Don't screw up your nose at crunching on a bug until you have tried it. Touted as high in protein and rich in vitamin B12, iron, potassium, and calcium, biting down on a mouthful of bugs will improve your health. Travel is a time for being adventurous, not just in where you go or what you do, but eating foods of different cultures should also be high on the list—at least you will have bragging rights about what crawlies were on your menu.
Depending on how the insects are cooked, they will give you taste sensations that will have you diving in for more, as they are the perfect snack food when aimlessly meandering foreign streets and markets. Baked, fried in tempura batter, toasted, broiled, barbequed, or even sauteed, there are an array of succulent little critters in various countries. Scorpion tastes like popcorn, locusts are known as 'sky prawns,' grasshoppers coated in chili-lime salt will wake up your taste buds with a jolt, ants have a citrusy acidic tang, and pan-fried locusts will give an explosion in your mouth of a shrimpy-nutty flavor. Known as 'Mexican caviar,' ants' eggs are a delicacy with a soft and creamy texture. Dragonflies are for soft-shell crab lovers when lightly fried, placed on a sautéed mushroom, and drizzled with Dijon-soy butter. Most insects will trick your palate into believing you are dining on pseudo shellfish with hints of root vegetables instead of the salty sea taste.
Eating bugs is called 'entomophagy,' and it's not new. Insects have been eaten for eons, dating back to cave-dwellers who dined on bees and larvae, while the Romans were into caterpillars and crickets that were considered delicacies and dished up at lavish feasts. The Old Testament regales tales of John the Baptist having a penchant for grasshoppers and locusts. About 80% of the world's population regularly dine on insects gathered from freshwater systems, forests, deserts, and agricultural farms, such as the cerambycid beetle grubs that Aboriginal Australians farmed in traditional ways. Over 1900 species of insect are edible, with many being consumed in tropical countries; termites, flies, planthoppers, crickets, beetles, wasps, ants, locusts, caterpillars, bees, cicadas, and dragonflies are only a few of the most popular pop-in-your-mouth delights.
Japan
Even the vending machines in Japan offer cans of bugs for consumption! Despite the younger generations not indulging in bug munching as previous generations, you can still find plenty of insects on sale for dinner or snacking on. Japan's insect-eating history overflows with delicacies such as wasp larvae and pupae, rice grasshoppers, crickets, bee larvae, maggots, silkworms, and wasps. A traditional meal of crawlies remains in the Nagano Prefecture along the Tenryu River, where aquatic insect larvae are simmered in sugar and soy sauce.
Mexico
Apart from mouthwatering culinary staples of Mexico, certain regions of the country offer a different type of dining experience: worms smothered in candy, ant eggs soaked in butter, and, for the sweet lover, chocolate-covered locusts. The popular alcohol, mezcal, found at many establishments and markets in Oaxaca, has worms in it. Mexico has the highest variety of bugs on the menu that the adventurous soul can indulge in: Maguey worms—pan-fried and dished up with guacamole; Giant winged ants—mixed in with salsas and sprinkled with garlic, chili, and salt; Green caterpillars—a fried crunchy finger-food or stuffed into taco shells; Stink bugs with a flavor of mint and cinnamon are soaked in lime and roasted.
Brazil
From ant burgers to fried tarantulas, Brazil's love of eating insects is revolutionizing the culinary scene, with many top-end restaurants offering dishes of bugs on their menus. Ants are the most common ingredient and are used in various ways, such as dipped in chocolate or in one famous restaurant, where giant Amazonian ants are served sitting on top of pineapple. The small town of Silveiras, which is seasonally inundated with flying queen ants that are collected and eaten, has an arts and crafts center devoted to the insect-eating traditions of the region. In the Santander region of Colombia, what is known as ‘fat-ass ants’ are smothered in spices and fried. Don't forget to match your insect dish of choice with your alcoholic beverage when sitting in a bar, as they all have different flavors depending on how they are cooked.
The locals of Thailand consume bite-sized scorpions individually or barbequed on sticks, and giant water bugs present a messy affair as you have to pull off the head to get to the meaty insides. In the Netherlands, edible crickets can be found anywhere, and chocolate mealworms are an added treat. The Chinese favor devouring bee cocoons and water beetles, while Indonesians dish up their bug of choice, either boiled or grilled with coconut milk and shallots. Aussies have started dipping into honey-pot ants, and Americans have joined in with their cricket-eating habits.
Next time you travel overseas, take your taste buds on an exotic adventure of bug crunching.
Gail Palethorpe, a self proclaimed Australian gypsy, is a freelance writer, photographer and eternal traveller. Check out her website Gail Palethorpe Photography and her Shutterstock profile.
