Sunday, December 26, 2010

A Buffet of Bugs

The photo you just glanced at (above) happens to be a grasshopper taco. Some people are urging societies to promote the eating of insects as a way to ensure mass sustainability during future periods of famine, war or other types of upheaval. And there's at least one cookbook out there that provides recipes for cooking and eating insects.

Angelina Jolie can actually tell you what insects taste like. As this book confirms, the actress has eaten a Cambodian cockroach and bee larvae.

However, one doesn't have to travel to the Third World to sample insects. There has been at least one restaurant in New York City (operating for a few years now) that serves a grasshopper taco. So what does grasshopper taste like? Mike Peed, a food critic for The New Yorker, reviewed the restaurant Toloache in 2008, and the final sentences of his review offer his blunt assessment:
Inquire about a grasshopper taco and hear (the chef say), "I was born in Oaxaca. We used to catch them in our backyard by the handfuls. They are delicious!" Curious, lifelike, not delicious.