weight of numbers, rather than to be poisonous. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/28 "2013-07-29T20:45:16Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Larvae and pupae are a good bet - as long as they’re not toxic or noxious (so in general, the ones that are protected by being hidden away underground, or deep inside timber, etc) - as they’ve spent a lifetime collecting food reserves for their adult form. > Anything else where the adult form is ephemeral (cicadas, mayflies) is probably also a good bet, if you catch them as soon as they emerge, and especially if (as with the aforementioned) their strategy is to overwhelm predators by sheer weight of numbers, rather than to be poisonous. I don’t think you’ll get much meat off a mayfly – It’s a chitin sheath wrapped around a reproductive system and enough muscle to run the wings. But Cicadas might be a good bet. My cat used to catch them. ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/29 "2013-07-29T21:18:26Z")
I’ve heard about the economic promise and culinary benefits of insect cuisine before, but it didn’t work out too well for Stephen Fry when he tried to sell the idea on his panel show, QI: [- YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbgybUgFbyE) ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/30 "2013-07-29T21:44:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I don’t think you’ll get much meat off a mayfly – It’s a chitin sheath wrapped around a reproductive system and enough muscle to run the wings. But Cicadas might be a good bet. My cat used to catch them. Adult mayflies aren’t even capable of eating, as their guts don’t work and they don’t live long enough for it to matter. But they get 2x the genitals! Cicadas are edible, and apparently pretty good. Some claim they taste like shrimp… You just might have to wait for many, many years to eat some species. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/31 "2013-07-29T22:09:58Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Adult mayflies aren’t even capable of eating, as their guts don’t work and they don’t live long enough for it to matter. But they get 2x the genitals! Their lack of mouthparts means that the emerging adults must contain sufficient stored energy for their nuptual flight, mating and the laying of many eggs (itself an energetic task - the female dips repeatedly onto the water surface and back up again, dropping the eggs one at a time) - having caught and examined mayflies, I’ve found them quite energetically squirmy in the abdomen - they’re not insubstantial organisms for their size. I maintain that if a sufficiently easy method existed of catching them soon after their emergence as adults (especially if the females are still loaded with eggs), they would be a worthwhile food source - after all, trout grow fat on them. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/32 "2013-07-29T22:30:17Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Cicadas are edible, and apparently pretty good. Some claim they taste like shrimp… You just might have to wait for many, many years to eat some species. When we had our last big wave of cicadas a few years ago, I caught one and dunked it into some boiling water to have a taste. They don’t remind me of shrimp at all, but they were not bad. It reminded me of almonds, grass, and canned asparagus. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/33 "2013-07-29T22:32:28Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I don’t think you’ll get much meat off a mayfly – It’s a chitin sheath wrapped around a reproductive system and enough muscle to run the wings. But Cicadas might be a good bet. My cat used to catch them. Yesterday my sister made cupcakes. When I picked one of the cupcakes up out of the pan to eat it, there was a dead mayfly-type insect stuck to the wrapper (it must’ve gotten in there, alive or dead, before the baking process, and consequently got baked, along with the cupcakes.) The dead insect reminded me of this thread, but I didn’t eat it. I just picked it off the wrapper (it hadn’t touched the actual cake) and ate the cupcake. Come to think of it, the bug might’ve been more nutritious than the cake. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/34 "2013-07-30T04:05:25Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > Our Thai Bar is….you guessed it…inspired by Thailand, and Thai cuisine, which includes a wide variety of insects in creative recipes. Like the Chapul team, Thais are particularly enthusiastic about crickets, aka “jing leed” – deep-fried crickets with a bit of soy sauce and pepper. What better to accompany a cold Singha on a steamy afternoon in Phuket? Somewhat surprisingly, given the tropical climate, Thailand also faces significant water resource challenges…the country has a quarter to a half of the freshwater resources per capita as its neighbors, a damagingly high level of industrial and agricultural pollution, and regularly suffers from drought in the north and northeast. Chapul’s Thai Bar is a delicious mix of coconut, ginger and a tangy hint of lime. After a few Thai bars, you’ll be looking up jing leed recipes for your next dinner party… Actually, it’s mostly northeastern Thais who eat insects. The other Thais including my Bangkok-born and -bred wife disdain the practice, to say the least. That includes natives in Phuket, which is in the South. But you will find bug carts around the country, mostly to serve the Northeasterners, who are the country’s chronic itinerant laborers, everything from construction to prostitution. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/35 "2013-07-30T12:58:23Z")
I feel deceived. After all these years of assuming **Mangetout** ate everything, turns out that’s not the case. I think the mods should change his handle to **Presqu’Mangetout**. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/36 "2013-07-30T17:06:34Z")
Indigenous Australians in the southern Alps once used to gather to harvest bogong moths in the summer. They were roasted over fires, and the taste has been described as buttery and delicious. Hmm. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/37 "2013-07-30T18:30:57Z")
Next on the list for me woodlice ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/38 "2013-07-30T20:06:54Z")
Roly poly bugs? Oh, ick! They’re so…grey. StG ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/39 "2013-07-30T20:31:49Z")
I reckon they’ll turn pink on cooking - they’re crustaceans. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730/40 "2013-07-30T21:30:01Z")
Sounds… crunchy. As far as I know, [iridovirus](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=820&q=pill+bug+iridovirus&oq=pill+bug+iridovirus&gs_l=img.3...1008.8558.0.8685.29.17.3.9.0.0.206.1669.13j3j1.17.0....0...1ac.1.23.img..12.17.1469.9q65WXkU5DI) is not harmful to humans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-finally-started-eating-insects/664730.md?page=3)