And I do too, dont get me wrong. They are good and it makes people fat and thats at least in some part, why your country are mine (Mexico) are on the brink of drowning due to the weight of our colective mass. However, we do eat insects, and they are fucking good. At least if you know how to cook them, and that we do. Three absolutely delicious dishes (that even americans would find good if they didnt know what they are), come to mind:
- Gusanos de Maguey, they are lightly sauteed in corn oil and mild spices, served with avocado, obviously freshly hand-made tortillas, and a set of nice green tomato salsas. This are worms that grow in maguey, which is a cousin of the same plant we make tequila out off.... cool, huh?
- Escamoles, absolutely delicious, id say this is the true caviar of insect dishes in mexico, and its expensive by the way. They are the eggs of a kind of ant and are sauteed in butter with parsely and very finely diced onions, maybe a very little bit of garlic. Also served with corn tortillas and very good salsa.
- Chapulines are a snack. This are a kind of wild crickets (we dont go hunting for them behind your sink, obviously), and they are cooked on the comal, the thingie we use to bake tortillas on the kitchen fire (kind of a round, flat pan). When they are on the fire, we sprinkle salt, lime juice, powdered pepper and just toast them there until they are crunchy, munchy and delicious. A pack of those can last a long time outside of the fridge and are a spectacular snack if your camping and doing outdoor sports and that kind of thing.
Now let me say that part of the eek factor of insects is that one imagines eating them raw. This is not how its done, people, you cook the suckers well, using good ingredients and you will never encounter any kind of eeky texture in your mouth. The texture in the case of the gusanos and the chapulines is much like a vegetable that has been toasted or sauteed, and the aroma is a bit tingy, yeah, but if the bugs are fresh, its combines very nice with the spices.
Finaly, people, if you ever go to Queretaro or a very good mexican restaurant in LA (ive heard of a oaxacan one "La guelaguetza" and anotherone from queretaro), and you dont have escamoles, you are a stupid asshole that deserves to eat out of a bag your whole life. Escamoles are a fucking fois gras (without the gavage).
Enjoy.