edible insects?

Question

OK, this might sound silly, but I have gone crazy with Yahoo!Answers, and I really want to know:

how much of the human diet is/was made up of insects around he world? Where do you find them and how do you prepare/eat them?

Answer 1

Thailand: cicadas, locusts, mantises, crickets and grasshoppers ,bamboobores( fried white babies because they are tiny white insects) ,giant water bug -steamed, also ground into a paste with chilli and eaten with sticky rice
Algeria: locusts are cooked in salt water and dried in the sun.
Australian natives: eat Bogong moths. harvested, cooked in sand and stirred in hot ashes This would burn off the wings and legs. The moths were then sifted through a net to remove their heads before they were eaten by the Aborigines. Some of the moths were ground into paste and made into cakes.
Japan : boiled wasp larvae, fried rice-field grasshoppers, fried cicada , fried silk moth pupae.
Nigeria: termites, crickets, grasshoppers, caterpillars, palm weevil larvae, and compost beetle larvae
Bali :Dragonfly and damselfly
insects are thought to have high protein, lower calories, good in vitamins and minerals
For more info. Log on to www.thalibugs.com

Answer 2

Most bugs are actually safe to eat, especially cooked, but many are not all that tasty. Americans have an aversion to the idea of eating bugs, which is ironic, since most of them eat bugs all the time! All flour, rice and other grains contain a good many insect parts, since bugs live in the crops and are near impossible to remove during harvest, so they end up in the food. The FDA even have "allowable limits" for the "number of insect parts" permitted in all kinds of foods!

There are a number of bugs that are quite delicious!

Answer 3

Red food colouring - cochineal is made from crushed beetles.
Locusts covered in honey and fried are a delicacy in some parts of the world, and what about ants and the witchity grub (which is sometimes eaten uncooked)? I'm ready to eat anything, but I might draw the line at eating live witchity grub.

Answer 4

You've been told about the others.But for termites you need
not do anything at all. Just harvest them and put them strainght
into your mouth. They are ready to eat raw! But crikets and cicadas need frying very very lightly. Beetle grubs and the like
are best boiled or fried lightly.

Answer 5

I would say a good part of the world actually eats insects. I would also say that I personally think it's disgusting. But that's just me. I know in Thialand, I saw people eating spiders, but they cooked them.

Answer 6

The FDA allows a certain amount of insect fragments in food...so you are already eating them

http://archive.salon.com/health/col/roac/2000/01/14/filth_lab/print.html
http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/06/29/how_many_insect_parts_and_rodent_hairs_are_allowed_in_your_food.htm
http://digg.com/health/So_just_how_many_insect_parts_does_the_FDA_allow_in_your_peanut_butter

the red food coloring made from bugs is called carmine.. it is in sometimes red colored drinks and red lipstick and other things
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine

Answer 7

well you can pretty much go in any major candy store and they should have some bugs covered in something. it is actually a delacasy in some places to eat bugs, sometimes just cooked ones with no flavoring. you just eat them, usually when they already come in a package they are fine to eat.

Answer 8

thailand has insect stalls all over the place.

they normally wash the bugs, butter them, then put them on a stick, roast them, then sprinkle flavouring.

and on average, you eat 15 bugs while you sleep, annually.

Answer 9

Gather 2kg of flies, Smoke them over 20 Marlboro lights until wings are gone, sprinkle with pepper & drizzel olive oil, sherry & strawberry juice. Bake in hot oven till top is crispy yet base is like silk & eat with your lover. in bed - off her ***.

Answer 10

Oh yuk! I know it's no worse than eating crabs or shrimp, but yuk anyway.