Frazz by Jef Mallett for March 13, 2019

When I was growing up, I read about a sect in India that had such reverence for life that they always wore cloths over their mouths to prevent swallowing flies even accidentally.

Years later, I lived near and bicycled through a region with a lot of dairy farms. The first time I rode hard enough to need to breathe through my mouth, I swallowed a fly. Never did that again. I immediately became convinced that that sect in India wasn’t doing it out of reverence for life, they were doing it because swallowing flies is nasty.

I’ve seen people roast and eat tarantulas (okay, in a video on Youtube). I don’t think I could do that, but I’ve had a roasted locust (big grasshopper) and that wasn’t too awful. :P

Eating bugs? I just watched them eat a taco made out of meal worms on “Good Mythical Morning” yesterday. The future is now.

Most kids would think that it’s cool to eat bugs. I tried chocolate-covered ants at that age.

Hell, I ate chocolate covered fried grasshoppers when I was discharged from the Army in New York City 60 years ago! Crunchy and tasty. The chocolate covered ants were a bit tart!

I ate a fried grasshopper in high school, back in the mid 1970s. All I remember is that it was crunchy. And it grossed out the other students in maths.

Eating insects isn’t that bad. Just make sure to remove the wings as they gets stuck in your throat.

Heck I did that walking to work one morning. I had a BIG yawn and GULP – breakfast. At least it went down so fast that I didn’t taste it.

There’s probably insect pieces in the bread we eat. I was on the wheat harvest and the bugs went in with the wheat.

My cousin was stationed in Okinawa. He sent me a can of fried crickets (or were they grasshoppers, now that you mention it? No , I’m pretty sure they were crickets.) They tasted like salt free potato chips.

Insects can be processed into a more appealing form.

Humans WERE bug eaters! Our teeth evolved to eat bugs. . . .you think there was McDonalds and Outback Steakhouse in prehistoric times?

The recipe books don’t give one much in the way of ideas.

In reality if this logical and economical approach is to ever widely be adopted as anything other than a “fad” food (ie… I ate a candied grasshopper on a dare sort of thing), I think it will have to be that the insects are harvested, dried, and ground into a fine powder to use like a “flour” of sorts for baking and making more traditional foods (breads, cakes, etc.).

It still seems rather nauseating to think about, but I think that approach could work.

its the worms and caterpillars that I couldn’t stomach

You are what you eat.

If ‘you are what you eat’, then what is a squirrel? The world awaits. . .

We seem to have a common theme here today – https://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater/2019/03/13?ct=v&cti=1564158

I read about a place in Mexico where they make stink bug salsa.

The toasted crickets and grasshoppers I was offered as a bar snack in Laos tasted like a cross between barbequed shrimp, and Fritos corn chips.

How do you recognize a happy motorcyclist? Look for the guy with bugs on his teeth!

“Soylent Blue – it’s made from BUGS!”

St. John the Baptist ate locusts, aka grasshoppers.

“This looks like a good place to rustle up some grub!”“What is it?”“What else – a GRUB!”Bee larvae are actually pretty good. Steamed ant eggs were bitter and not very appetizing. (I lived in SE Asia for a few years.)

In survival training had to learn how to catch insects and eat them even taught how to prepare trantuala on a stick over a fire until all the hairs are burnt off .

In late August there is a good chance that the bugs may be “air fried.”

I ate grasshopper tacos at Oyamel. Not bad, perhaps thanks to the seasoning.

As a little kid, I habitually swallowed live ants.

I’m sure that similar thoughts were expressed in the past by people about eating lobsters and crabs. Hunger is a great equalizer.

“The Argyle Sweater” has a similar theme: https://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater/2019/03/13

Frazz17 hrs ·

I’m one of the rare culinary adventurers who can’t trace it all back to Anthony Bourdain’s TV show. But that’s only because I trace it back farther, to Anthony Bourdain’s books. Probably other books and influences as well, but once a personality like Bourdain gets involved, you’re not going to remember any of the other players so well.

Often, when I go to a really nice new restaurant, I’ll seek out the most disturbing thing on the menu and trust that good restaurant to live up to its reputation and cook it right. So it was a while back that I dined at La Noria in Detroit and ate grasshoppers. That’s a staple in some regions of Mexico, and indeed, the object of much writing about the future of food. I had for some time been interested in trying it, plus there’s something especially satisfying about eating something whose distant ancestors ate all my distant ancestors’ crops and left them to starve.

For anyone still reading, grasshoppers are not bad on a pizza. I myself wouldn’t have put so many on — they’re salty — but it wasn’t bad. Taste is a hard thing to label, but it had a strong resemblance to matcha tea. Really crunchy matcha tea.

And for anyone STILL reading, I’d say it’s worth trying. But put a thing of dental floss in your pocket. You get one of those bugs’ legs between your teeth, it is not coming out with a mere toothpick. And you’re going to want it out. Next bug I try, I’m thinking maybe something with cricket flour. That ought to take care of the leg problem.

shrimp are related to cockroaches, crabs related to spiders, etc., crustaceans are the insects of the sea