What are you currently eating?

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david
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Seith wrote:Sushi is da best!
Yum! :D

Last week was the Songkran festival, which is kind of the equivalent of a family Christmas for Thai people... though it involves throwing water for the week, hot weather and no Santa Claus.
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Anyway, I was in eastern Thailand for the festival, close to the border of Cambodia. We drove past a bunch of roadside stalls selling very exotic stuff like dried frogs, crickets, etc. So I tried a cooked flying ant and silkworm... both eaten whole... antennae, wings, legs and all :P

The ant was ok... lightly salted and spiced... quite small and dry, tasting just of the spices (which is probably a good thing). The silkworm was more, let's say, large and uniquely flavored... :shock:

Terrific experience! But one - of either - in a lifetime is plenty for me :D
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evilkinggumby
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wow you got some guts to try that so easily. I'd have to be tied up and begging for my life.. hehehe

so if the flying ant mostly tasted like the spices, if you were in a dark movie theater and snacking on them without looking.. would it seem ok? I wonder if they're stiff enough to dip in something for added flavor.. hehehe...

silkworm.. yeah not happening. i think i could deal with the crunch of some bugs but the squishy worms.. nope. I've seen too many horror movies to let that fly.

You can be Seith's consultant for the game though. Most animals will eat whatever they can for nutrients, bugs and grubs included, so if he wants a taste-tester to tell him how to write the description for eating them you could totally pitch in! :) He might even pay for you to eat a few bonus bugs.. lol

actually.. what did the bugs cost to eat, per bug?
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david
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@EvilKing... most excellent questions! :lol:
evilkinggumby wrote:if you were in a dark movie theater and snacking on them without looking.. would it seem ok?
In a dark cinema, the ant would be fine! With the salt and spices, it really tastes JUST like a normal snack food. Perhaps, 'Ants'... or 'Antz'... will be coming soon from Frito-Lay, packaged and available just like Doritos? You know, I suspect that it might be lots healthier than most snack foods... seriously! :D

As for the silkworm, I know exactly what you are saying about horror movies. It wasn't quite as squishy/juicy as it looks (thank heaven... because it really does look like a little brain-sucking alien maggot). If you ate it in the dark you might be wondering if you picked something off the movie theater floor by accident :shock:
evilkinggumby wrote:he wants a taste-tester to tell him how to write the description for eating them you could totally pitch in!
Agreed, I'm a team player! My title could be 'community manager and SUPREME bug eater'. :mrgreen:
evilkinggumby wrote:what did the bugs cost to eat, per bug?
At that stall, my Thai friend bought a plastic bag of ants for herself - about the same size and weight as a medium bag of potato chips. That's a lot of ants, maybe 150, and it cost her the equivalent of USD 1.60. So, on your per-bug basis, that's about a cent per bug :D

She didn't buy any silkworms (the one I tried was a sample) but probably about the same price.
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PS. I'm not sure if I'm really enthused about convert to a bug-eating lifestyle yet, but insects do feature on the menu of some high-end restaurants, and there really is a movement in the western world towards using insects as food that seems to have some very good arguments.

According to the website http://people.howstuffworks.com/entomophagy.htm, here is a useful rule of thumb if you are considering eating a bug:
Red, orange, yellow, forget this fellow.
Black, green or brown, wolf it down.
...now that's genius poetry :lol:
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evilkinggumby
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MMM edible bug poetry.. now my life is complete. hehehe.

I just had the thought about those vendors.. how do they actually sell and cultivate their bugs? do they have traps at home or do they have huge rooms fulla bugs? creepy to think about.. :)
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david
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@EvilKing... I was wondering too! Is there an ant farm, or do they catch them somehow? Is insect farming going to be the big agri-business of the new milleneum? :D

I'll ask my Thai friend at the weekend.

Bugs are yummy :lol:
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KwisatzHaderach
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Bugs are delicious! Someone should go tell Seith :D

I was cleaning up my photos folder recently and came across this:

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The sweetest birthday-chocolate cake my wife baked for me last year...
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evilkinggumby
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ok THAT is a great and awesome idea. :) what kind of cake is it? ginderbread? chocolate? Cricket and Beetle?
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KwisatzHaderach
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Let's see if I can recall the ingredients:

heaps of butter
heaps of sugar
heaps of chocolate (both dark and light brown)
a pinch of flour

Something like that... As far as I recall there where no insects in it. I might suggest spiders the next time.
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david
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Terrific birthday cake topping, and I'm literally starting to salivate as I think about the sinfully delicious ingredients! :D

For sure, a sprinkle of insects would add crunch, and their protein would improve the nutrition aspect too. Do check out the nearby 'weird drinks' thread on these forums for ideas on exotic birthday beverages ;)

PS. I forgot to post it but I did ask my friend about 'insect farming': she knows there are silkworm farms (yeah, that makes sense, silkworms are also farmed to make silk, as well as food) ; she thinks there are farms for ants and possibly for the other insects too.
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