[HN Gopher] Tips from an Avid Cicadas Eater
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Tips from an Avid Cicadas Eater
Author : giuliomagnifico
Score : 16 points
Date : 2021-06-06 17:49 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
| hn8788 wrote:
| My wife's friend has seen a few people eating raw cicadas this
| year. She said they just walk down the road in her neighborhood
| picking and eating them like they're wild blueberries.
| m3kw9 wrote:
| Good for her.
| indy wrote:
| http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
|
| This story surfaces every few years.
|
| "Eat bugs, they're good for you"
|
| "Eat bugs, they're high in protein"
|
| "Eat bugs, look, this high status person with a PhD eats them."
|
| Please ignore this story and don't eat the bugs
| oxfordmale wrote:
| I ordered some edible snack bugs from Amazon, but they are
| still very pricey compared to a bag of nuts. I wouldn't mind
| eating more of them, however, it is not cost effective quite
| yet.
| godelski wrote:
| > Please ignore this story and don't eat the bugs
|
| I mean what I learn from the above is that bugs won't kill you
| if eaten. So why not eat bugs? (We can also ask why eat bugs)
| Are they actually bad for you?
| ethanbond wrote:
| Cultural norms primarily
| zdragnar wrote:
| Surprise allergies to them are unpleasant (don't eat cicadas
| if you have a shellfish allergy).
| amelius wrote:
| Too late: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-43786055
|
| Food colorant E120 is crushed insects.
| rowanG077 wrote:
| That is as close to eating an insect as eating peanut butter
| is to eating rats.
| luc4sdreyer wrote:
| You're saying this is a PR piece? The story didn't claim that
| there are any benefits to eating Cicadas, and hardly made a
| case that they taste wonderful.
|
| If this is a PR piece, who's standing to gain from it? Your
| comment seems overly cynical.
| foobiter wrote:
| your link isn't even a good comparison, suits are a fading
| anachronism... bugs are a slow drag attempting to normalize a
| valid food source
|
| the biggest reason i don't eat more cricket flour is that
| production hasn't grown enough to bring prices down
| ewired wrote:
| Free edible insects in the wellness chamber on Aisle X! Get 'em
| while they're hot!
| pmoriarty wrote:
| _" Please ignore this story and don't eat the bugs"_
|
| How much of a difference is there really between terrestrial
| insects and enormously popular underwater insects like shrimp,
| crabs, and lobsters?
| rajacombinator wrote:
| One of the great questions of the 2020s is - why are they
| pushing the bugs? Cui bono?
| ethanbond wrote:
| Because we are trending toward too many people and not enough
| protein. Not a ton of mystery there.
| X6S1x6Okd1st wrote:
| Why do you believe that we are running low on protein? Meat
| maybe, but I'm under the impression that plant based
| protein is plenty sufficient.
| slumdev wrote:
| Having eaten some bugs myself, I can tell you that they are
| disgusting even when properly cooked and seasoned.
|
| The legs and exoskeleton are very, very hard, but not quite
| crunchy either. Like chewing on a number of small plastic
| toothpicks.
|
| This is a fad that will not replace meat.
| tomjen3 wrote:
| Having eaten fried meal worm a couple of times, I can only say
| that it is actually really good.
|
| If people don't like the exoskeleton then it may be like
| lobstor: people don't eat that part and it gets processed
| differently (just like people don't eat chicken bones, which
| gets processed into food we do eat). I honestly don't see that
| as an issue.
|
| The issue is that it will be in addition to meat, not instead
| of meat. Meat is tasty and the government that makes it too
| expensive in a misguided attempt to save the environment (can't
| be done, we will have to live with global warming or begin the
| geoengineering stuff yesterday) will just become unpopular with
| the population.
|
| The other issue is that I can serve beef, chicken etc to
| guests. I can buy some bugs as a curiosity snack and have them
| in the kitchen, I can't serve them as any part of the meal,
| without it being looked down on.
| voisin wrote:
| What about grinding them into a flour, which I understand is
| super high in protein and delicious but admittedly never had an
| opportunity to try myself.
| jaggs wrote:
| I have eaten insect flour chocolate brownies in a restaurant.
| They taste similar to a regular brownie, but are a little
| more gritty. If that slightly unpleasant texture could be
| removed, and the base ingredient given a more palatable name
| - eg sky chicken - then the flour could definitely take off
| as a food staple IMHO.
| slumdev wrote:
| If you ground them up, that would solve the texture problem.
| The only drawback would be the accumulation of herbicides,
| metals, and radionuclides in their flesh. Highly appetizing.
| grawprog wrote:
| I remember trying some salt and vinegar flavoured fried crickets
| years ago. I was disappointed in their lack of vinegar flavour.
| It's hard to find a good salt and vinegar flavoured thing that
| actually tastes like vinegar.
|
| The crickets themselves, they were just like eating any other
| fried crispy thing. They were also overpriced and rather
| insubstantial compared to other similar fried crispy snacks.
| briefcomment wrote:
| Cicadas bio-accumulate mercury [1]
|
| [1]https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040531214618.h..
| .
| JoeyBananas wrote:
| > The higher levels, he said, approach those in fish that have
| earned government warnings.
|
| So they're probably not any worse than fish
| wavefunction wrote:
| Yeah, probably not any worse than fish (well, specific
| varieties of fish that have been found to have deleterious
| levels of mercury and received cautions against consumption).
| amelius wrote:
| In one specific organ?
| giuliomagnifico wrote:
| Uhm thanks, I didn't know this, that's not a good news (from
| 2004, hope other researchers have been made) but also a lot of
| other foods accumulate mercury (fishes for example).
| saul_goodman wrote:
| I suspect we'll be getting cockroach burger articles more
| frequently, the WEF has been pushing this for a bit now:
| https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/07/good-grub-why-we-migh...
|
| Don't get me wrong, once we can grow real steaks in a petri dish
| I'm all in. Until then, I'm too old for this $!@#.
|
| And we're actually closer to being able to grow steaks than some
| folks realize. The problem right now is obviously a bunch of
| muscle cells in a dish is not a steak, you need them forming
| organs. Badow: https://youtu.be/L43-XE1uwWc?t=2561
| at_a_remove wrote:
| Ah, the World Economic Forum, of the now-deleted Tweet about
| how you will own nothing and you will be happy. Little early on
| the dystopia there, guys, try waiting a bit more.
| ethanbond wrote:
| Ah yes what an insane idea to consider in a world where
| people happily pay for monthly access to books, movies,
| apartments, transportation, and so on.
|
| Food is actually the one thing that jumps out to me as
| "definitely purchased" which makes sense given the necessary
| consumption pattern.
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