Millions of individuals crave protein, and eagerly eat whatever provides this essential substance. While the human body from a variety of foods we consume produces most of the cell-building substances, protein must be ingested. Vegetarians are mostly protein-deficient and try to compensate for the lack of it.
People in prisons in Africa are said to catch errant flies, luck their wings and eat them alive.
Such behaviour would be unthinkable in western European or North American prisons, but in the Third World countries prison-food consists mostly of thin soups, some bread and little else. A well-known arms dealer was apprehended in Switzerland and jailed. He did not like the food, but authorities allowed him to order his food from the local Hilton Hotel kitchens! Of course, in Switzerland, money always talks!
Eating bugs is nothing new. Chinese and Japanese have been eating bugs for millennia and continue to eat them.
It is interesting to note that the German cockroach converts 44 per cent of the feed to body substance, whereas cattle only 10 per cent.
In North America people are more accustomed to exterminating insects than eating them, but in many countries around the world including Thailand, bugs are part of a balanced diet.

Insect eating is also more environmentally friendly, to wit it takes far less to raise 150 grams of grasshopper than the same amount of beef.
Ecologically minded Americans, (there are some dedicated ecologists), have now started promoting wax worms, water bug crickets in salads or pastas, but Chinese have been eating starfish fried in shark oil, deep fried starfish and sea urchins, grilled snake, dog liver with vegetables, cow and horse meat stew, braised camel hump, fried silk worms, fried dung beetles, fried black scorpions, fired cicadas, scorpion brochettes, sautéed lizard legs, dog brain soup, braised iguana tails, grilled crickets, stir fried seahorse and grilled silkworms.
Most North Americans are squeamish about unusual food i.e bull’s testicles, calf’s brains, heart, lung, even liver or sweetbreads are taboo. Yet in many countries these are fully acceptable, occasionally even sought after foods.
Kidney, for example, flambéed at he table, is a luxury item in many European hotel dining rooms.
Fortunately, some young chefs have started promoting the notion of using every part of a carcass, and call it “ nose to tail” cooking. Who would have considered braised beef cheeks as a main dish only a few years ago? Today it has become quite common.
Young, well-educated, widely traveled and cosmopolitan individuals have an open mind when it comes to unusual foods, and will at least try it once.
Think of sushi and sashimi!
Only 30 years ago no Torontonian, except a few Japanese, would have tried them. Today the city is full of Japanese restaurants doing a thriving business!

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Tags: Chinese, Delicacies

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 14:27 and is filed under Food & Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.