Have you ever eaten Bugs on purpose?

I sure have... but not in any sort of culinary fashion. In 1981 here in New Hampshire and all throughout the Northeast the gypsy moth did some serious damage and I can bear witness to the fact that they were everywhere. A crafty and unusual child was a good way to describe the kid that was me back then and as a child of divorce my single mother had nothing for me as far as cash goes so for me school lunches were bag lunches that consisted of PB&J every single day that was not plain bologna and government cheese.

I came across a plan to fix that. I'm not quite headed where it seems with this. I did not experiment with the gypsy moth as a nutritional substitute for the French bread pizza I so desperately wanted to have for lunch with the rest of my classmates who had the splashy cashy for the hot lunch al la carte line.

I did however start my first business and what I did for dollars was eat gypsy moth caterpillars. I started a freak show. I was 10.

I would eat one gypsy moth caterpillar for one American dollar, kids paid willingly, and that is how I hard earned dollars for the bags of Doritos, sugary red fruit punch in the 16oz carton, and French bread pizza for lunch instead of the usual filled with love but not with taste bag lunches my mother made for me each day. I also earned myself a pretty strong reputation for being the weird kid but that side effect was not all that concerning to me as I was also still hustling the kids out of their lunch money and baseball cards by flipping those cards against that wall at recess. I cut my cards at home alone and they were cut just right.

Really that is my only experience with eating insects but even to this day not much will make me squeamish when it comes to something to eat. I will try anything if the chef says it is good and is willing to eat the culinary creation with me. So yes I'd love to see some more insect oriented appetizers, entrées, and desserts.

Chocolate covered bugs do not count as there is too much taste security in the blanket of chocolate to hide all the squishy green bug juice filled insects to really be considered "eating bugs.

I sure have... but not in any sort of culinary fashion. In 1981 here in New Hampshire and all throughout the Northeast the gypsy moth did some serious damage and I can bear witness to the fact that they were everywhere. A crafty and unusual child was a good way to describe the kid that was me back then and as a child of divorce my single mother had nothing for me as far as cash goes so for me school lunches were bag lunches that consisted of PB&J every single day that was not plain bologna and government cheese.

I came across a plan to fix that. I'm not quite headed where it seems with this. I did not experiment with the gypsy moth as a nutritional substitute for the French bread pizza I so desperately wanted to have for lunch with the rest of my classmates who had the splashy cashy for the hot lunch al la carte line.

I did however start my first business and what I did for dollars was eat gypsy moth caterpillars. I started a freak show. I was 10.

I would eat one gypsy moth caterpillar for one American dollar, kids paid willingly, and that is how I hard earned dollars for the bags of Doritos, sugary red fruit punch in the 16oz carton, and French bread pizza for lunch instead of the usual filled with love but not with taste bag lunches my mother made for me each day. I also earned myself a pretty strong reputation for being the weird kid but that side effect was not all that concerning to me as I was also still hustling the kids out of their lunch money and baseball cards by flipping those cards against that wall at recess. I cut my cards at home alone and they were cut just right.

Really that is my only experience with eating insects but even to this day not much will make me squeamish when it comes to something to eat. I will try anything if the chef says it is good and is willing to eat the culinary creation with me. So yes I'd love to see some more insect oriented appetizers, entrées, and desserts.

Chocolate covered bugs do not count as there is too much taste security in the blanket of chocolate to hide all the squishy green bug juice filled insects to really be considered "eating bugs".

Shadowbear! I'm right on your line with this! I live on an organic farm and do NOT use any chemical poisons, but unfortunately my neighbors still do.

Here in Spain, they eat snails and I've tried them once, but don't like them very much. At least not cooked in tomato sauce. I like the French way of eating snails, with butter parsley and garlic!

Obviously we do have a lot of bugs in the summer here and I could come up with quite a selection of recipes: Crazy, crunchy, curried flea risotto, for example. I'm not a violent person, but I must have killed millions of them this summer (Antje, I told you a thousand times not to exaggerate! ).

Then, every morning in autumn I have to get the spider webs out of my hut! I think a tasty dish could be creamy spider puree on a bed of endive! And, you know, here in Spain (this is true!) they were selling some wrinkle cream containing snail slime.

I don't know how many women put that into their face! But, maybe here's a new green business idea, one can come up with a rejuvenating spider web night cream! And of course!

"God made the fly, but forgot to tell us why! " Well, I think I could do a very delicious "Fly Ragout fin" with wild mushrooms cooked in our very own "Chateau Cobbett Rosé". I don't think we should eat earth worms, although I know some people do.

We really need the little earth worms to improve our depleted soils. And the little Lady Birds we need too. But as to the rest of them, they are high protein and natural food and made into fine flower, we wouldn't even know!

We obviously would have to agree to a humane method of catching and killing them to get the concept past the "Animal Rights People"! I'm all in favor: No chemical poisons - let's just eat the bugs! :).

When I was four, my dad's cousin, who was a missionary in Kenya at the time, came home for furlough. He brought home a number of interesting things, among them chocolate-covered ants, which were/are considered a treat there. They were crunchy, sweet, and a little bitter.

I told this story to my son when he was around 5, and next thing I knew, he was on our front porch, catching ants and eating them! He said he couldn't taste them until his third one, which was a bigger species. He ate it and made a face.It was bitter.

So I guess that's why the ants I tasted as a child were bitter. I've also swallowed a mosquito and several gnats. And according to a news blurb I saw awhile back, everyone eats several spiders during their lifetimes.

Chocolate Covers ants, tastes like hershey crackle but sticks to your teeth a little more.. Then I wanted a granola bar so bad it was covered with lil brown bugs I ate it anyhow.. did not care for the buggey aftertaste.. Sometimes they get into my raspberries but they do not stop me from eating them... But I also know that numerous things we consume on a daily basis have bugs and insects in them.. Especially "red dyes" ice cream products.. I think learning to capture and process bugs is definately a better remedy than pesticides if we do not want to eat them catch them clean them and send them to the countries with people who are starving who in their country eating such a bug is perfectly normal cuisin .. The only bug I don't like to eat is those Asian Lady Beetles those bugs sneak into my meals and drinks then I get a surprise.. a flies are not to bad but I don't think you are meant to eat them either :) I still am a little iffy on trying many more.. I would like to try other chocolate covered bugs eventually. Or fried bugs.. manataka.org/page160.html.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.