Eating insects and bugs is common in Thailand, Laos and some South East Asian countries. In Thailand it's popular in the north where they are a good source of protein. The United Nations has even encouraged eating insects to fill the gap of malnutrition with kids in Laos. Don't laugh because these insects are healthier, nutritious and safer than your average industrial farmed meat.
So, when Yanni, an Indonesian woman I met in the guesthouse in Bangkok said she wanted to try bugs because they didn't eat them in Indonesia, I thought she was joking. The part that I thought she was joking was Indonesians didn't eat insects. You see I have this notion that every culture has their own version of weird or odd food item. Food that is common to one culture and unthinkable to another. And of course, we're Asians, we're the go to place for weird food. Surely at least one inhabited island in Indonesia must have a culture of eating insects and bugs.
Yanni, went out that night to get some fried insects. Moonsoon season has hit Thailand and five minutes after she left it started to rain heavy. I was expecting that she had given up but she came back victorious with a plastic bag in her hand. The plastic bag had a little bit of everything:
I've eaten insects before in Pampangga, Philippines. It was cooked stir-fried Adobo style, wings and feet removed, so uhmm it was still a bit saucy. But god bless those Cabalens for it was still pretty good.
I tried the grasshopper first. The Thai version is deep fried, salty and i'm afraid I tasted MSG. The bugs are fried with what I seem to recognize as fragrant pandan leaves . It tasted like fish, or exactly like dilis (crispy anchovies). Not bad.
The cricket had the same taste although a bit more crunchy in texture. This one had a weird aftertaste. Like old butterball candy that has lost it sweetness and just tasted, expired. Yikes. The funnest (is that a word) to eat was the beetle. It was crunchy and it sounded like you were eating pork cracklings. Ok, I said as if one was eating pork cracklings or chicaronnes but I wasn't exactly craving for more after the first bite.
In summary, would I eat bugs again? If it was cooked a different style and provided it was a different insect, sure why not. But if I want to eat something fishy again, I would just eat crispy fried dilis.
