Screwdriver story. A screwdriver is perhaps the most popular hand tool
You may not believe it, but insects are edible. What do they taste like and why are some types regularly eaten in many countries around the world? We will learn about this from the materials of the next publication.
Cicada
This type of insect is eaten not only in Asian countries, but also in many parts of the United States. Cicadas practically do not crawl to the surface; they live deep underground and feed on the sap of the roots. They can live up to 17 years, periodically crawling to the surface to reproduce. At this time, many people eagerly await their prey, because they need to catch the insect before the shell hardens. Cicadas can be boiled, fried, or eaten with a side dish. They are valued for their low calorie content and high protein content (up to 40%).
In nature, there is also an annual (one-year) cicada, which is much easier to catch. Despite its name, it functions from 2 to 7 years. The insect tastes like asparagus or potatoes.
Dragonfly
In Indonesia, people practice eating dragonflies, mainly as a medicinal measure. They are fried or boiled. They catch dragonflies while they are hunting mosquitoes, and to do this they arm themselves with palm tree sticks dipped in sticky sap. Dragonflies taste like the soft shell of a crab.
Ant eggs
The following dish is popular in Mexico. The eggs of the giant black ant are collected from the roots of the agave plant. They are boiled or fried in oil and added to tacos or some other popular ethnic dishes. However, the larvae have a mild, nutty flavor. There is also a cottage cheese aftertaste.
Mopani worms
These insects are eaten in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe. In general, caterpillars are traditionally consumed all over the world. However, these blue-green spiny caterpillars are prized for their high protein content. Mopani worms are dried in the sun or smoked. Served with sauce or stew. This African exotic has a soft, buttery taste.
Grasshopper
Mexicans have already distinguished themselves on our list. We continue to voice their gastronomic preferences. The grasshoppers are fried and seasoned with chili pepper and lime. Enterprising people sell ready dish in market squares. Passers-by happily gobble up handfuls of fried grasshoppers, like chips. They have a salty and spicy taste.
Silkworm pupae
Residents of Vietnam, China and Korea eat silkworm pupae, which are considered an edible by-product of the silk industry. If in Korea this insect is usually boiled, then in China and Vietnam residents prefer fried silkworm pupae. The dish tastes salty, similar to dried shrimp with a chewy consistency.
water beetle
These insects are eaten in Thailand. These massive creatures are very popular as a snack and can be purchased at any kiosk. Thais prefer them fried with spicy sauce or steamed. They also roll them into jars. The taste is reminiscent of lightly salted fish.
Scorpion
This formidable insect is eaten by residents of China, Thailand and Vietnam. They are caught on the street and deep fried. The taste of scorpion resembles the soft shell of a crab or shrimp in its shell.
Weevil beetle larva
Another “treasure” is eaten in Nigeria, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. IN rural areas Weevil larvae are considered a staple product; they are valued for their high protein, calcium, and potassium content. They are collected directly from the tree, strung on a skewer and fried over hot coals. Sometimes fried in flour and wrapped in sago leaf. When raw, the larvae taste like coconut, but in finished form bacon.
Ants
Ants are eaten in Australia, Colombia and Thailand. Australian Aborigines wait until the insects grow to the size of grapes and eat them raw as sweets. Colombians eat their fat-assed ants like popcorn or peanuts. In Thailand, they prefer to fry red ants along with eggs and add them to salads.
Tarantula
Residents of Cambodia and Venezuela fry these arachnids in oil until crispy. Salt, sugar and sometimes garlic are added and sold as street food. They eat tarantulas whole. And if the creatures’ legs are crispy, their thick bellies are quite sticky. In the jungles of Venezuela you can find a tarantula the size of a dinner plate. This type of tarantula is considered a delicacy and is fried over an open fire. It tastes like crab meat.
Termite
IN West Africa, Australia and some areas Latin America Residents eat termites. They are eaten raw, fried over charcoal or in oil. Termites taste like carrots.
Wasp larva
Residents of Japan love to eat wasp larvae. They are carefully removed from the nest and cooked in soy sauce with added sugar. Eaten as a snack. Taste: sweetish, crispy
Huhu beetle larvae
These insects are loved by the natives of New Zealand. The huge, thick larva is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a snack. People collect them under rotting tree trunks. Valued for their high protein content, their taste is reminiscent of peanut butter.
Brown marmorated bug
In Mexico and South Africa local residents eat stink bugs. To prevent the smell from being felt, insects are soaked in warm water. In Africa, they are first beheaded and then boiled and dried in the sun. Eat as a snack. The insect tastes like a mixture of cinnamon and iodine.
It turns out that there are about 1,462 species of edible insects on our planet. Yes, you probably won’t try such variety in your entire life. I also learned that insects contain more protein than chicken meat, as well as a lot of iron, magnesium and other useful elements. However, this nutritious living creature still doesn’t cause my appetite.)
But still, if you are going to travel to distant countries and want to try local exotic dishes, I present to your attention the top twelve delicious dishes from edible insects.
In Thailand, a plate of bamboo worms fried in oil is considered a completely traditional lunch. In fact, these are not worms at all, but larvae of grass moths that live in bamboo. They were usually collected by cutting bamboo stalks, but today they are farmed and eventually packaged in bags, just like chips.
A very popular village food in Eastern Indonesia is the larvae of longhorned beetles, which live in the roots of sago palms (by the way, these are large and shiny bugs quite common in Russia). Indonesians string beetles onto twigs and roast them over a fire. Local residents also use them as ear brushes - they insert a live larva into the ear, holding it by the tail with your fingers, and it very quickly eats the ear wax.
Sardinia is famous for its rotten cheese with worms - Casu marzu. It is made from goat milk with real cheese fly larvae. First, the top layer is cut off from the cheese so that the fly has the opportunity to lay its eggs in it. The emerging larvae gradually eat the cheese from the inside, and the acid released from them decomposes the fats in the cheese, thereby giving it a specific softness. The most interesting thing is that casu marzu can be eaten only when the larvae are still alive. And one more funny moment - larvae a centimeter in length can jump out of the cheese mass to a height of up to fifteen centimeters. There have been cases when a larva jumped right into the taster's eye, so the cheese is eaten with glasses or spread on bread, covering it with your hand.
For South Africans, the most important source of protein is the dried caterpillars of the South African peacock moth moth, which lives on the mopane tree. They do a lot of things in Africa from these caterpillars: they are dried, smoked, pickled and rolled into tins. Mopane caterpillars are prepared very simply: first, the green intestines are squeezed out, then they are boiled in salted water and finally dried. They are usually stewed in a variety of sauces, added to stews, fried until crunchy with onions, or served with corn porridge.
In Japan, the older generation still respects wasps and bees, from which they prepare a wide variety of dishes. One such dish is hatinoko - boiled bee larvae in soy sauce with sugar. The result is a caramel-like, translucent mass, which is served with rice. The Japanese are reminded of the post-war years by jibatinoko, a dish made from wasps (during this period, bees and wasps were especially actively eaten in Japan). Today these dishes can only be tasted in Nogano.
A little more common is fried wasps, which are served with beer in taverns in Japan.
The city of Suzhou (China) is famous for its delicacy of silkworm pupae. Caterpillars wrap themselves in a strong, thin silk thread, thereby forming a cocoon. Before they develop wings and legs in their cocoon, Suzhou residents boil the caterpillars and remove the cocoon, then quickly fry them in a wok with ginger, onion and garlic. When cooked correctly, silkworm meat tastes similar to shrimp or crab meat. This dish is also popular in Japan and Korea.
Ants are considered the most popular edible insects on Earth after grasshoppers. And in some countries, for example, in Colombia, you can simply buy them at the cinema instead of popcorn. The most delicious for Colombians are female ants with eggs. This “delicacy” is caught during rain, when females climb to the surface from an anthill flooded with water.
The simplest rustic preparation is ants wrapped in leaves and lightly held over the fire. However, the so-called “honey” ants, common in Australia, are considered the most delicious. These insects collect sweet nectar and transport it in swollen abdomen. It is this transparent bottle that is considered the best sweet delicacy among the Australian aborigines.
Large water bugs can be found in different corners of our planet. These insects, belonging to the family Belostomatidae, reach a length of up to 15 centimeters. And if Americans consider them to be ordinary bugs, whose bites do not go away for several weeks, then Asians eat them with pleasure. For example, Thais deep-fry bedbugs and sell them to the table along with creamy sauce. However, they eat them whole compared to the Filipinos, who still tear off the wings and legs. Like this different culture eating.)
Grasshoppers - almost national dish Mexicans. In Mexico, they are boiled, fried, dried, soaked in lime juice, or eaten raw. But the most popular dish is guacamole with grasshoppers. The insects are fried very quickly, after which they change their color from green to red, then mixed with avocado and spread on a corn tortilla.
In general, grasshoppers are eaten in all countries where insects are eaten. In the Middle East they like to first boil grasshoppers and then dry them in the sun; in China they prefer to make kebabs from them; in Uganda they are used as an additive to soups. By the way, until recently in Uganda, women were not allowed to eat grasshoppers, as it was believed that they could give birth to children with a deformed head like a grasshopper.
They love to eat dragonflies in Bali. Catching a dragonfly is actually not that easy. To do this, local residents use special sticks coated with fairly sticky tree sap. But the most difficult moment is smooth and at the same time fast movement touch the dragonfly with the stick. Large specimens caught have their wings torn off and then quickly boiled in coconut milk with garlic and ginger or grilled. They are also used to make something similar to candy - fried in coconut oil and sprinkle sugar on top.
Grass bugs are prized in Mexico for their distinctive, strong medicinal odor. Mexicans prepare sauces from them, mix them with chicken pate after frying them, or add them to tacos. In South Africa, the unpleasant odor of stink bugs is treated less favorably, and in order to get rid of it, the bugs are first soaked for a long time, then dried and chewed.
A fairly common street food in Cambodia is fried tarantulas, which look more like charred varnished firebrands. They are fried in a wok with garlic and salt. In Venezuela, large individuals of tarantulas (28 cm in diameter) are simply baked on coals. But the most delicious are spiders from the Nephilidae family, which are eaten in Laos and New Guinea. If you fry them well, they taste like peanut butter.
Thai cuisine is very diverse and exotic. You can buy ready-made insect dishes everywhere in Thailand. This is one of the highlights of Thai cuisine. Fried grasshoppers and other delicacies that are exotic to us are sold on the streets directly from stalls. In addition to the notorious grasshoppers, here you can buy interesting and exotic dishes made from insects - buns with silkworm larvae, crickets in chocolate, etc.
Europeans who have tasted insect dishes say that their taste is not so bad. In general, the entire Thai (and not only) nation falls under the definition of entomophagy - the phenomenon of eating insects. In many Asian countries there are entire kitchens dedicated to preparing insects. In fact, insects are eaten in more than one hundred countries around the world. And this is not surprising.
Man is born an omnivore, but few are willing to take this to heart and eat, for example, bedbugs or crickets. Meanwhile, insects are eaten all over the globe: they contain more protein than chicken meat, are full of iron, magnesium and other important elements Finally, it's simply delicious.
Insects are very nutritious, they contain almost no fat and are a source of large amounts of proteins. Among other things, insects contain microelements and even vitamins that are beneficial to us. So, the field cricket contains 20.72% protein, the Indian locust - 25.88%. Gold beetles and dragonfly larvae are a treasure trove minerals, especially phosphorus and calcium. It is not surprising that insects are recommended for consumption by nutritionists around the world. And the energy component of a meal made from insects is in no way inferior to a meal made from ordinary meat.
In total, there are 1,462 species of edible insects in the world, and it is unlikely that you can try all of them in a lifetime. True, thanks to the Internet, in order to eat this or that insect, it is no longer necessary to go to Thailand, Uganda or New Guinea: There are more and more companies that sell insects online.
We will try to tell you about the recipes for the most delicious, according to tourists, exotic insect dishes, which are the real highlight of food in Thailand.
Crickets in chocolate
About twenty crickets are euthanized (!) in the freezer, after which the hind limbs are removed and the insects are laid out on a baking sheet. You need to dry the insects in the oven for at least 1-2 hours at a temperature of 250 degrees. At this time, melt several chocolate bars over the fire, then dip the crickets in the melted chocolate one by one and place them on paper. The dish is ready after the chocolate has hardened. You need to eat this dish with caution; fried crickets make a specific sound and when chewed they click a little.
Fried bamboo worms
For Thais, a plate of fried bamboo worms is as traditional a way to start a meal as a salad or soup is for Europeans. Their taste and texture are a little reminiscent of popcorn, although they do not have any special pronounced taste, but they are very nutritious.
In fact, these are not worms at all, but larvae of grass moths from the grass moth family (Crambidae), living in bamboo. Traditionally they are collected by cutting bamboo stems, but recently began to be bred commercially on farms and packaged in bags like chips.
Bizarre Food products can, for example, be bought in England. In addition to Thailand, bamboo worms are eaten with pleasure in China and the Amazon.
Shish kebab from longhorned beetle larvae
Longhorned beetles, large and shiny beetles with long antennae, are distributed throughout the world, and there are many of them in Russia. In our country they are also called woodcutter beetles, in the English-speaking world - capricorn beetles.
Longhorned beetle larvae, found in the roots of sago palms, are a very popular village food in Eastern Indonesia. For the sake of fatty and juicy larvae, Indonesians sometimes cut down small palm groves, and then, carefully stringing them onto twigs, roast the larvae over the fire. They have tender flesh, but a very dense skin that takes a long time to chew. The maggots taste like greasy bacon.
The larvae have another use: villagers use them as ear brushes - a live larva is inserted into the ear, holding the tail with your fingers, and it quickly eats away the ear wax.
Earthworm cutlets
The recipe for this insect dish is simple. To begin with, the worms are boiled in boiling water. Afterwards they are crushed with a blender and lemon zest, salt, baked milk and white pepper are added to the mixture. Everything is thoroughly mixed. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with salt. Minced worms are dipped in egg, then in breadcrumbs and placed in a heated frying pan. These cutlets are fried for ten minutes, always on each side. Before serving, they are seasoned with sour cream.
Another tasty insect dish is grasshoppers in caramel. Before pouring the grasshoppers into the caramel, they are fried in a cauldron with oatmeal.
Cheese with cheese fly larvae
This cheese is proof that insects are eaten not only in Africa and Asia. Casu marzu is an important Sardinian specialty: cheese made from unpasteurized goat's milk with live larvae of the cheese fly Piophila casei. For most cheese lovers, casu marzu is not just mature cheese or blue cheese, but completely rotten cheese with worms. Strictly speaking, this is how it is: this is ordinary pecorino, from which the top layer is cut off so that the cheese fly can easily lay its eggs in it. The larvae that then appear begin to eat the cheese from the inside - the acid contained in their digestive system, decomposes fats in cheese and gives it a specific softness. Some of the liquid even flows out - it is called lagrima, which means “tear”.
In Sardinia, casu marzu is considered an aphrodisiac and is traditionally eaten along with worms. Moreover, casu marzu is considered safe to eat only while the larvae are alive. This is not easy to do: disturbed larvae, reaching a centimeter in length, can jump out of the cheese to a height of 15 cm - many cases have been described when they got into the eye of someone who tried the cheese. Therefore, lovers of casu marzu often eat this cheese with glasses or, spreading it on bread, cover the sandwich with their hand. However, removing larvae from cheese is not considered a crime. The easiest way is to put a piece of cheese or a sandwich in a paper bag and close it tightly: the suffocating larvae begin to jump out. When the shooting in the bag stops, the cheese can be eaten.
Of course, casu marzu does not meet any hygienic standards of the European Union and was banned for a long time (it could only be bought on the black market at a price twice the price of regular pecorino). But in 2010, the casu marzu was recognized as a cultural property of Sardinia and allowed again. In Thailand, this unusual insect dish is also very common.
Pizza with rhinoceros beetle larvae
Thawed butter mixed with flour, salt and egg. The dough is thoroughly kneaded and rolled into a ball, after which it is sent to the refrigerator. For the filling you will need chopped tomatoes, peppers and onions, as well as grated cheese.
The dough is taken from the refrigerator. The base of the pizza is a sauce made from ketchup and mayonnaise. Tomatoes, peppers, onions and cheese are laid out on top. Fried rhinoceros beetle larvae are placed on top. They are seasoned with pepper and herbs. Pizza is baked in a preheated oven at 180 degrees.
Dried mopane caterpillars with onions
Dried caterpillars of Gonimbrasia belina, a South African species of mopane moth, are an important source of protein for South Africans. Collecting these caterpillars in Africa is quite serious business: in supermarkets and markets you can find both dried and hand-smoked caterpillars and pickled caterpillars rolled into tins.
To cook a caterpillar, you first need to squeeze out its green intestines (usually the caterpillars are simply squeezed in your hand, less often they are cut lengthwise, like a pea pod), and then boiled in salted water and dried.
Sun-dried or smoked caterpillars are very nutritious, weigh almost nothing and have a long shelf life, but do not have much taste (they are most often compared to dried tofu or even dry wood). Therefore, they are usually fried until crunchy along with onions, added to stews, stewed in various sauces, or served with sadza corn porridge.
However, very often mopane are eaten raw, whole or, as in Botswana, after tearing off the head. They taste like tea leaves. Caterpillars are collected by hand, usually done by women and children. And if they belong to anyone in the forest, then collecting caterpillars on neighboring trees is considered bad manners. In Zimbabwe, women even mark trees with their caterpillars or move young caterpillars closer to home, setting up unique plantations.
Mealworms with vegetables and rice
Rice is boiled in salted water. Cutting onions and leeks, after which both types of onions are sautéed in oil until golden brown. Then grated carrots are added to the onion, and after another ten minutes, thinly sliced bell peppers are added. Vegetables are stewed for ten minutes and seasoned with salt, sauce and pepper. Rice is added to the vegetable mixture.
At this time, mealworms are sautéed in a separate frying pan with oil. During the roasting process they slightly increase in size. Once fried, the worms are seasoned with salt and pepper and mixed with rice and vegetables. The mixture cooks on the fire for another five minutes. The dish is served hot and garnished with freshly cut herbs.
Boiled wasps
The older generation of Japanese still respects wasps and bees, prepared with the most in different ways. One such dish is hatinoko, which is bee larvae cooked with soy sauce and sugar: a translucent, sweetish caramel-like mass that goes well with rice. Wasps are also prepared in the same way - a dish with them is called jibatinoko. For older Japanese people, this dish reminds them of the post-war years and the rationing system, when wasps and bees were especially actively eaten in Japan. It is in steady demand in Tokyo restaurants, even if only as a nostalgic attraction.
In general, hatinoko and jibatinoko are considered a rather rare specialty of Nagano Prefecture. Fried black wasps are a little more common and are sometimes served with beer in Japanese taverns. Another specialty, rice crackers with earthen wasps, is made in the village of Omachi. These are small cookies with adult wasps stuck to them - each one contains from 5 to 15 wasps.
Japanese dishes made from wild wasps and bees are not cheap: it is impossible to put this business on stream; the preparation itself is quite labor-intensive. Wasp and bee hunters tie long colored threads to adult wasps and thus track their nests. However, you can also find canned bees in Japanese stores - this is usually how beekeeping farms sell their surplus.
Silkworm fried with ginger
The city of Suzhou and its surroundings are famous not only for high-quality silk, but also for quite rare dishes made from silkworm pupae. As you know, silkworm caterpillars wrap themselves in a thin but strong silk thread. In the cocoon they grow wings, antennae and legs. Before this happens, Suzhou residents boil them, remove the cocoon, and then quickly fry them in a wok - most often with ginger, garlic and onions.
However, tender larvae, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, go well with almost any vegetables and spices. When cooked correctly, they taste like crab or shrimp meat.
Silkworm larvae are no less popular in Korea. Trays of beondegi, boiled grubs with spices or steamed grubs, are found throughout the country. And stores sell canned silkworms, which must be boiled before use. They are also loved in Japan, especially in Nagato, and Japanese astrophysicist Masamichi Yamashita even suggests including silkworms in the diet of future Mars colonists.
Cookies with crickets and chocolate chips
Mix flour, salt and soda. Beat the butter and sugar, then add the egg, flour mixture, chocolate chips, walnuts and crickets. Everything is thoroughly mixed. Place the dough into small balls on a floured baking sheet.
Such cookies are decorated with the same crickets, slightly recessed in the dough. Cookies are baked for 15 minutes at 180 degrees. This simple insect dish can also be offered to you in Thailand right on the street from merchants.
Fried ants
Ants are the most popular edible insects on Earth after grasshoppers.
In Colombia, fried ants are even sold in movie theaters instead of popcorn. The ones most loved in Colombia are female ants with eggs. They are caught in rainy days when water floods the anthills and the females climb out.
In the simplest rustic version, they are prepared by wrapping them in leaves and holding them over the fire for a while. This is a crunchy, sweetish snack with a distinct nutty flavor.
But the most delicious ants, the so-called “honey” ants, are found in Australia. They feed on sweet nectar, transporting it in swollen abdomen (in Russian-language literature they are called “ant barrels”). These transparent bubbles are considered a sweet delicacy among the Australian Aborigines. In addition, two genera of honey ants are found in South Africa and the semi-deserts of North America.
Deep fried water bugs
Large water bugs - insects from the family Belostomatidae - live throughout the world, most of them in America, Canada and Southeast Asia. But if for Americans it's easy large insects, whose bites sometimes do not go away for two weeks, then in Asia they eat water bugs with pleasure.
The Asian variety, Lethocerus indicus, is the largest in the family at 12cm in length, so the Thais simply deep-fry them and serve them with plum sauce. The meat of water bugs tastes like shrimp.
At the same time, in Thailand they are eaten whole, in the Philippines the legs and wings are torn off (and in this form they are served with strong drinks as a snack), and in Vietnam they make a very fragrant extract from them, which is added to soups and sauces. One drop is enough for a bowl of soup.
Grasshoppers with avocado
As is known, John the Baptist ate grasshoppers: the locusts, which he ate with wild honey, are locusts, close relative grasshopper It could be understood by Mexicans, for whom grasshoppers are practically a national food. Grasshoppers are eaten everywhere in Mexico: boiled, raw, sun-dried, fried, soaked in lime juice. The most popular dish is grasshopper guacamole: the insects are quickly fried, causing them to instantly change color from green to reddish, mixed with avocado and spread on a corn tortilla.
Like any small fried insect, fried grasshopper does not have a prominent flavor and usually tastes like the oil and spices in which it was fried. The grasshoppers sold by street vendors in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, are simply overcooked chitinous shells.
In general, grasshoppers are eaten wherever insects are eaten. Grasshoppers boiled in salt water and dried in the sun are eaten in the Middle East, in China they are skewered like kebabs, and in Uganda and nearby regions they are added to soups. It is curious that in Uganda, until recently, women were not allowed to eat grasshoppers - it was believed that then they would give birth to children with deformed heads, like grasshoppers.
Dragonflies in coconut milk
Dragonflies can reach speeds of up to 60 km/h, so edible dragonflies are real fast food. They are caught and eaten in Bali: it is not easy to catch a dragonfly, for this they use sticks smeared with sticky tree sap. The main difficulty is to touch the dragonfly with this stick in a smooth and at the same time fast movement.
Caught large dragonflies, whose wings are first torn off, are either quickly grilled or boiled in coconut milk with ginger and garlic. Dragonflies are also made into a kind of candy by frying them in coconut oil and sprinkling them with sugar.
Mealworm Ice Cream
Melt the butter and stir a glass of chopped worms into it. Add one tablespoon each of honey and granulated sugar and beat the resulting mixture in a mixer. Pour in sweet sherry and rum (you can add more sherry and a few drops of rum).
Boil for 5 minutes, then pass through a fine sieve and keep on low heat until the mixture hardens. Remove from heat, add a tablespoon of lemon juice and cool in the refrigerator.
Bugs with chicken pate
Grass bugs - in particular, from the family of true stink bugs (Pentatomidae) - are also eaten throughout the world. Like most bugs, stink bugs are stinky. To get rid of the unpleasant smell, in South Africa they are first soaked for a long time in warm water, and then simply dried and chewed.
On the contrary, the Mexican variety of stink bugs is valued for its strong, medicinal smell - which probably explains high content Yoda. American TV presenter Andrew Zimmern, who ate stink bugs in an episode of his television series Bizarre Foods, compares their taste to tutti-frutti chewing gum.
In Mexico, bugs are used to make sauces, add them to tacos, or fry them and mix them with chicken pate.
For strong smell Stink bugs are also prized in Vietnam, where they are used to prepare a spicy dish, and in Laos, where bugs are ground into cheo paste with spices and herbs.
Tarantulas baked on coals
Black-fried tarantulas, looking like varnished, charred firebrands, are a common street food in Cambodia. A successful tarantula catcher can catch up to two hundred individuals per day. They sell very quickly. Cambodian tarantulas are fried in a wok with salt and garlic - their meat tastes like a cross between chicken and fish.
Large tarantulas, reaching 28 cm in diameter, are eaten in Venezuela simply by roasting them on coals. A slightly more elegant method of preparing tarantulas is used in Japan: they first tear off the spider's abdomen, then singe the hairs and quickly fry them in tempura.
However, it is believed that the most delicious spiders are not tarantulas, but spiders from the Nephilidae family, which are eaten in New Guinea and Laos. These spiders taste like peanut butter when fried.
A special treat is lollipops with grasshoppers. They are placed in a special form and filled with hot caramel. And the worms, before being dipped in honey, are sent to graze in a pan of oatmeal. Those who have strong enough nerves to try the dishes say that it is all very tasty.
Bon appetit! 🙂
Once in China we were invited to dinner. The table was filled with various dishes, I counted about 20 of them. Among other purely Chinese dishes, there was a dish of fried snake with various spices, small fried shrimp (1.5-2 cm in size) and grasshoppers.
According to etiquette, as my husband whispered to me, I had to try every dish. I even shuddered from this message, I watched in horror how it was spinning round table and a dish with unpeeled shrimp “floats” to me. I grabbed one of them with chopsticks.
The crustacean had not changed at all and looked quite natural, everything was in place: legs, tail (fan), mustache - antennae and bulging eyes. I carefully began to pinch off my mustache, but when I looked up I saw that the owners were looking at me expectantly. Overcoming the unpleasant feeling towards this crustacean, I had to put it in my mouth, along with its legs and mustache... and after swallowing it, I also smiled.
The Chinese sat and cracked the crustaceans like seeds, but there was just a crunch. During the next round of table rotation, a dish with grasshoppers stopped in front of me. I don’t even want to describe the sensations that I experienced, but I still had to eat one representative of insects... Today we are talking about edible insects:
- Entomogafia - food made from insects.
- How do people benefit from eating edible insects?
- Edible insects.
- Dishes made from edible insects.
- Insect dessert.
Entomography - insect food
The practice of including edible insects in the diet and eating insects is common in many parts of the world and the reason is their valuable nutritional value. Scientists believe that on our planet already 2 billion people eat insects.
In first place in nutritional value are beetles, then caterpillars, ants, wasps, bees, locusts and grasshoppers, crickets and tarantulas. 1900 species of insects are considered edible.
The inclusion of insects in the diet and eating insects is called entomophagy. It is especially practiced in Africa, China, New Zealand and Australia, in developed countries ah America. Insects are eaten in 29 Asian countries, 36 African and 23 American. Somewhere they are considered a delicacy, and somewhere, edible insects are the main diet.
In most developed countries, people view eating insects with disgust and consider it a primitive culture. Meanwhile, according to scientists, insects contain large amounts of protein, calcium, iron, low content fats and they are just as nutritious and healthy as regular meat, but can be effective method combating obesity and diseases associated with it.
The question is increasingly being raised: instead of switching to genetically modified food, which does more harm than good, maybe switch to entomogafy???
It is not because of a good life that Africans eat insects; in their countries, people have been suffering from malnutrition for a long time; experts note that 50% of child mortality under the age of 5 in these countries occurs only for this reason.
And insects are a cheap food source rich in healthy proteins and fats. According to ecologists, growing insects causes much less damage to nature compared to growing large animals. cattle. Nutritional composition, availability, simple methods Insect farming may be an alternative food product and help address future food shortages.
After all, the population will increase to 9 billion people by 2050. This means that 50% more food will be needed, and according to forecasts, as a result of climate change, crop yields are expected to decrease by 25%.
Where to look alternative methods satisfy human needs for food?
Why don't we like insect food?
It all depends on the culture of upbringing. We were raised this way by our parents, the means mass media. WITH early childhood we hear what is edible and what cannot be eaten. If from childhood we knew that there are edible insects and we were treated to delicacies from fried grasshoppers, we would believe that there is nothing better than this food in the world and eating insects would be considered commonplace.
Insects in food. But nevertheless, insects still find their way into our stomach. It is believed that a person eats up to 0.5 kg of insects throughout his life.
According to Candidate of Biological Sciences Igor Bernikov, we eat mealworms along with bread, with jams and preserves, tomato paste, and worms and their larvae also enter our stomach.
Cooks are familiar with the dye “konishel” (E-120), but meanwhile, it is prepared from the females of the insect of the same name - the conichel mealybug.
I heard that some beekeepers feast on bee larvae, which have a delicate creamy taste.
What benefits do people get from eating insects?
I want to give you figures showing the protein and fat content of various edible insects.
“So 100 grams of dung beetles contain 17.2 g of protein and 3.8 g of fat, caterpillars - 14.2 g and 1.2 g, grasshoppers - 20.6 g and 6.1 g, bees - 13, 4 g and 1.4 g, termites - 14.2 g and 2.2 g, respectively. For comparison, I’ll give an example of the content of these substances in 100 g of beef: 23.5 g of protein and 21.2 g of fat.”
In addition, insects contain chitin, which brings irreplaceable benefits in cleansing the body. From chitin, as is known, the substance chitosan is produced, which is included in all weight loss preparations.
In 2010, at the Research Congress outer space Japanese scientists have presented an updated diet for astronauts, which includes insects.
In some countries, such as Thailand, edible insects are bred in industrial scale. It is believed that this is less labor-intensive and costly production. Insects eat very little, compared to pigs, no need large premises for their content. Scientists suggest that in the future the main food producers in this country will be farms producing edible insects.
I bring to your attention an introduction to the most popular edible insects and dishes made from them, which are considered delicacies.
Edible insects
Beetles. Of this order of insects, the following are considered edible: dung beetles, stag beetle, rhinoceros beetle. These insects serve as a delicacy for the natives of Africa and some areas in the Amazon and other tropical regions. Horn beetles and rhinoceroses live on trees, undermining their bark. They easily process cellulose fibers, turning them into fats. Indigenous people roast them and consume them as popcorn.
Longhorned beetle larvae are eaten raw and taste similar to peanut butter.
Moths and butterflies. The insects themselves are very beautiful, but it is not the butterflies themselves that are used as food, but their larvae - pupae, rich in protein and iron.
Butterfly pupae are considered a delicacy; they are recommended for weakened children and pregnant women suffering from anemia. In America, its Central Southern regions Butterfly caterpillars are also valued, especially the fat and fleshy caterpillars of the butterfly that lives on agave trees. These caterpillars are added to alcoholic drink from agave, loved by Mexicans.
Bees and wasps. The larvae of these hymenopteran insects and their eggs are loved by the indigenous people of Australia, Africa, and Asia. America and consume them like nuts.
Ants. Red ants are eaten mainly by large sizes, but other representatives of this order are also often used. In 100 g of red ants there are about 1 thousand individuals, which contain 14 g of protein (this is much more compared to chicken eggs), 48 mg calcium, iron and other minerals.
Locusts, grasshoppers, crickets. Orthoptera have a neutral taste and protein content, therefore they are very popular in the cuisine of many countries. They can be combined with other foods. Using locusts for food allows you to control their numbers; everyone knows the harm these insects cause to agriculture.
Flies and mosquitoes have less culinary popularity. Of their large order of dipterans, only a few representatives are used for food. For example, flies that feed on cheeses acquire their taste, and species of mosquitoes and flies living near water taste like fish.
Rowers. These insects are inextricably linked with water, as they lay their eggs on plants growing in water. The natives collect insect eggs to make Mexican caviar, and they are also eaten raw. The taste of eggs is similar to the taste of shrimp.
Shield insects - These are representatives of the bedbug family. They are an excellent source of iodine and if you don’t pay attention to them unpleasant smell, secreted by special glands, then apple cider vinegar can be obtained from them. They also have pain relieving properties. Green tree bugs that feed on the sap of leaves are used as food.
Insect dishes
Cheese with worms. It is called kazu-marzu and is made from goat milk and cheese fly larvae. This product can only be found in Sardinia; in Italy it was banned because it is believed that it can cause poisoning. Worms from rotten cheese are eaten alive.
Boiled bee larvae. The dish in Japan is called hatinoko. The larvae are cooked in sweet soy sauce, which are combined with rice. The dish was especially popular in the difficult post-war times, and now continues to be in demand.
In Japanese stores you can find another delicacy made from bees - canned bees.
Grilled dragonflies. This dish is popular in Indonesia. Dragonflies are caught using sticks coated with sticky juice, the wings are removed and they are fried or boiled in seasoned coconut milk.
Salad with fried red ants. Fried red ants are added to salads instead of lemon juice and lemon because they are sour (formic acid). They are eaten with pleasure in Thailand.
Fried tarantulas preferred in Cambodia. They are fried in frying pans and eaten with pleasure; their meat resembles the taste of fish and chicken. They also eat fried spiders, which taste similar to peanuts.
They love fried shield bugs in Mexico. They taste like cinnamon. They are ground and mixed with chili sauce or used as a filling.
Edible insects, rich in protein, chitin, calcium and minerals, are an integral part of the diet in many cultures.
Today already at European countries restaurants are opening, serving delicacies from:
- Orthoptera,
- Hymenoptera,
- Orthoptera,
- Lepidoptera,
- bedbugs,
- cockroaches,
- termites.
So far this is only a modern, fashionable hobby, but it is already in demand.
Sample menu of similar establishments:
Insect dessert
You won't believe it, but it's really true. The man is so enterprising that he has learned to make dessert from insects. Speaking of desserts... the Bible says that John the Baptist loved to eat “locusts with wild honey.” Our contemporaries have gone further, they offer insect dessert:
In many countries, such desserts are in great demand. Experts assure that they are not only tasty, but also good for health, as they add energy and strengthen immune system. And the desserts look exotic.
Restaurant visitors, when trying insects for the first time, more often choose dishes where they are used as a filling, for example, a cricket in chocolate glaze is easier to eat than a fried cockroach.
A few years ago in the center of London, right on the street, there was a restaurant that offered visitors free access to unusual insect delicacies. So in an unusual way one of the companies celebrated its 85th anniversary. The flow of people wanting to taste exotic dishes was endless.
At this event, issues of possible global hunger and the usefulness of insects as food alternatives for humans.
Anticipating the reaction of readers, I would like to note that the article is offered not for the purpose of promoting eating insects, but as educational material.
- But read what is really useful for us.
Health to you, dear readers!
☀ ☀ ☀
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Edible insects may not be the worst diet for survival. Food can be prepared from garden and grape snails, slugs, earth and wood worms, smooth-skinned, that is, devoid of hair and chitin, caterpillars, cicadas, beetles and their larvae living in the ground and wood, as well as dragonfly larvae. As well as dragonflies themselves, crawling and flying ants and other insects. In the water you can collect edible pond shells, barley shells, water beetles and other aquatic edible insects.
In the recent past, grasshoppers dried and ground into flour were used by hermits escaping from worldly worries to bake bread cakes and prepare porridges. So if you come across the phrase “the hermits ate berries, mushrooms and locusts” in any book, know that the holy fathers consumed grasshoppers with considerable appetite. And, by the way, they acted wisely, because 100 g of food mass prepared from grasshoppers contains 225 calories - only slightly less than wheat bread. And 100 g of fried food is 560 calories!
Many peoples inhabiting deserts revered locusts as a delicacy. The Chinese enjoy eating dried spiders. The Japanese, who do not experience much hunger, are dragonflies. The peoples of the South Asian region are generally distinguished by their amazing omnivorousness and use almost all edible insects they encounter as food, from the most exotic, such as fried scorpions, revered as a delicacy, to purely domestic ones. And the mosquitoes! The ones that stick to your face and hands? They are also edible. And easily accessible. Just have time to hit yourself on the cheeks and lick off what’s left of them from your fingers. Or collect materials and cook a stew.
The most nutritionally valuable edible insects are ants and their southern counterparts - termites, grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, some types of beetles, honey bees, and aquatic edible insects. For a person who finds himself in emergency conditions, the most accessible ones are sedentary slugs, worms, and larvae, especially since they usually cluster in one place. Having found their habitat, it is not difficult to find them themselves in the required quantities. Jumping and flying insects are much more difficult to catch.
Collecting and catching edible insects while surviving in an extreme situation.
The easiest way to find edible insects is on old and dead trees, stump. By the way, these varieties of larvae are the most edible and, according to connoisseurs of oriental cuisine, delicious. To collect them, you need to carefully examine crevices, hollows and other recesses, tear off old bark and collect edible insects and their larvae from its back side and from bare wood. In clearings and meadows, you can collect edible insects by looking at tall plants, on the stems and flowers of which you can easily notice cobweb cocoons, thickenings and similar defects in which larvae and caterpillars live. In addition, they can be found in plant seeds. For example, in the stems and prickly “heads” of the well-known burdock, a certain number of insects can be collected even in winter.
It is more convenient to catch grasshoppers in the morning, when it is cold, when they are inactive. It is better to look for soil insects in damp, shaded places, among rotten leaves, under stones, piles of dead wood and fallen tree trunks, at the bottom of dry puddles. Aquatic - naturally in water, at the bottom of lakes, rivers, streams, swamps, individual large puddles, among the vegetation surrounding them. The easiest way to find ants is in large piles of anthills, sometimes reaching a height of 1.5-2 meters. But you can catch them “by smell” in jars and other containers placed near ant paths, into which you throw small quantity leftover food.
Ants are very good fried and baked. In addition, in anthills you can find caterpillars and their larvae stored for future use. Of particular value are the so-called honey, or sugar, ants, which serve as containers for storing nectar in anthills. They differ from worker ants by having a disproportionately large barrel-shaped abdomen filled with a sweet liquid. It is not the ants themselves that are most nutritious, but their larvae and pupae (or, as they are sometimes called, ant eggs), which resemble white or yellow grains of rice in appearance. The larvae can be collected by digging up the wall of a large anthill. In small anthills, it is often enough to lift a stone or a tree trunk covering it from above to find a whole deposit of ant eggs.
Many more pupae can be caught using a fabric trap. To do this, near the anthill, on a horizontal platform illuminated by the sun, you need to spread a large, 1 - 1.5 m2 piece of fabric, turn up all four of its corners and put twigs under them to form slit-like cavities. Then the upper part of the anthill is torn off and scattered in a thin layer on the fabric, under the rays of the sun. Saving the pupae from drying out, the ants quickly drag them under the folded edges of the fabric. At night, insects can be caught by the light of a lantern, a candle, or a piece of white, preferably illuminated, rag spread on the ground. During the day - using a net made from any available material. Knock down to the ground using removed clothing. Or simply carefully cut and shake off grass and shrubs over the material.
Features of catching aquatic edible insects.
Aquatic edible insects - various water beetles and their larvae, larvae of one-day butterflies, dragonflies, May flies, etc. - can promise good complementary food for victims of disaster. They should be collected in shallow water, always in running, not stagnant water. Catching fidgety aquatic life with your hands is a thankless and futile task, and therefore it is better to use an improvised net. To do this, stretch a piece of tulle, gauze or any other available fabric to the sides (in as a last resort shirt or pants), you need to walk through the shallow water as quickly as possible, scraping the water and everything in it to the shore. Or, on the contrary, to lead the net above the very bottom, like a deep-sea trawl.
A stationary net placed downstream of a river or stream is even more catchy. Several stakes are driven into the bottom, between which any fabric found is stretched at an angle open to the direction of the flow. Then, upstream, it is enough to stir the bottom with your feet and shake off the aquatic vegetation so that all the raised living creatures are carried into the net. In the absence of any material suitable for making nets, you can use long poles to pull large armfuls of algae onto the shore, inside of which to collect aquatic insects hiding there. Before consuming, it is better to boil all aquatic insects, since there is no guarantee that the water in which they live is sterile.
Thus, trawling bodies of water By running around meadows and clearings with a net, picking up rotten stumps, you can collect a fairly decent harvest of edible insects. Up to several hundred kilograms from one hectare of forest land! Almost all edible insects that live in our forests require some form of cooking. But it is still better to refrain from eating insects found on heaps of manure and on dead animals. They can be carriers of infections. The larvae that live on the back of the leaves are not always pleasant from a gastronomic point of view. Since they can emit strong-smelling, poisonous (but not dangerous to humans) liquids that repel their potential consumers.
Bees, wasps, and hornets are potentially dangerous with their stings. Having suffered more than once in childhood, everyone is aware of this. Some species of tropical ants and termites can cause trouble with their powerful poisonous jaws. In the same tropics, some people have extremely poisonous skin tree frogs. But poisonous stings and glands are not a sign that the meat of their owner is inedible. Let me remind you again about fried scorpions and baked snakes.
Based on materials from the book “School of Survival in Natural Conditions.”
Andrey Ilyichev.