Eating bugs or the thought of taking highly spiced grasshoppers or fried tarantula may not seem delicious and most people like these insects swatted, squashed, and far from their plates. But, it has been found that these insects contain high amount of nutrients which are very helpful for the health. Starting from protein, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, unsaturated fatty acids to polyunsaturated fatty acids the bugs contain all these nutrients.
David Gordon Fried: The Bug Chef talks about exotic recipes with insects
At present, approximately 2 billion people eat insects across the world, mainly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Beetles, tarantulas, caterpillars, crickets, wasps, bees, and ants are the most extensively consumed bugs. In fact it is said that approximately 1,900 insects are considered not poisonous and are safe to eat.
David Gordon Fried also known as the Bug Chef says that he has been in the habit of speculating why people of few countries do not eat insects while people from other countries in the world eat insects. And this is when he has thought of writing the book Eat-a-Bug Cookbook, which has been published in 1998 by Ten Speed Press. The book includes around forty recipes that use ants and termites to grasshoppers, scorpions and tarantula spiders.
David further added that insects release fewer greenhouse gases than conventional livestock and the insects also release much less methane and ammonia than cattle and pigs. In addition, rearing insects requires less water and land than cattle-rearing. As a result, insect farming can be a more sustainable practice as insects’ do not need much space and can live under all kinds of conditions and can be fed easily.
David also said insects are extremely high in protein and are also high in essential fatty acids, particularly omega-3s. Additionally insects, such as crickets, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and ants, are very high in calcium content. Listed below is one of the recipes of the Bug Chef which has become quite well-liked in the recent times.
Enormous, hairy tarantulas can be used to prepare an interesting delicacy. To prepare this dish apart from tarantulas, oil, tempura batter, garnishes, condiments, salt and garlic are required. The first thing that needs to done to make this delicacy is to get rid of the abdomen of the tarantula and also the hair. Then immerse the tarantula in the tempura batter and place it in the deep fryer for just a minute until it is crunchy and golden in color. Once it is prepared well, place it on the paper towel so that surplus oil can be removed and then garnish it with condiments and add some salt and garlic to add to the taste. The dish is known to contain lots of nutrients and when served with extra salt, garlic and sugar and it becomes all the more delicious.
David Gordon Fried is the award-winning author of The Compleat Cockroach, The Sasquatch Seeker’s Field Manual, The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook and eighteen other titles. At present he stays in Seattle.
