Would You Ever Eat an Insect?

Evidence of the practice of eating insects, also known as entomophagy, goes back as far as the Paleolithic era. There are cave paintings depicting edible insects from 36,000 years ago. In ancient Greece, people in rural areas ate Cossus caterpillars, but it was fairly rare. The ancient Romans ate insects with more regularity. They ate insects like locusts, grasshoppers, beetles, ants, and caterpillars—they were both an exotic luxury and an alternative food source during hard times. Everyone’s heard of the French delicacy escargot… but did you know it’s just a fancy word for snails? While snails are technically mollusks, they are commonly thought of as bugs. It is common to eat lobster in the U.S., and they are closely related to scorpions. If you think about it, lobsters are basically just sea bugs!

Cultures all over the world commonly eat crickets, worms, ants, beetles, and grubs. Some cultures also eat arachnids like spiders and scorpions. I have eaten crickets, worms, and ant larvae, and when I was ten years old, my dad tried to pay me $20 to eat a lollipop with a scorpion in the middle (I chickened out). The best bug dish I've ever eaten was a cricket taco from a small Mexican food stand at a farmer's market in Hollister, California. They were seasoned perfectly and actually tasted a bit like chicken. But I could feel their little legs in my mouth! I do not recommend crickets that come pre-packaged; they are definitely better fresh. I didn't really like the worms or the ant larvae, but maybe they were just under-seasoned. They were a little flavorless and a bit too squishy for me. I will give them another try if they're cooked differently. I'm hoping to try escargot and spiders in the future!