Field & Stream / OutdoorLife - Outdoor Tactics -
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Published on: 7/23/2001
Last Visited: 7/23/2001
So it was with more than a little trepidation that I introduced myself to Dr. Florence Dunkel , an entomologist who conducts a bug-eating class at Montana State University.Dunkel , a cheerful , white-smocked woman who is a celebrity in bug-eating circles‹she's the expert the producers of Survivor call.
BugaboosMost important , do not eat any insect if you are allergic to shellfish.The chitin that causes a reaction to shellfish is present even in soft-bodied insects and , if ingested , can result in anaphylactic shock , a dramatic constriction of the air passages leading to suffocation.Stay away from brightly colored insects.
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Waiting for class to begin , I leafed through several issues of The Food Insects Newsletter , which Dunkel edits and distributes in 67 countries.The title of a book on the table caught my eye‹Man Eating Bugs : The Art and Science of Eating Insects.
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Dr. Dunkel crooked a finger at me. Here , she said , I want you to try one of these fritters..She handed me a dollop of fried dough that looked like a breaded seed potato , with plump , knobby protuberances suspiciously similar in shape to the fat wax worms writhing in a bowl on the table.
I shut my eyes and took a bite.It wasn't bad.I opened my eyes‹not a good move‹and saw where my front teeth had neatly nipped several of the worms in half.A steamy , creamy ooze leaked from the worms , the other half of which had just slid down my throat.
Isn't that good?.
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Dunkel said she wished she could have used grasshoppers instead of crickets.A fat hopper , she whispered conspiratorially , tasted just like a soft-shelled crab.
At the end of her
The Good , The Not-so-Bad , and the UglyIf you're in need of a quick protein fix , chase the chirp : Grasshoppers , cicadas ( locusts ) , and crickets are common and palatable.Red and black ants are high in proteins , concentrated raw sugars , and formic acid , which gives them a tart but not unpleasant taste.
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class , when the students began to filter out , some a little paler in the face than when they had entered , Dunkel gathered her teaching assistants for a short roundtable on bug-eating basics.She made a point of telling me that the United States was one of only a handful of countries where eating bugs and worms would be at all newsworthy.Insects are considered a delicacy throughout much of the world , with the prices of some species , like the larvae of the African mopane moth , bringing more per pound at food markets than beef.As for survival value , she said , insects should be the very first wild food a hunter stranded in a remote Canadian barrens or Arizona desert turns to.Bugs are packed with protein , fat , and roughage and , except during the dead of winter , are usually available in sufficient quantities to provide enough calories to keep you moving toward help.Furthermore , only a few species are poisonous , and those to avoid are easily recognized ( see Bugaboos on previous page ).
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As I shut my notebook to leave the laboratory , Dunkel invited me to a party she was hosting for her students later that evening.Somebody was preparing an hors d'oeuvre of moth larvae boiled in saltwater , and they were going to watch Arachnophobia and eat bugs dipped in cocktail sauce.
I told her I'd have to think it over.Beaner Dumphy wouldn't have hesitated.
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