Entomophagy -- it's all the rage

Posted: June 2nd, 2008 - 8:36pm by Doug Powell

The practice of people eating insects, that is.

The New Zealand Herald reports that scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico have catalogued 1,700 different species and found that bugs are eaten in at least 113 countries worldwide.

David George Gordon, a Seattle-based naturalist and author, said,

"Insects are the most valuable, underused and delicious animals in the world,"  and the West "is one the few cultures" that doesn't eat them. "Maybe we are the weirdos."

A plate of maguey worms - larvae of a giant butterfly - sell for NZ$31.50 in smart Mexican restaurants (right).

Sago grubs wrapped in banana leaves are a delicacy in Papua New Guinea.

Large leafcutter ants are popular in Colombia.
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Categories: Raw Food, Wacky and Weird
Tags: Insects

Comments

Amy Hubbell says:

I saw a travel show about the unseen Mexico in which the tour guide offers this dish to her clients. The tourists said the peppers were so hot that you didn't notice the worms.

Posted on June 3rd, 2008 - 7:00am

Coronella Keiper says:

A man who went to a jungle area of the world and came back reported to the Bible Study class that the teenage young man who was paddling the canoe from one village to another spotted a very large spider, so pulled over, got out, killed it, made a fire, roasted it, and ate it.I asked the obvious: What did it taste like? But the man who had gone on a working vacation said that he didn't know; he hadn't even taken a little taste of this nutritious delicacy!So, I googled it, and in one place these spiders, which love to eat insects which eat fruit, are said to taste like bananas, but in another place they are reported by people who eat them to taste like mangos.. You get the idea.Sounds good.

Posted on June 13th, 2008 - 5:10pm

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