You never ate the insects vomits? They are popular in USA.
Posted on 05/21/2005 7:44:57 PM PDT by aculeus
Sarah Azubi, 17, had hers deep fried. "They were crunchy like chips and tasted a bit like nuts," she said approvingly of the new delicacy on the menu at a Dresden restaurant. "There was a soft juicy bit in the middle around the crunchy shell."
Another diner, Nancy Weinhold, 25, was less convinced by the plump maggots, imported to Germany from Mexico, which the Espitas restaurant began serving last month. "I will try most things once but was really tempted to give this a miss," she said. "They looked disgusting - two-inch long, fat, squishy grubs that looked as if they should have been eating the lettuce, not lying on it waiting to be eaten. I closed my eyes for the first bite, but they were really not that bad."
Few diners seem to share her reservations. Since the head chef, Uwe Engert, started dishing up yellow kingworms (Zophobas morio) in everything from salads to cocktails as a "nutritious and extremely tasty" alternative, the Espitas has been full every night.
Mr Engert himself is a convert, describing the beetle larvae as a "protein bomb for those who are not too squeamish", ideal for human consumption because the exoskeleton is easily digestible.
The restaurant owner, Alexander Wolf, stumbled across the delicacy during a trip to Mexico. Given the popularity of Mr Engert's larvae salads at €13 (£8.90), fried larvae with cactus and corn (€19), and larvae in ice cream or chocolate sauce (€7), he now intends to branch out into grasshopper and ant dishes.
"I was visiting an area close to Mexico City where these larvae seem to be the staple diet," said Mr Wolf, 27, who prides himself on the authentic Latin American ambience in his three restaurants. "The locals cook them in everything from soups to burritos. The larvae used to be a pest as they hatched into a beetle which can destroy crops. People started eating them simply to get rid of them."
He is now considering starting his own maggot farm in Europe. "We have them deep-frozen on the ground to stop them hatching and then ship them over," he said. "We are now planning our own colony here so we can sell them elsewhere in Europe. I reckon they will go down well in the UK. London, especially, has a tradition of variety in its cuisine."
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*shrug* Fried meal worms are pretty good. Swarming termites aren't bad, if you don't eat the wings...
Meal worms? Termites? I thought that's why we go out and get jobs.
Germans (Eddie Murphy laugh)
You do not like Mexican food?
Got to figure out how to get beer batter to stick better!
When the damn things wriggle, the batter chips off.
Love Mexican food. After all I do live in CA. Boy can they make a cat taste great!
You never ate the insects vomits? They are popular in USA.
Well, yeah. OTOH, I was [high tech] unemployed for 3 years...
Next on the menu, deep fried Finger chili schnitzels mit der Bier chaser.
Please flush twice. It's a long way to the school cafeteria.
I woke up one time when I was a kid - a fly was crawling into my mouth!
To this day, I still have nightmares about swallowing bugs.
EeYup!
If people only knew what lurks in a box of cereal.
/jasper
Fits right in with the rest of the smelly crap they eat in that putrid little country.
Oh my G*d, your right, but then just think where milk comes from.
PING
ROFL!!
Just think where eggs come from.
It's still bee puke...
I actually noticed a bunch of larvae in my puffed rice when I was kid. Difference is - I was disgusted (read 'wretching'). The added protein was not a convincing argument.
We got a box of maggoty Milkduds in a theater in Beaufort once. We didn't see them in the dark...
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