Buggy about bugs?

Skewered silkworm pupae, a popular street snack in Beijing.

Edible Insects.

"There are so many good and tasty reasons to eat insects that the 20-per-cent minority of Earthlings who don’t practice entomophagy – insect eating – should listen up.

Ants, termites, locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, caterpillars and moths are among some 2000 species of insects enjoyed as snacks and seasonal delicacies by most people in the world, especially those to the South and East who remain closely connected to their aboriginal and folk food heritages."

Read the rest of Wayne Roberts' fascinating foray into the world of edible insects--nutritionally dense, low in cholesterol, and shunned as food by about 20% of the world's population.

"Food safety authorities may be the fly in the ointment, since they’re the ones who insisted on working the bugs out of Western food preparation. They rate insect “infestation” a greater danger than antibiotic “infestation” in cooped-up fish, chicken and cows, or pesticide “infestation” in fruits and veggies. But even our food police permit some bugs to get into our soup. The US Food and Drug Administration allows, for example, up to 75 pieces of insects in 55 millilitres of hot chocolate and up to 60 aphids in a portion of frozen broccoli."

Hmmm.....