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I don't mean wild bugs by accident (I'm sure we've all done that at one point in our lives).


I mean bugs actually cooked or sold as food items.



My sister went to a Girl Scout camp with one of her friends and friend's daughter down in South Carolina this weekend. I got a nice little sea shell knick-knack out of it and this:









Now the question is: Should I try one?


What does Dakka OT think?

I've had something similar to those, bbq flavored beetles or something. They really aren't that crazy, in fact there is barely anything to em but an unusual texture.

Had some crickets and mealworms a few years back; more novelty treats than actual food, a bit like what you've got there. Mine were salt and vinegar and cajun seasoning, respectively.

They weren't bad! I'm actually quite excited about the idea of them becoming a more common foodstuff. A bit dry, a bit leggy in the case of the crickets, but not bad. The mealworms were a little better, kind of a buttery, nutty flavor to them as I recall.

They were both a lot of fun to eat in front of unsuspecting people, too. The crickets got tucked into a notebook during a study session and the mealworms found their way into a handful of french fries. Got some great reactions out of it.

Aye, bugs are a bit too grissly, though that's down to how they're prepared. Grubs for one have a bit of a ..."pop".

Me? Not since I was a kid camping with hillbilly looking types (strange youth). My uncle worked for a bit in China and turned his nose up at them due to his Western palette, but the locals were pretty into them.

There is a hotdog place here that offers crickets as a topping.

EW! BUGS!!!
It is not food fit for civilised folks so you normally should not eat it. Only do it if you want to gross people out for fun or something like that.

On the other hand... by eating bugs you reduce world bug population! Great idea! You should eat more bugs! All bugs all the time!
Just don't get anywhere close to me... I hate bugs

Well, I tried them (finally). They really didn't have much flavor to them, except a hint of sour cream and onion (like a stale Pringle).


Not something I would do often. And not as gross as I figured they would be.

I ate bugs in the military as a part of survival training in America and some other countries. But nothing since then.

Yikes.

My wife bought my a lollipop with a scorpion embedded in it for christmas. I couldn't bring myself to eat it, but my friend from Texas said they were popular there.

I think that's as far as I've gotten, intentionally. I know there are a lot of great arguments for why insects are an ideal food source in terms of resources consumed for protein out, but... ugh, I can't do it.



Those crickets are on Amazon for $4.50, btw, if anyone wants to try them and can't find them locally.

Eaten plenty of bugs intentionally.

Also ate rabbit eyeballs, 'cause SERE is just a barrel of laughs.

 oldravenman3025 wrote:
What does Dakka OT think?

Nope.

Never tried them, but would be willing to sample anything that is A) dead, B) cooked, C) not a spider.

Does escargot count?

I've eaten jellyfish, sea urchins, crab's brains, sea snail sushi, and escargots. They wouldn't all be my first choice for a second portion.

I would be up for a nice locust or something if it was cooked and presented in an attractive manner.

Lobsters are technically bugs:

Jellyfish is great stuff, but I didn't think it fit in the "bugs" category. Same with Sea Urchin and Sea Cucumber, which I will happily eat. Crustaceans, OTOH, yeah, big bugs, but I didn't think they were part of the intent.

Ive eaten witchetty grubs and honey ants and moreton bay bugs. Though moreton bay bugs are a crustacean not a real bug lol.

Yeah I've ate a few cooked and seasoned bugs before. They range from decent to no taste but the seasoning.

I ate larva and bugs while I was surviving for a month in the wilderness....

That was fun.

Bark and bugs.... Ugh. Still can remember the taste.

But I remember eating chocolate covered ants and spiders!

Those were delicious!

There was a study that found that people eat bugs in their sleep.

http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-23997,00.html

Deep fried bugs are like chicken nuggets.

Good thing the Cicadas are coming! And to a dog, it's like the world is raining nuggets!

Cooked bugs are gross but cooked mammal is not?

I've eaten seasoned crickets and meal worm. Taste like the seasoning, really.

It seems that I might need to make an honest attempt to broaden my culinary horizons.


But some things will be no-go for me, like spiders and worms.

I ate French garlic snails back in school, do they count? Had a rubbery mushroom like texture. The best part was all the chavs in the class were too chicken to try it out.

Those are awesome, taste exactly like sunflower seeds. Only problem is the legs get stuck in your teeth.

cooked locusts/crickets are fine and i'd eat them again if offered

ants are pretty awful and I wouldn;'t touch (although i'd try honey ants) as they taste bad and have so much carapace you can't remove to catch in the throat

I have eaten tons of bugs in the wild, not by accident either Survival training is a blast. I prefer crickets to the more...juicy bugs. When all you have to eat for a few days is what your able to catch, you quickly learn to stop being picky

Nothing special compared to shrimp or crayfish. But I would not eat grasshoppers. I would immediately throw up that. Not because they are not tasty or toxic but because it was not "normal".

 Freakazoitt wrote:
Nothing special compared to shrimp or crayfish. But I would not eat grasshoppers. I would immediately throw up that. Not because they are not tasty or toxic but because it was not "normal".

Trust me they are way better then grubs or earth worms.

I've eaten grasshoppers cooked over a fire with peanut butter which wasn't bad, it would actually tasted good but my brain kept refusing to admit that eating a bug could be "good". The fire burns off the wings which I'd advise and also pull off the lower legs first as they are pokey. Outside of that they are on the crunchy and the flavor isn't bad., with chocolate or peanut butter they can be pretty good.