# Gagh anyone?



## farntfar (Jan 13, 2021)

"Riker says Yum!"
Yellow mealworm safe for humans to eat, says EU


----------



## HareBrain (Jan 13, 2021)

Shouldn't the wording in the link be "says euwwwwww"?


----------



## Wayne Mack (Jan 13, 2021)

Let go of your biases, people. When we visit my wife's family in Thailand, it is quite often that we have fried cricket. These are a white bodied insect that Kunyi (Grandmother) fries in a wok with oil and fresh garlic. The texture is a quick crunch similar to a potato chip and the flavor is that of fried garlic. I'm not sure the crickets truly have a flavor of their own.

Fried insects are quite popular in Thailand and a quick internet search will come back with many hits. One: Thailand Insect Food: Eating Fried Insects in Thailand | THAIest


----------



## RJM Corbet (Jan 13, 2021)

Long string of four letter words discouraged under _Chrons_ code of conduct ...


----------



## Biskit (Jan 13, 2021)

Funnily enough, I just put a handful of these out for the birds. The bag does say "not for human consumption" but they actually smell borderline appetising.


----------



## Dave (Jan 13, 2021)

Yes, the birds can't get enough of them.



Wayne Mack said:


> These are a white bodied insect that Kunyi (Grandmother) fries in a wok with oil and fresh garlic.


Little different to prawns, langoustine tails, or even snails.

They are very high in protein and in the future we will have little choice other than to eat them (if we are to eat less red meat) however, I think they will be sold more as a mince or a powder so as not to offend sensibilities. Otherwise, the viewing figures for _I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here_ wouldn't be quite as high as there would be no shock value.


----------



## farntfar (Jan 13, 2021)

I'm sure they're very nourishing, and it's probably more about how you serve them than what they taste like themselves; much like snails. 

My question is rather' how they'll be cultivated. 
Presumably there will have to be some allowed to go on to the adult stage, in order to create the next generation. 
What do the adult flies ( I assume) look like, and how will they keep them on the farm?


----------



## mosaix (Jan 13, 2021)

What puts me off is that everything (I think) of animal origin that I eat has been cleaned i.e. has had its gut removed. I can't see that ever happening with mealworms.


----------



## farntfar (Jan 13, 2021)

Or snails or prawns or anything very small really, Mosaix. (Monty Python's Crunchy frog chocolates?)


----------



## HareBrain (Jan 13, 2021)

mosaix said:


> What puts me off is that everything (I think) of animal origin that I eat has been cleaned i.e. has had its gut removed.



Never had whitebait?


----------



## Biskit (Jan 13, 2021)

farntfar said:


> What do the adult flies ( I assume) look like, and how will they keep them on the farm?


After I put some out for the birds, I got curious and looked it up. The adult is actually a black beetle called (*drummroll*) the mealworm beetle.











						Mealworm - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


----------



## .matthew. (Jan 13, 2021)

Dave said:


> Little different to prawns, langoustine tails, or even snails.
> 
> They are very high in protein and in the future we will have little choice other than to eat them (if we are to eat less red meat) however, I think they will be sold more as a mince or a powder so as not to offend sensibilities.



I find those foods gross as well. But having them or mealworms mulched into mince and powder wouldn't bother me so much. Sort of a whole how the sausage is made type deal, I know what's in them, I just wouldn't want to see the parts intact 

Insects like this are good for providing nutrition with a small footprint so I actually consider it something we should be doing more of.


----------



## mosaix (Jan 13, 2021)

farntfar said:


> Or snails or prawns or anything very small really, Mosaix. (Monty Python's Crunchy frog chocolates?)



I do believe that they remove that black thread from prawns don’t they? Or am I wrong?


----------



## mosaix (Jan 13, 2021)

HareBrain said:


> Never had whitebait?



Nope.


----------



## Guttersnipe (Jan 13, 2021)

If only invertebrates looked more appetizing. The reason I don't eat things that look like they were once alive is the reason I steer clear of Cornish hens.


----------



## Alex The G and T (Jan 14, 2021)

Puffy, my daughter's pet Bearded Dragon used to love those things. I was never inclined to try one for myself.

*****
How to clean the guts of escargot:  Put them on  a bed of cornmeal, about 12 hours, until the feces turn from greenish-black to cornmeal.  Simple.


----------



## Foxbat (Jan 14, 2021)

I’ve eaten snails and whitebait and quite enjoyed them. First time I tried them was the hardest. I think the pyschological barrier is more of a problem than anything else and would guess the same would apply to eating insects.


----------



## Vladd67 (Jan 14, 2021)

On a trip to Cape Town I was taken to a popular fish restaurant. It was a minor disappointment that the special of the day was English Channel Whitebait. As I remember it was tasty it just seemed a long way to go to get some.


----------



## CupofJoe (Jan 14, 2021)

There was a pub near me that in the 80s it was run by South Africans***. Among their bar snacks were a dozen types of biltong [including Crocodile, Ostrich and I think Lion...], roasted honey covered locusts and something that I remember being like a centipede on-a-stick. I was never brave enough to try the centipede, but I remember the Locusts being like sweet corn nuts. I can remember it making me cough.
If the world wants to rely on animal protein in its diet, then we are probably going to have to get to like insects in all their [in]finite varieties.
Expect Witchetty Grub "scampi" some time soon.
*** Sadly, it is long closed and now a series of homes/flats


----------



## HareBrain (Jan 14, 2021)

CupofJoe said:


> Expect Witchetty Grub "scampi" some time soon.



I was going to point out that the quote marks are redundant, as most scampi already is "scampi", i.e. monkfish.

However! I thought I'd better check, and this hasn't been the case for at least 15 years, thanks to regulations. Sometimes things actually do get better.



CupofJoe said:


> If the world wants to rely on animal protein in its diet, then we are probably going to have to get to like insects in all their [in]finite varieties.



True enough, but there is also a major source of high-quality animal protein likely to cause severe environmental damage in the UK unless something is done with it -- venison. The best thing to do with the excess deer is cull and eat them, but instead we're importing farmed venison from New Zealand. Madness.


----------



## CupofJoe (Jan 14, 2021)

HareBrain said:


> I was going to point out that the quote marks are redundant, as most scampi already is "scampi", i.e. monkfish.
> However! I thought I'd better check, and this hasn't been the case for at least 15 years, thanks to regulations. Sometimes things actually do get better.


I didn't know that. But scampi now does eat better than it did in my childhood.



HareBrain said:


> True enough, but there is also a major source of high-quality animal protein likely to cause severe environmental damage in the UK unless something is done with it -- venison. The best thing to do with the excess deer is cull and eat them, but instead we're importing farmed venison from New Zealand. Madness.


But the imported Venison is 1p a kilo cheap!!!!  
What I don't get is how a lot of the seafood like Scampi that is caught in the UK is airfreighted to Vietnam and other places to be processed and then airfreighted back. That about 24000km of airmiles for some shelled prawns. If and when I buy scampi I try to fine those processed in the UK.
Wow... I'm talking way too much about scampi....


----------



## HareBrain (Jan 14, 2021)

CupofJoe said:


> Wow... I'm talking way too much about scampi....



But are you singing about it yet?


----------



## CupofJoe (Jan 14, 2021)

HareBrain said:


> But are you singing about it yet?


Thank you for that! I had almost forgotten about the Fingerbobs!


----------



## Danny McG (Jan 14, 2021)

Dirty dirty swine the lot of you!
I bought an ice lolly once and the 'big sell' was they'd put lots of ants into the fruit juice before they froze it - I didn't initially realise and spat it out when I did.

I even stopped eating Turkish Delight a few years ago (a lifelong like of mine) because I learned they coloured it with cochineal, once I realised what that was I shuddered and couldn't eat it.

Actually I think I tried crickets in a honey glaze at a catering stall in some festival, that doesn't count due to the large amount of alcohol in my system


----------



## RLBeers (Jan 14, 2021)

I remember the Next Gen episode where the command officers were seated at dinner and Picard's reaction when the cover was taken away. Those worms were still alive. I guess like gagch, best eaten live?


----------



## RLBeers (Jan 14, 2021)

Foxbat said:


> I’ve eaten snails and whitebait and quite enjoyed them. First time I tried them was the hardest. I think the psychological barrier is more of a problem than anything else and would guess the same would apply to eating insects.


Gooseneck barnacles are considered quite a treat along the French coast and across the straight in the UK.


----------



## HoopyFrood (Jan 14, 2021)

I've eaten crispy mealworms before, a friend got a tiny packet of them for me from some hipster shop that sold them as novelty alternative crisps. Nothing especially remarkable about them apart from just getting over that initial feeling of 'ick, weird food'.


----------



## Foxbat (Jan 15, 2021)

RLBeers said:


> Gooseneck barnacles are considered quite a treat along the French coast and across the straight in the UK.


I didn’t know you could eat barnacles


----------



## RLBeers (Jan 15, 2021)

Foxbat said:


> I didn’t know you could eat barnacles


Buried somewhere in the bowels of YouTube is a video of Jeremy Clarkson having some at the sea's edge. He appears wild about them. Gooseneck, not the other varieties.


----------



## RLBeers (Jan 15, 2021)

Story idea: written from a food source's perspective. Hmmm...


----------



## Danny McG (May 16, 2021)

Dave said:


> Little different to prawns


Aaaand I've just today learned that prawns are the same family as a woodlouse.

#Tasty Seafood that I now won't ever be able to eat again


----------



## W Collier (May 16, 2021)

Found mealworms and the like available at a cafe in... I think it was a major city aquarium, perhaps, though I can't remember which one.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Anyway, tried them.  Mild, nutty flavor, crunch like a snack food.  I second HoopyFrood from above: nothing particularly wild about them.  Probably healthier than typical bland mass-market snacks, though...


----------



## tinkerdan (May 17, 2021)

The US food and drug regulations for chocolate items includes the phrase:
may contain x% insect parts.
or
Must contain no more that x% insect parts.

Something like that.


----------



## BAYLOR (Jul 19, 2021)

farntfar said:


> "Riker says Yum!"
> Yellow mealworm safe for humans to eat, says EU
> 
> 
> View attachment 74752



No thank you  !


----------



## Ursa major (Jul 19, 2021)

Wayne Mack said:


> it is quite often that we have fried cricket


Cricket, eh? I expect there'll be various types...



...from those where there's one day, to those where there are five days, of runs....


----------

