Hans:
>H/g people often eat grubs, so why should not we Neanderthinners do?
>Lots of
>protein and fat. I seriously think we are missing something here.
>Anyone who has experience? Wich ones taste best? Roasted or alive?

Raw and kicking, of course. ;)

 Given primates' long history of insect consumption it seems pretty clear
that humans are well-equiped to eat insects. Some European instinctos have
long maintained that insects are superior to meat (equating the
satisfaction level at 10:1, i.e. eating 100 grams of insects is as
satisfyting as 1 kilo of meat). They are especially fond of grasshoppers
and are endlessly tweaking the hoppers' diet to produce "gourmet" flavors.
I remember them raving about some that tasted like some French cheese that
they missed on their raw no-dairy, no-grain diet. I tasted a couple but it
was no great shakes--maybe you have to develop a taste for them.

A Bruno Comby has a book (not yet available in English) which is supposed
to have everything you need to know about insect eating and nurturing. See
http://www.lookup.com/homepages/70485/comby.html

Bee larvae, on the other hand, I have had lots of experience eating. The
"brood" which restricted to the bottom supers in a hive is a very delicious
and powerful food. When my wife and I lived in Thailand we would get a kilo
or so every month or two from semi-wild comb which still had the branch
running through it. The taste is of melted butter, which goes pretty well
with the unavoidable honey. In fact, the overall effect is of waffles with
plenty of syrup and butter. The drier crusty comb has a bready flavor which
goes with the honey (syrup) and brood (butter). You just pop a chunk in
your mouth and chew, sucking the last bit of flavor out before discarding
the wad of comb. The brood you can find in the States (from an
understanding beekeeper) has a much less pronounced bread effect (the wax
is much more waxy) but is very very delicious.

We found after a meal of brood that we weren't much interested in more
brood for several weeks. And we felt like hot snot in a dixie cup ((good)
as opposed to cold boogers under the chair (bad)) for a few hours
afterwards. (Just keeping within the gross-out theme ;))

Growing mealworms on grain has always been in the back of my mind, but I
never get around to it. :/

The fellow below puts out a "Food Insects Newsletter" which is kinda fun.
It is a quarterly but I haven't gotten one in a _long_ time--wonder if it
is still published.

Florence Dunkel Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Entomology
Montana State University
324 Leon Johnson Hall
Bozeman, MT 59717-0302
USA


Cheers,
Kirt

Kirt Nieft / Melisa Secola
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