rumrogue\'s rats and worse

[Ken Gargett]

after our friend from the vatican made mention of rat crap in envelope glue, i was reminded of some research i had done for an article a few years ago. this is not just to remind you of such joys as steve mcqueen in 'papillon' scrambling around eating cockroaches or tourists eating fugu fish, but to point out that it is estimated that every person in the western world eats a kilo of insects annually. weevils and flour beetles are common throughout bread. the USA Food and Drug Administration permits certain insects and parts thereof in the production of food.

you may be interested to know - 100 grams of apple butter can legally contain up to five whole insects. ground cinnamon can contain up to 400 insect fragments and 11 rodent hairs per 50 grams.

some 1500 insects have been identified as edible (though i have grave doubts on rodent hairs and where is the rest of the rodent). thailand has an insect fastfood chain 'insects inter' - they are pushing local cinemas to serve crunchy crickets, not popcorn. among grubby delicacies around the world are boiled wasp larvae and fried cicada (japan), fried caterpillar (mexico), roasted scorpions and bamboo worms (thailand), sauteed dragonfly larvae (philippines), roasted sago grubs (PNG) and our own witchetty grubs and roasted bogong moths. north queensland offers both a green ant sauce and green ant tea. any others?

in vietnam, the greatest delicacy is liquid extracted from the bladder of a rare and carniverous male water beetle, known to attack small mammals (it grows to about 8 cms) - ca cuong. it is added to fish dishes. it is so popular that one restaurant has served nothing but this dish for over a century - i can confirm that it is sensational - a bit like a delicate apple cider vinegar. when many refugees fled vietnam, quite a few took vials of this rather than gold - it is that valuable.

in the trade, these joys are apparently known as 'micro-livestock'.

but before you get all iffy about this, i give you two items - tequllia worms and one of our favourite foods which, before we eat it, has been regurgitated by insects. not sure of it? scroll down -

honey.

[JMH]

That was pretty interesting. I don't see why people worry about the 'hidden' stuff in their food. Just let your body take care of it.

[shrink]

Ken, have you forgotten to take your meds again?

[DocRKS]

and here is a tip to put the above info to work for you !!!!

A very good friend heads up the consumer satisfaction group for a major US producer of baked goods and cookies..... He informs me that if they get a complaint letter from a customer saying they found what looks like insect parts or bee parts when they bit into their Fig Newton cookies - the company immediately sends them an apology letter filled with coupons and vouchers for replacement bags of the cookies as well as many promotional discounts that far exceed the original value of the box of fig newtons that may have had the odd bee part in it when the figs were picked and processed.....

Now I know that this FOH forum is only filled with honorable folks who would never take advantage of this information - so I feel safe in posting this here......;-)

[kab55]

This would fall under the category of information I didn't need (or want) to know :-|

[josie67]

» This would fall under the category of information I didn't need (or want)

» to know :-|

No doubt. It's bad enough when I hear the tobacco beetles "popping" in cigars every once in a while (RARELY but still) while smoking, but eating nasty insects is not appealing :-P

[guilow]

Ever have "bird's nest soup". It's Chinese, and it really good. It's made from bird spit.

[El Presidente]

Great Thread Ken.

After eating Frogs Fat and Lotus Soup in China....nothing fazes me anymore. :-D