General / Off-Topic Edible insects?

Robin of Spiritwood

Robin of Spiritwood
BBC's running a story about snack packs in Sainsburys that contain BBQ flavored crickets.

What do you folks in the UK think about this item? Would you give it a go?

This story makes me remember when Marvel Heroes patched and Black Widow got Rolling Grenades as a power, leading a friend to comment:
"OMGWTFBBQ!!!!"

You can see them in action here:

[video=youtube;FYJVVWMl59Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYJVVWMl59Q[/video]

If you've tried the crickets, are they as much fun as that?
 

Frank

Frank
20 years ago I read a story where Global Warming had obliterated farming and we had to eat insects to survive. Welcome to the beginning of that dystopian future.
 

Winterwalker

Winterwalker
I've eaten insects in the far east without a second thought. Nice too.

It might depend what spices you roll them in (I understand the ones on sale are BBQ, I'd prefer spicy personally) but they're not very different from prawns - which I've also eaten whole and unpeeled, possible if they're deep fried enough to make them crunchy.

Crickets with two veg gravy and a yorkshire pudding - I agree would be pretty weird - but they do suit Chinese or Japanese style dishes, which tend to be rice or noodle, low cost carbs with the expensive protein bit mostly in there for flavour or texture. For me this partly explains low rates of obesity - and even cancers despite people smoking like chimneys - in such places.

I approve personally. You can definitely produce more protein with less land, using far less water pound for pound and anything that takes pressure off the land, for me and Sir David Attenborough, has got to be a good thing.
 

Zak Gordon

Zak Gordon
https://www.keepinginsects.com/stick-insect/species/new-guinea-spiny-stick-insect/

I've eaten those (or a variety of those) when out in PNG. The males are pretty aggressive and will grip your finger with their hind legs and squeeze their spines into the flesh, which is a bit painful! These powerful male legs taste like crab when cooked (you boil both male and female to cook them, like lobster).

The females are the real treat though. Think the dinner scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. You peel off the top of the abdomen and inside will find hundreds of eggs. These taste just like the yolk from chicken eggs.

I sent pictures home of them on my dinner plate and my giving a thumbs up. Good tucka as they might say in Australia :)
 

Dural

Dural
Nooooooooo.

Survival situation, yeah I would.

On purpose while there is a choice of what I currently recognise as food available instead, nah, I'll give them a swerve thanks. I'm not the least bit curious about what they taste of.
 

Limoncello Lizard

Limoncello Lizard
I took these in a market in Thailand. Tried them all, except the giant cockroaches.

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Manticore

Manticore
Winterwalker said:
I've eaten insects in the far east...............
Click to expand...

I am there right now; Vietnam.

Walking up and down the local strip of restaurants here the menu includes western foods such as burgers, fries and Italian; and local dishes including:

Frog
Gecko
Crocodile
Ostrich (yes; you read me right).

The local seafood where we are at the moment is superb. I could spend the rest of my life eating Asian breakfasts and not be disappointed.

I've been in Cambodia and Thailand (quite a few times actually) where you get a lot of frog and insect-based foods too.

When in Rome etc...............
 

Robin of Spiritwood

Robin of Spiritwood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiostrongylus_cantonensis

Eating weird stuff implies eating their parasites too.
And if the parasites are not well adapted to humans, there can be irreversible problems. There's a dead Australian boy who ate a slug, and contracted eosinophilic meningitis from rat lungworm, which has a larval stage in freshwater life like frogs, fish, and snails.

Be careful what you eat, and make sure it's well cooked.
 

MottiKhan

MottiKhan
Limoncello Lizard said:
I took these in a market in Thailand. Tried them all, except the giant cockroaches.
Click to expand...

I'd try them once, just to say I did. Maybe just one cockroach though.

I ate ants when I was a kid. Stab a big red ant with a needle and roast it with a bic lighter and it tastes something like bubble gum.

I've seen chocolate covered grasshoppers, but never tried them. They don't seem like they'd be too bad. As long as there's enough chocolate.
 

Winterwalker

Winterwalker
Manticore said:
I think the ostrich is running away..................
Click to expand...

There used to be an ostrich farm near here, UK .. not sure it ever 'caught' on though :p
The 'cutest' thing I ever tried was probably Gazelle, in Nairobi. (Awww, and surprisingly not at all like chicken).

Robin of Spiritwood makes a good point about making sure things are well cooked, at any time of course, with story about a raw slug. Though Snails are quite popular in a certain French country I heard about called France.

Insects as I understand it are generally fried to a crisp, while snails and even mussels are usually served squishy. Still here though, so far so good anyway.
 

Morbad

Morbad
While I'm waiting for the advances that will allow me to throw off the shackles of petty mortal concerns like metabolism, I'll eat whatever makes sense.
 

Deleted member 110222

D
If I depend on it for survival, yes.

No different to eating shrimp or lobster really.

But I will only eat grasshoppers for survival. While there's a choice, I'll stick to mammilain or avian flesh.

And fish. Love fish.
 
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