For westerners the prospect of eating insects is so far from their psyche that it just does not even compute for 99% of the population. Only those that have been on exotic holidays to Asia or have participated in one of the current raft of reality TV programs would consider doing so but are the rest missing out on something.
Insects are horrible dirty things that crawl on the floor or fly through the air making a nuisance and from an early age we are told they must be ignored but our basic instinct as a young child of 3 or 4 is to eat them.
From a rational view point they are a combination of proteins and sugars along with carbohydrates the same as many of the other food stuffs that we consume, and frequently are "healthier" for us.
Personally I think it has a lot to do with the modern day view to eating - meat comes on tray from the supermarket or mall and not from animals. Because insects are generally small - I would not want to meet a cockroach or grasshopper the size of a cow, they are served intact and it is this aspect of "food" that really puts people off.
Asians have long had a more practical aspect to their food and eat parts of animals that westerners find disgusting but are for many a delicacy so their acceptance of insects as a nutritional part of their diet should not be that surprising.
Deep fried grasshoppers are a particular delicacy and to be frank are a little nutty in flavor and quite nice if served with the spicy pepper or oil that is often sprayed on. The real trick is to pull off the legs and wings and then snap off the head before popping it in to your mouth. it is really embarrassing to pop the whole thing in to your mouth to discover one of the legs is sticking out of your mouth on one side.
Smaller grasshoppers and bugs can be scooped up in the fingers and eaten like you would eat rice with your fingers, a little dry at times and really surprisingly different insects have different flavors.
Numerous studies have shown that the nutritional value of insects, especially in terms of protein is very high and many of them are very low in fats and carbohydrates making them an ideal food source if you are looking for a low carb diet - I just do not understand why this has not taken off in California...
As the world becomes more populated and foodstuffs become scarcer it is almost inevitable that insects are going to have to take a bigger place in our food chain. Did you know that 100 kilos of feed produces 10 kilos of beef but if that same feed was fed to grasshoppers or similar it would produce 40 kilos of food, 4 times the quantity.
So what I suggest is that the next time someone offers you an insect to try don't dismiss them out of hand, give it a go and you might be pleasantly surprised. Just watch out for those annoying wings.....
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