Would you, could you eat that?
A couple of years ago I attended a birthday party where the main feature was a wonderful chocolate cake with whipped cream and raspberries. JA had lovingly baked this cake for her vegan boyfriend MP (Who makes dessert and Reuben exceptions to his vegan eating habits). We had been warned that the aforementioned cake was 'special' in that it included mealworms! As someone who tries to stay open to the idea of eating gnarly, weird or unexpected food items, I felt triple dog-dared into eating the cake. From a group of eight, 50% sampled the "Endlosschrauben Schwarzwalder Kirsch Torte".
Here's a picture of the delicious chocolate raspberry mealworm cake, from JA's website. Click on the picture to see the whole story. (No- those brown bits are actually chocolate flakes). The cake was densely chocolate with a moist and tender crumb. The whipped cream, raspberries and chocolate flakes all contributed to a decadent birthday cake; Unexpectedly good, although I felt a little queasy afterwards (it was all psychosomatic).
Flush with success, JA decided to have pizza with ants for this most recent birthday. Cheeseboard Pizza from the Berkeley co-op, is always tasty. I imagined the ants would be a piquant and interesting spicy taste akin to scattering red pepper across the toppings. I've tasted ants before in Oz at an aborigine reservation, and so I wasn't too concerned about the dietary dilemma of ants. But I confess that I chickened out. Somehow the ants were just too big, and they were looking back at me. My twin sister was brave & took a big bite of pizza, whose crunch you could hear across the room. Based on her tasting notes- musty (not bacon as advertised) and with chewy crunchy bits that stuck in the back of the throat. Altogether I chose to pass on the experience.
But since I've told many friends about the various experiments they're always on the look out for insect meals. So here's the latest, from PB New York Times
As a bunch of geeky scientists, we always talk about things like parasite load and where these critters fit in the food chain. I think for the most part I'm a fan of chordates up, with exceptions for molluscs and marine arthropods.