Bugs

[short 215]

Which bugs have you tried and which do you recommend?

 

Where do you go for the freshest and tastiest?

 

What is the best way to prepare them?

 

Are they heart healthy?

[Harvey 249]

Which bugs have you tried and which do you recommend?

 

Where do you go for the freshest and tastiest?

 

What is the best way to prepare them?

 

Are they heart healthy?

 

 

I used to bring a bag of fried grasshoppers to the old FLB (when Pete ran it) to share with the girls and go with a cold beer. They're pretty addictive. (They teach you to pull the head off and what looks like a spine attached to the head follows -- that always confused me because I thought all insects were invertebrates. But I digress).

 

The big flat cockroaches they also sell are gross. And I couldn't get my mind wrappd around eating scorpions.

 

But those fried grasshoppers go well with anything on tap that's cold. The Issan girls will sit there and happily eat them with youu too.

 

Someone who's not just a tourist like me, please help me with the Thai word for them. Sounded a lot like tuk-a-tan.

[Chang_paarp 253]

Bugs are very nutritious if cooked correctly. The alternative lifestylers point out they require a lot less resources to produce a given amount of protein. To this end they are often talking about worms of different species.

 

I was introduced to the joys of bugs by a European chef who worked in a 5 star hotel in BKK. He pointed out that one of the big downfalls of the the ones found on the street is that they are often cooked in oil well past its use by date, this affects both flavour and health aspects.

 

I have eaten grasshoppers cooked on a cigarette lighter, and some fried in dubious oil. Funnily the lighter method was OK but that could have been the lao kao I was drinking with the boys in the jungle.

 

Another tasty one to try is the ant mix. It is ants dry fried (no oi) with lots of chilli and lemongrass, can be very spicy if you are not up to the spice probably best avoided.

 

The big cockroach looking things are often water beetles. Not tried them. Again fresh oil will improve the taste.

[BigusDicus 9,881]

I have heard rumors that sometimes the bugs are killed with insecticides...?