Another Spotlight on Insect Cuisine

Recently, I went to an actual gathering where insects were being served as food. It was put on by one of UT's first year study classes whose topic was "A Bug's Life". As I ventured down to the room where everyone was gathered to begin their entomological feast, I promised myself I would try atleast one thing with a bug in it. After all, I had blogged about this exact thing not too long ago and what kind of true blogger would I be if couldn't live up to my claim that eating insects is healthy and good for the environment too? Well, after perusing all of my options, (here's just a sampling: mealworm apple pie, grub stew, and veggies with some other kind of insect thrown in) I focused in on the one option I thought I might be able to choke down: chocolate chirp cookies. A lone cricket fixed to the chocolate cookie by a dab of frosting - I mean, there's just so much chocolate that I won't even be able to taste it, right? Wrong. Well wrong in the sense that I'll never know the answer to that question because I just couldn't make myself bite down on that cricket. He just looked so sad. And crunchy. So unfortunately I cannot tell you guys first hand about my own entomophagic experience. But I can tell you more about how it's a new craze that just may become a more viable option in the future (if I can just get over my squeamishness). A recent article from San Francisco Weekly's website talks about how in San Francisco there is quite a movement towards the consumption of insects. Don Bugito, a new mobile street food vendor manned by Monica Martinez features insects being cooked in a Hispanic style. Her signature dish is waxworm larvae tacos! Danielle Martin, an entomophagist from the San Mateo district loves cooking bugs and aspires to host her own insect cooking show. Besides the claims that these insect dishes are delicious, there's also the fact that eating insects really may be better for our environment. A large amount of insects can be reared on the same amount of plant matter as one cow; they also don't release methane or consume large amounts of water. Plus keeping a bug farm would be relatively clean and efficient compared to meat farms. Some of the problems with eating bugs on a regular basis are that buying bugs can be pretty expensive (though if there were a higher demand for them then it makes sense that the price would start to lower), some exoskeletons of bugs can be very susceptible to accumulating biohazardous material such as lead or some other contamination. But the article points out, that the biggest obstacle may be with our own culture's deep seated revulsion to eating insects... and we're back to my inability to eat one chocolate chirp cookie. Until we conquer this idea that insects are nasty and gross to eat, then unfortunately they are not going to become a viable option anytime soon. :(

P.S. And if somehow my article miraculously managed to make you want to cook and eat your own insects then check out this awesome bug cookbook. I'm buying one (maybe, if I get up the courage)..