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Eating Bugs
“In the No one is gazing out the window. No one is whispering to the person in the next chair. No one is catching up on lost sleep. At least not yet. “But back to bugs,” I continue. “In Forty food service students are still with me, still paying attention. My talk, the first in a series on eating around the world, will last only five minutes. But it’s 9:15 on a Monday morning, not the easiest time to ask people to leave behind their assumptions about “normal” eating or to rethink their resistance to unfamiliar foods. What’s more, I’m not a chef. I’m a writer, I’ve told them; and eating (in the After my opening comments on bugs, I describe how grasshoppers are netted in cornfields, killed in scalding water, deep fried in lard, and seasoned with garlic, chili pepper and lime juice. On the streets of Chapulines, the fried grasshoppers, are a deep bright red, salty, spicy and crunchy - - a little like crispy fried onions, with a bite. I explain that the first time I noticed them in Oaxaca, maybe 40 years ago, I couldn’t imagine putting a bug in my mouth - - not to mention a handful of bugs. But since then, I’ve had a chance to rethink my squeamishness. Many of my food prejudices, I now understand, are foolish or ignorant. A few years ago in the main Later that day, I went with a friend to a well-known restaurant with chapulines on the menu. The owner himself served us beers, warm corn tortillas, guacamole - - and a platter of flimsy red objects that glowed in the afternoon light. I grabbed a tortilla, covered it with a thick layer of guacamole and sprinkled a few chapulines on top. After folding the tortilla in half—with the bugs out of sight - - I took my first cautious bite. The bland tortilla, the smooth guacamole and the spicy crunch of chapulines were like music in my mouth. Delicious. As good as a great BLT. Still memorable. The story ends with a message. Around the world, I say, millions of people regularly consume all kinds of bugs. Why? Because they are local, easily trapped, cheap, simple to prepare, rich in protein, and tasty, too. Many Mexicans eat chapulines because their grandparents did and their neighbors do. And because they are passionately attached to the texture and flavors. Grasshoppers are a normal, seasonal and sustaining part of their diet. I ask the students: What are we (Americans) afraid of? Why do we demonize strange creatures that crawl or fly? You can get sick from bugs, a woman in the front row says. My sister was bitten by a tick and she got Lyme disease, another student chimes in. True enough, I say. What’s more, we don’t want flies in our soup or cockroaches in our closets. But how dirty are insects? Scientists tell us they are no more likely to be diseased than pigs or chicken. Like other animals we eat, bugs need proper cooking. Shall I find out who’s selling fried grasshoppers in
* * * Later, in the kitchen, several students ask me about other odd foods I’ve encountered and whether I really liked them. I mention snake and wild boar, the snake rather dull, like chicken, and the boar unforgettably flavorful and rich. I had snails, one student says, in a great garlic sauce. Everything depends on where you grow up, another student says. I wanna travel, a third student comments, and see how they eat in
Doris Friedensohn 27 March 2009 (Doris Friedensohn is Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies at |
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