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Entomophagy: Eating Insects / Insects As Food

Please assure me, o larval vamp, that the illumination in your lair is derived from a lava lamp.

I'll suggest it the next time the lab manager puts out a request for equipment?

However, when I used to dip them in liquid nitrogen prior to grinding them up, I suspect I looked a lot like this:
1612110961749.png
 
Now that cicadas are starting to emerge in North America it's timely to consider their utility as food items. According to this university professor they're quite tasty.
'Going to be a delicacy': If you've ever wanted to eat a cicada, your time is coming

When you think of cicadas you might not think 'yum, I'd eat that!' But, if you were wondering, you can and many people do.

And with an influx of the 17-year bugs reappearing, it may just be the opportunity for you to try them for yourselves.

In fact, the University of Maryland has even put together an entire cookbook of recipes just for cicadas.

"Cicadas have one of the longest lifespans of any insects - termite queens are actually longer, they can live 20 years - but in terms of time underground, 17 or 13 years, as far as I know, is the longest period of development of any insect, the longest developmental period of any insect," Professor Michael J. Raupp says. ...

Raupp is a professor at the University of Maryland in the Entomology Department and runs his own website, 'Bug of the Week.' ...

"They're safe to eat, I'll certainly be snacking on cicadas, there are many recipes," he said. "One of my favorites, of course, is the soft-shelled cicadas. Just after they mold, their skin is soft like a soft-shelled crab, and to me, that's a pretty good way to sample what a cicada tastes like."

Raupp says a good place to start is the cookbook written by Jenna Jadin and the University of Maryland 'Cicadamaniacs,' known as 'Cicada-licious,' which was written in 2004 and includes some "interesting recipes for preparing cicadas." ...

He adds that he doesn't understand people who find eating cicadas disgusting but eat food like oysters and clams.

"I wonder if you know what oysters and clams do for a living - they sit at the bottom of the bay filtering you know what out of the water, and I find it bizarre that somebody would eat that thing raw, but they wouldn't eat a cicada nymph that's been sucking on plant sap for 17 years," he said. "What is that about?" ...

FULL STORY: https://wjactv.com/news/offbeat/eating-cicadas-recipes-time-coming
 
The 2004 cicada cookbook Cicada-licious by Jenna Jadin is available online:

Slideshow Version:
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/12014254/cicada-licious

PDF Download:
http://www.tullabs.com/cicadaworld/cicadarecipes.pdf
Hmm just what the cicada needs, after spending up to 17 years reaching sexual maturity, in finally emerges from deep underground, it begins its search for a mate, and ends up in a sandwich :(
I would say, eating insects that have a much shorter life cycle is a lot better for the enviroment.
 
At least a bacon sarnie only involves one pig. Those monsters want you to marinade 60 living bugs in sauce for hours, then fry them while still alive!

Where are the screams of outrage and the digital lynch mob?

:rolleyes:

maximus otter
 
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Once they emerge, they don't live very long. Just long enough to have a big orgy.
 
I've eaten my share of bugs when living in Thailand.


Just kinda crunchy...never saw much point.
 
The EU food safety agency has approved yellow mealworms (insect larvae) as safe to eat.

Update ... The EU has now approved mealworms for sale in supermarkets and restaurants.
Food of the future? EU nations put mealworms on the menu

Dried yellow mealworms could soon be hitting supermarket shelves and restaurants across Europe.

The European Union’s 27 nations gave the greenlight Tuesday to a proposal to put the Tenebrio molitor beetle’s larvae on the market as a “novel food.”

The move came after the EU’s food safety agency published a scientific opinion this year that concluded worms were safe to eat. Researchers said the worms, either eaten whole or in powdered form, are a protein-rich snack or an ingredient for other foods.
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/europe-worms-science-business-oddities-c12bf770addd95eed248a0deee5e5d95
 
Will people get trampled in the rush to buy these things? Maybe not.
 
Mealtime mealworms - kinda rolls off the tongue doesn't it..
 
I've eaten many things, sheep's tripe (nice) and lungs (not so nice), goat's brain (very nice), raw oysters (lush) and will try almost anything. I love those tiny dried fish and shrimps you can buy in Asian supermarkets, they are great cooked.

When it comes to insects I understand the logic of the nutritional value, the ease of farming them and it being analogous to eating sea creatures like prawns and shrimp but still .... NO.
 
This news article provides an overview of the emerging and growing insect foods marketing apace.
What pairs with beetle? Startups seek to make bugs tasty

Tiziana Di Costanzo makes pizza dough from scratch, mixing together flour, yeast, a pinch of salt, a dash of olive oil and something a bit more unusual — ground acheta domesticus, better known as cricket powder.

Di Costanzo is an edible insect entrepreneur who holds cricket and mealworm cooking classes at her West London home, where she also raises the critters in a backyard shed with her husband, Tom Mohan.

Her startup, Horizon Insects, is part of Europe’s nascent edible insect scene, which features dozens of bug-based businesses offering cricket chips in the Czech Republic, bug burgers in Germany and Belgian beetle beer. The European Union headquarters in Brussels is also backing research into insect-based proteins as part of a broader sustainable food strategy. ...
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/sports-europe-business-science-beetles-7d8435386a89120a4637ca3be023c73b
 
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