Insect Cuisine by Shochi Uchiyama

On this site are several articles about edible insects (among other creatures.) Below is an expanding collection of more than 50 edible insects. I plan to localize it. There is, depending on who’s counting,  an estimated 1,462 species of edible insects.  While the numbers fluctuate this includes about 235 species of butterflies and moths, 344 species of beetles, 313 species of ants, bees, and wasps and 239 species of grasshoppers, crickets and cockroaches… yes cockroaches… Insects are commonly eaten in 13 countries by two billion people. They provide not only economical and excellent nutrition but new flavors and textures as well. I personally have eaten several insects below, in one form or another, some times in juvenile form or adult, a few both, usually intentionally.

The list has a world view though the families of edible insects most often found in North American where I am based are: Grasshoppers (Orthoptera acrididae) crickets (Orthoptera gryllidae) metallic wood-borers (Coleoptera buprestidae) long-horn beetles (Coleoptera cerambycidae) weevils (Coleoptera curculionidae) mealworns (Coleoptera tenebrionidae) bees (Hymenoptera apidae) and ants (Hymenoptera formicidae.)

While there are exceptions the following insects are usually avoided: Adult insects that either sting or bite; insects that are covered with hair; brightly colored insects; disease-carrying insects; any insect that gives off a strong odor and spiders, which are not insects… too many legs…  (and when the site was upgraded the photos were displaced. Still working to get them sorted out.)

Acorn Grub

Acorn Grubs:  Inside many acorns in the fall is a small grub, cream colored, tan, a reddish brown head, no legs and fat in the middle. It eats bitter acorn meat but is not bitter itself. The grub can be eaten raw — chewy — or cooked, buttery with no hint of oak or tannins. Laid by one of several beetles, the grub will grow in comparison to the size of the acorn. Eventually it will chew a small hole in the leathery shell and squeeze out. As it is pliable the hole will be much smaller than the grub but the grub will squeeze through. Then a mother moth will come along and put her eggs in through the hole left by the grub. Those grow into a worm with legs. Those are edible, too according to entomologist I know. One more thing: If you cook the grubs do it slowly or break them open. They can explode. To read more about acorn grubs click here. To see my video click here.

Agave Worms

Agave Worm: Actually larvae, they were never associated with booze until 1950 when they were added to mescal as a marketing gimmick. Now they are associated with Tequila which is technically a mescal product. Also known as the maguey worm, they are the larvae of either the Hypopta agavis moth or the Aegiale hesperiaris. When not pickled in alcohol they are coral in color but fade when preserved in methanol. The “worms” are a common food without Tequila in Mexico

Best parched or roasted

Ants, Carpenter: While the name might fit they should have been called syrup ant, or sap ants. Some 99% of their diet is liquid, usually from aphids or vegetation. They’re called carpenter ants because they build nests in wood. In the process of hollowing out a dead log or a damp house support they leave a pile of sawdust. Among the largest ants in North America then can be any color but are usually black, sometimes red, sometimes a combination. They are smooth bodies and release a foul odor when disturbed, hence eating them raw, while possible, is not the best means of consumption. They also nip harmlessly but annoyingly. Native Americans parched them. They would make a large screening basket out of willow then put the entire ant’s nest and hot coals in the basket then winnow out the ants, ashes, parts of the nest and coals.

Escamoles

Ants, Escamoles: Escamoles are the larvae of the large and venomous black Liometopum ant, which makes its home in the dried, woody parts of maguey and agave plants. The eggs resemble cottage cheese with a buttery, nutty taste. As one can imagine the large, toxic ants don’t give up the eggs easily making them expensive plus they are available only seasonally.  Called “Insect Caviar” they are often served in guacamole or sauteed with butter, onion, cilantro and epazote. They can be up to 60% protein.

Leaf Cutter Ants

Ants, Flying: Tequila is not the only thing served with salt and lime. Called Sompopos de Mayo in Guatemala Flying Ant queens are collected and roasted on a clay griddle with salt and lime juice. The flavor is on par with  buttery pork rinds. Available in May, which is the beginning of the rainy season, only the back end is cooked and eaten. One can buy them already separated by vendors.

Honeypot Ant

Ants, Honeypot: Found in areas like South America and Australia they were a delicacy for the Aboriginals. Honeypot ants are an ant’s solution to storage problems. The big-belly ants are fed nectar causing their abdomens to swell. The nectar-like substance is then used to feed other ant. The problem is ants aren’t a collective of dummies. The Honeypot Ant are buried deep in the hard packed earth, some three to five feet down and you have to contend with irritated ants every foot of the way. But in a time when there was no sugar or candy Honeypot Ants were the original treat, a comfort food even if it does have legs that wiggle. They are closely related to carpenter ants.

Leaf Cutter Ant

Ants, Leafcutter: Thirty-eight or forty-seven species of ant are called leafcutters, depending on who’s counting. They are also called Hormigas Culonas in Spanish which means ant with a big butt. I never could figure that out because their heads are much larger than their buts. Leafcutter ants use foliage to grow a fungus for food. The species are divided into two genera, Atta and Acromyrmex. If you’re wondering, the Attas have three pairs of spines and a smooth exoskeleton. The Acromyrmex have four pairs of spines and a rough exoskeleton. They can have nests 100 feet across containing some eight million ants. Bon appetit. Their flavor is like a bacon-ish pistachio. In Colombia they are the local “popcorn” at movie theaters.

Lemon Ants already plated

Ants, Lemon:  For such a little ant it has a large name: Myrmelachista schumanni. Found in the South American jungle their claim to fame, other than tasting like lemons, is they exude a kind of herbicide — formic acid — that kill all plants in a large area except the one tree they nest in, the Duroia hirsuta. Wait, you say, isn’t formic acid the acid makes fire ants fiery? Yep, but the Lemon Ants don’t sting you with it and that is why they taste lemony. They prefer the Duroia hirsuta because its branches are hollow thus they are out of the weather and protected.  One Lemon Ant’s nest is thought to be 807 years old and three million strong. Tiny, you break off or open a branch and have at them, a jungle treat.

Weaver Ants Bite

Ants, Weaver: There’s good news and there’s bad news. They are edible. They also bite. Take a look at the picture. Several ants are tugging on a leaf to make a nest with. See those jaws holding the leaf? They can bite you, too. So, you either collect them carefully and cook away or… you grab the ant from the front, crushing it and eat the back end. These ant eat other insects so they are aggressive. They have been used at least 1,600 years as biological controls in and around gardens and the like. Weaver ants are completely arboreal, read you will find them on plants, in shrubs and on trees, not in the ground. Their eggs are sold in Thailand and the Philippines and taste creamy. The adults are sour and have been mixed into rice for flavoring. One particular species in Australia, Oecophylla smaragdina, is called the Green Ant because is back end is green. They bite but not badly, irritating rather than painful. One opens the nest and reaches in for the eggs. You crush the eggs and ants together and down they go. The lemony flavor and aroma clear congestion and the like. They also are used to make a lemonade like drink. For some unknown reason the ants do not get bacterial infections, which is of interest to scientists. In Asia weaver ants are red.

Wood Ants’ Nest

Ants, Wood: I suppose one could eat adult wood ants but its their eggs that are usually on the menu. Also called Formica Ants, they make large debris nest mostly in forests. A large Wood Ant’s nest can be raided a couple of times a year without harm. On a sunny day put a tarp on the ground. Put branches and the like on the tarp then fold the tarp over the branches leaving a sunny spot in the middle and shade around the edges. Dig into the nest and dump the ants, eggs and debris into the middle of the tarp. The ants will carry the eggs away from the middle to the shade where you can collect them. Eaten raw or cooked their flavor is similar to shrimp.

Bamboo Worms

Bamboo Worms: Find the Grass Moth, find its larvae, and you have a Thailand treat, Bamboo Worms. Like the Agave Worm above, not really a worm, it is usually served fried. These are a gourmet treat. You can buy them from vendors on the street or dried and bagged for international shipments. During their life cycle the larva eat their way up through several sections of the bamboo and when ready to emerge they return to the bottom to eat their way out. Most locals know when this is to happen and the worms become food.

Bee Larva

Bees: Yes, the ones that occasionally sting you because you irritated it. While adult bees are eaten, usually roasted, sometimes ground into flour, more popular is bee larva. They are baked, fried or deep fried. Thus cooked bee lava become flaky, their flavor nutty to caramel. Pallets disagree with opinions on taste ranging from sunflower seeds to shrimp to pork cracklings. Cooked bee larva are also often covered in chocolate and sold as a gourmet item, particularly in Mexico.

Big Fella Bogon Moth

Bogong Moth, Agrotis infusa, is a migrating night-flying moth in Australia. They gather in high elevation caves in the summer months in huge quantities, a fact not missed by the Aboriginals. They would travel from the lowlands to eat the tasty, high protein — 24% — fatty food that is also high in potassium. The moths were either killed or stupefied by the heat and smoke then their bodies collected. After collection the moths were cooked in sand and stirred in hot ashes. This burned off the wings and legs. They were then sifted through a net to remove their heads. Then they were eaten. Sometimes the cooked moths were ground into paste and made into cakes. “Bogong” may mean “Big Fella.” Aussie tucker cafe Ironbark in Canberra serves a brandy-flavoured bogong moth fritter with boab root.

Maggoty Cheese, Casa Marzu

Casa Marzu: Perhaps this should not be included but… It’s a Pecorino cheese that has been allowed to rot and become permeated with fly maggots, specifically Piophila casei. The sheep-milk cheese not only gets infested with maggots but they also digest the cheese and relieve themselves in the cheese, adding the flavor. Actually the acid in their digestive tract breaks down the fat in the cheese. The result is a smooth, very strong cheese. The cheese is eaten, maggots and all. The European Economic Union made it illegal for a while but it is now viewed as a “traditional” food and thus legal. Incidentally, the maggots can jump up to six inches.

Centipedes on a stick

Centipedes: Generally said centipedes are preferred over millipedes. Centipedes, however, have pincers and can bite but once the head is removed they are tiny crustaceans for consumption after cooking. Millipede definitely have to be cooked and are found as a street food in Asia. Some millipedes some have little hydrogen cyanide glands and can exude foul smelling liquid if handled. That’s why the street vendors charge the prices they do. Centipedes are insect eaters, millipedes are vegetarians. Centipedes have one set of legs per segments, millipedes have two sets of legs per segments.

Cicada

Cicada, Katydids: There’s some 2,500 species of Cicadas, which is dead Latin for “tree cricket.” Greeks call them tzitzikas after the sound they make. Periodical cicadas, found only in the Eastern US,  can live underground for up to 17 years before emerging and molting into adults. Other Cicada are annual. Right after molting they are soft and tasty. Female cicadas are plumper and preferred fare. In some species the Cicada can get up to six inches long. They are usually skewered and deep fried, or fried. Incidentally, in Ancient Greece the upper classes preferred Cicadas to locust. Local Cicadas can be green, brown or black.

Deep-Fried Cockroach

Cockroach: Yep, La Cucuracha. They are not only very edible but very clean. Of course, the main idea is to raise them intentionally and feed them a healthy diet such as fresh fruits and vegetables. It takes at least 48 hours to clean out their digestive system. Not the brightest of insects they can live several days without a head, eventually dying from lack of water. They can be eaten toasted, fried, sauteed, or boiled. Don’t eat them raw. Large hissing cockroaches taste like greasy chicken.  I have not tried Florida’s hissing palmetto bugs yet. They smell bad when alive. I’ll let you know.

Fried Crickets

Crickets are probably the most widely consumed insect. Even American Natives were known to roast them up along with grasshoppers. The natives would dig a relatively deep hole in a field and put wood in it. Then they would drive the insects in the field towards the hole. Once the insects were in the hole the fire was lit. When the flames died down they had a bug in. Crickets are about as inoffensive as an insect can get. They are eaten fried, sauteed, boiled, and roasted. Don’t overlook their relatives, the mole crickets.  Also see Kamaro.

Egg batter for dragonflies

Dragonfly and Damselfly: Do you know how to tell the difference? Damselflies fold up their wings, Dragonflies do not. They are eaten in Indonesia and China, larval and adult form. In Bali they are caught with sticks smeared with a sticky sap. Eaten boiled, fried, or grilled on the barbie. Wings are usually removed before cooking unless going over the charcoal. Here they are being dipped in egg before cooking. Boiled in coconut milk with ginger and garlic is also a favored means of preparation. Photo courtesy of Girl Meets Bug.

Choice Dung Beetle

Dung Beetle: The name says it all. They live under fresh cow dung. Before you hurl your supper let’s ponder this for a moment. Commercial dung beetles are cleaned, dehydrated and seasoned. While indeed inhabiting cow patties those cows are living off off organic grass and rice plants and the patty is just predigested fodder. Despite their humble beginnings dung beetles are among the most tasty of insects, crunchy and full of protein. Usually they’re fried. In South America white dung beetles are on the menu and are often cooked with pork and vegetables. “Cleaning” means their abdomens are removed before cooking. Photo courtesy of Girl Meets Bug.

Fly Pupae

Fly, House: You’re not going to want to hear this but the common house fly is like so many edible insects. Its pupae resemble red capsules and have a fatty acid similar to fish oil. Eating them provides a bit of crunch with a rich flavor, some say like blood pudding. They can be parboiled and fried, or just fried. Given the habit of some flies it best to raise your own on wholesome fly food.

Eaten raw or roasted

Golden Orb Spider, Giant Wood Spider:  Among the few spiders that are eaten is Nephila maculata, found in warm areas of the Pacific. Here in the southern U.S.  we have a relative, Nephila clavipes called the Banana Spider. Will have to try one when the opportunity presents itself. The Nephila maculata is eaten raw or roasted (sealed in a green bamboo tube over fire until the tube is blackened. The spiders split open.)  The flavor, with salt, is a cross between a raw potato and lettuce with a peanut butter after taste. A close relative to the Nephila is also eaten, the tent-web spider, Cyrtophora moluccensis. While nutrition and flavor are factors so, too, is size. All of these spiders are on the large size making them worth the calories expended to collect them. Adult female Nephila have about three grams of protein each. Don’t confuse the Nephila with a toxic spider of the same common name from South America, the Phoneutria fera, which looks like a skinny tarantula. They don’t look alike at all but have the same common name. The Nephila is called the Banana Spider because the back end often is yellow. The Phoneutria is called the Banana Spider because it hitches rides north on bunches of bananas and is poisonous.

Grasshoppers Galore

Grasshopper: Not all grasshoppers are edible. Look for solid colored ones, black, green or brown. Multicolored ones can be toxic, as is the huge lubber here in Florida. In Mexico  grasshoppers, called chapulines, are roasted then eaten with chili and lime. Native American did the same thing with grasshoppers as they did crickets, drive them into a deep dug hole in the middle of the field with wood in it then light a quick fire and have roasted hoppers. They are a good source of protein and calcium. In Africa the Nsenene grasshopper is a Ugandan delicacy. Some farmers eat grasshoppers raw after removing the guts.

Tomato and Tobacco Hornworms

Hornworm:  Tomato and Tobacco Hornworms can be fried but there is a word of caution. The plants they are usually found on, tomato and tobacco leaves, are not good for humans to eat. So unless you raise the hornworms on a specific diet wild hornworms have to be either starved for a few days or fed food they like and we can eat. Fortunately, green peppers fits that need perfectly. Their flavor is a combination of tomatoes, shrimp, and crab. If it has a red horn is a tobacco worm, black horn is tomato worm. You would have thought they would have reversed that. Entomologists are apparently no more logical than botanists. To read more, click here.

June Bugs

June Bug: June bugs (Phyllophaga) are a fairly safe bug for anyone to start with because there are no toxic look-alikes and they tend to eat inoffensive stuff, read organic matter. They can also be eaten as a beetle or larva. I’m sure you’ve seen the larval stage. You turned over a spade of soil and a large larva curled into a C. That’s a June bug.  The flavor is on the buttery, walnut side. Native Americans roasted them on coals. We can fry them up, or if you have enough, throw them in the hot air popcorn popper. Remove legs and wings before eating. Those parts just don’t digest well. Green June bugs is a similar species and also edible. One way to catch them is to shine a bright flashlight on a white sheet at night. Happy Collecting!

Kamaro is another name for Mole Cricket, a very ugly and expensive lawn pest… if you keep a lawn. In the Philippines where they are called Kamaro and are a sought-after delicacy, cooking styles range greatly, though there are a couple of themes. Some like to stir-fry them without any oil or flavoring, preferring a taste they give off that way, slightly like liver. Once cooked you can eat them totally but most folks prefer to take off claws, legs and wings. To read more about the Kamaro cum Mole Cricket click here.

Squeeze but not too hard, buning off hairs is optional

Kanni, which is sometimes included with the Mopane Worms below, is a different species and some 58% protein, 11% fat. It also has zinc, calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, iron and trace elements of copper and manganese. Scientifically Cirina forda, it’s a caterpillar collected from the sheabutter tree, or also from the ground around it. The larvae are squeezed of frass but not too hard or they lose an esteemed yellow liquid. They are then boiled and dried in the sun before eaten. Kanni is a widely used regional ingredient in vegetable soup.

Body Lice

Lice: It’s stock caricature to have monkeys pick lice off each other but what about people? In the Life, Letters and Travels of Father Pierre-Jean de Smet, S.J., 1801-1873  the Belgian Jesuit wrote on page 1002: “I have seen the Cheyennes, Snakes, Utes, etc., eat vermin off each other by the fistful. Often great chiefs would pull off their shirts in my presence without ceremony, and while they chatted, would amuse themselves with carrying on this branch of the chase in the seams. As fast as they dislodged the game, they crunched it with as much relish as more civilized mouths crack almonds and hazel-nuts or the claws of crabs and crayfishes.” In fact a louse has been found in human coprolite in Mexico that is 826 to 2512  years old. As they are blood consuming insects we might not want to eat them live theses days…  unless of course they are your own….

Locust Taco

Locust: The Ancient Greeks were of two opinions about eating locust. The upper classes preferred cicadas whereas the lower classes preferred locust. Shepherds ate locust. Politicians did not. Locust were also dried in the sun, ground into powder and mixed with milk.  Interestingly, by 100 AD, some 500 years later, the Greeks had abandoned eating insects. Locust are usually eaten dried without wings and legs. Natives in various place put the insects live in a long bag and shake them from one end to the other, back and forth. The legs and wings are then winnowed away and the bodies are put out in the sun to dry. Some desert people boiled locus in salt water first then dried them.

Longhorn Beetle Grub

Longhorn Beetle: There are some 20,000 species of Longhorn Beetles, and not all easy to sort out. We are interested in then ones that created their name. They are called “longhorn” because often their antennae are longer than their bodies. We have native Longhorn Beetles and a rather destructive import from Asia that destroys trees. Eating them is your civic duty. Look for a large grub with large chewing parts in wood. Willow, Popular and Cottonwoods are preferred as well as Maples in the northeast.

Mealworm and stages

Mealworm: Mealworms are perhaps the first non-leggy “insect” a person intentionally eats. Long used in the pet trade they have been favorite of entomophagists for a long time. Inoffensive, easy to raise, easy to cook, tasty. I started to raised them when I was caring for wildlife, from baby blue jays to infant squirrels. I still have a batch of them. Mealworms are the larva of the Darkling Beetle. They are often prepared boiled, sauteed, roasted, or fried. They have a nutty flavor. Edibility of the adult beetles is debatable. You might find one of my videos interesting.

Midge Fly

Midge fly: Locally they are called Blind Mosquitoes. Sometimes they become so thick that lakeside businesses have to spend a lot of money clean the outside of their buildings and cart millions of their little carcases away. Some places in Africa folks press them into solid blocks then cooked the blocks to make a food called Kunga Cake. The male Midge Flies are easy to identify by their fuzzy antenna. I used to feed then to a pet jumping spider.

Mopane Worm

Mopane Worms eat leaves of the Mopane Tree and are a multi-million dollar industry in Africa. The main problem is unpredictability of harvest which lasts for about three to seven weeks depending on the rainfall. Mopane worms, called “macimbi” and scientifically Imbrasia belina, fetch a higher market price than beef. The main thing to remember if you collect them alive is to squeeze the juice out of them before salting and drying. Once dry rehydrate them then cook in oil and garlic. Another way to process them is after the frass is squeezed out they are roasted on coals to burn off the hairs. Any red coloring indicates the worm has not be cooked enough. Then they are dried.

Get revenge by eating mosquito eggs.

Mosquito Eggs: Here’s your chance for revenge for all those times a mosquito has gotten past your defenses and took a blood donation. Very common in Mexico mosquito eggs are dried then roasted. You’ll often find them wrapped in a tortillas or served with a squeeze of lime or lemon.  The eggs are laid by mom mosquitoes in trees near lakes. Mosquito eggs are about one-sixteenth of an inch long, dark colored, and larger at one end Interested? A small bottle sells for about $50.

Pillbugs

Pillbug: These used to be a fairly common food in England and parts of Europe. Also known as sowbugs, roly polys, and  woodlice, they’re terrestrial crustaceans related to lobsters, crab and shrimp. The better tasting ones are the ones that roll into a little ball when disturbed. Two factoids: They change sex and don’t urinate. To read more about pillbugs click here.

Preying Mantis and tofu

Praying Mantis is the correct spelling though “preying” would have been accurate, too, in that it is an insect eater itself. They can range greatly in size. The same rule that applies to some plants applies to mantises: Young and tender. They are usually fried, as are Walking Sticks, and taste like a cross between shrimp and mushrooms.

Rhino Beetle’s Three Stages

Rhino Beetle: Setting aside the issue of size the Rhino Beetle is one of the strongest creatures on earth. When motivated it can lift 850 times its own weight. The beetle and its larvae are both eaten. The grub is high in protein, calcium, and phosphorous. Good sized, they are fried, grilled, roasted and stewed. Like Dragonflies they can also be cooked in coconut milk. Grub fat is used like butter, once clarified.

Sago Grubs

Sago Grubs: At least one palm weevil makes its edible way into North America, perhaps a couple more. The larvae of the palm weevil are esteemed wherever they are found, Florida to Malaysia to New Guinea. Sago grubs are often cooked coated with Sago flour and wrapped in Sago leaf. NOTE: that is the true Sago Palm, Metroxylon sagu, not the ornamental cycad called a sago palm [Cycas revoluta] which is very toxic to man and beast. The latter is also a cockroach high-rise. Personally I would avoid any bug found on a Cycas revoluta. Its toxin causes liver failure. Just make sure you have the right “Sago.”  Palm weevils that feed on the true Sago Palm have a bacon flavor and are like most palm grubs full of fat.

Young and tender Sapelli caterpillars

Sapelli Caterpillars, Imbrasia oyemensis, is considered a delicacy and one of the few green caterpillars on our list along with the hornworms. They are valued for their flavor and the fact a lot of them can be collected in a short amount of time, calories in calories out. They are small and firm, very suited to drying and preservation. The caterpillars fall from the Sapele Tree, Entandrophragma cylindricum, during the rainy season and at that time of year provide 75% of the protein of the Pygmies consume. Their name is also spelled “Sapele” and the tree they feed on Aboudikro.

Silkworms

Silk worm, in my opinion, are highly overrate as food. True silk worms are no longer found in the wild. They are a byproduct of the silk industry. A huge byproduct. I’m not convinced they are eaten and popular because of taste but rather because they are available and there’s so many of them. We have silk worms because of silk not taste. They are sold by street vendors in most of Asia. If I remember correctly they are also canned and exported.

Scorpions on a stick

Scorpions: Several scorpions are found in North America. To read about the locals click here. Like silkworms above, scorpions are found skewered and fried in Asian markets. They taste like crunchy crabs. Whether to eat the tail or not is a matter of personal taste. Cooking destroys the protein-based toxin.

Dried Stink Bugs

Stink Bugs, Jumiles: Just as some plants straddle the edible non-edible line so, too, do some bugs among them the stink bugs. High in B vitamins, their flavor varies greatly depending upon what they’ve eaten, the species, and how they are processed. Some of them are also nearly indestructible and survive cooking. Often times they are added to stews for flavor (some taste like cinnamon others mint. Others are eaten as the food itself, particularly in Mexico. In parts of Africa stink bugs are collected by hand. The live and dead stink bugs are then separated The lives ones are put in a bucket of warm water and stirred. This causes them to release their stink. The bugs are then dried and are ready for consumption. The separated dead bugs have their heads removed then their bodies squeezed and the juice wiped off. They are then boiled and sun dried.  Once dry they can be eaten as is, fried, or are cooked with a little water and salt.

Usually Deep Fried

Tarantulas: No doubt more than one hungry human has downed a tarantula or two, whether before the invention of cooking or not we cannot say. But tarantulas weren’t really on the menu until the 1970s when many Cambodians were near starvation following political upheaval. Survival skills turned a big hairy spider into a national craze that has not slackened in the decadess since. Usually well-cooked with salt, oil, sugar and garlic one starts with the legs which remind you of crab. The abdomen is soft and squishy, the flavor is nutty with a musty after taste. You’ll either like it or you won’t.

A taste for termites

Termites: I read once that termites are the perfect food for humans. They have all the essential amino acids we need. That’s certainly good news. Too bad flavor was left out of that equasion. Termites don’t taste bad per se. They taste like minty wood, or at least the ones that live in the jungle do. Maybe the ones in desert mounds taste like minty sand.  Could be worse, like tarantula tummies. In some places they are so well liked termites are eaten raw straight out of the mound with a straw. I wonder if they slurp. Another way to collect termites is to put a bowl of water under a light source at night. The termites fall into the bowl. Usually they are roasted, the wings are removed, a little salt is added, and bon appetit.

Walking Stick

Walking stick: Like Praying Mantis Walking Sticks fall betwewen the entomological cracks regarding who they are related to. More diverse than Praying Mantises they can be an inch long or 18 inches. A popular edible in  Asia and New Guinea, they taste, as one might expect, leafy. Some prefer only particular a foliage so feeding them alternative diets for a couple of weeks to moderate flavors might be called for. In one species the leg can be used for fish hooks.

Wasp: Japanese Emperor Hirohito like boiled wasps with rice. Surprisingly I learned that when I lived in Japan decades ago when he was still Emperor. Wasps, like bees, are eaten as larva and adults, cooked which takes a lot of the sting out of the stinger. The larval form is preferred over the adult. Their flavor is butter and earth. In Mexico entire paper wasp nests are collected, cooked, nest and all and made into a sauce. In other areas the nest is collected and put next to the fire to roast the lavae inside. Wasps are generally put into two categories, social and solitary. Solitary wasps tend to build nesting burrows or small mud nests. They’re not on the menu too often. Social wasps tend to build paper nest they use for one season. The sting of the social wasp is usually worse than that of the solitary wasp because it uses its stinger for defense. Solitary wasps use their stinger to paralyze prey. That is why the sting of the social wasp hurts more. Also they usually don’t loose their stinger upon stinging so they can sting multiple times. Wasps are important agriculturally because they consume most agricultural insect pests. And not all wasps have wings. The “velvet ant” Dasymutilla occidentalis, is a wingless female was that is so flexible that while being held by the front end she can sting with the back end.

Giant Water Bug

Water Bugs might be even more off putting than tarantulas. They’re not small and you might have seen one in a movie or a nightmare once. Also called Toebiter because they do the giant water bug is popular in Thai cuisine. It is eaten whole, steamed or fried, and is the unseen special ingredient in several sauces.  Raw they smell like green apples which doesn’t mean much when they have a hold of your toe… or the like. Steamed, they are aromatic like a banana with the flesh of a white fish. I see then now and then in Florida.

Farm-raised Wax Worms

Waxworm: Waxworms have got quite a reputation in the west as one of those innoffensive offensive edibles. They are the larvae of the wax moth. Fed on a diet of bran and honey they are roasted or sauteed tasting like a cross between a pine nut and an enoki mushroom, very fatty. With those flavors, as you might expect, they go good with butter… then again nearly everything goes good with real butter. In the wild waxworms live off bee larvae.

Wichetty Grubs, raw or roasted

Wichetty Grub: Without Ray Mears perhaps most folks outside of Australia would have never heard of the Wichetty Grub. They are so large and nutritious that 10 a day provides all the calories and nutrition an adult male needs. Eaten by Aborigines, they are dug out of roots and eaten raw or cooked, often roasted in coals or over a fire. They have a strong egg yoke flavor, and like many grubs are surprisingly chewy. Ah… c’mon.. if a kid can eat one so can you...

River Insects

Zaza mushi: I ate a lot of strange things when I lived in Japan but never got around to Zaza-mushi. On some of the outer islands where old ways and local customs still hold sway you can eat things that are as myserious as haggis.  Zaza mushi is the larvae of aquatic caddis flies that live at the bottom of rivers. The name comes from “zaazaa” the sound the Japanese use to immitate flowing water, and “mushi” which means insects… River Insects. The Japanese just don’t hear things like we do. To them a cow says bow-wow and a cat niki-niki.

Unripe climbing fig fruit is much maligned in English. Photo by Green Deane

If there is one thing about the Internet that squeezes the sap out of me it is how mistakes proliferate rather than get corrected. I have ranted about that several times in many articles so there’s no need to vent that botanical spleen again except to say the Ficus pumila has been added to the got-it-wrong list.

Climbing figs ready for processing

Nearly every site in English will tell you the fruit of the Climbing Fig, Ficus pumila, is not edible (aka Ficus repens, Creeping Fig.)  A couple of sites even scream it is toxic (and warn you about spines it does not have.)  I will agree the Climbing Fig is not high on the edibility list and barely squeaks in. But, with proper preparation it can produce an edible product that is very popular in Asian countries. It is not toxic. It does not have spines.

I first saw Creeping Fig in Tampa a few years ago at an outdoor restaurant in Ybor City, that town’s Latin Quarter. It was successfully climbing several brick walls which is that fig’s particular claim to fame. It climbs. It will also ruin any wooden structure it climbs on so a  lot of folks also don’t like it because of that. However, give it the right environment and materials and you will soon have a living wall that does produce a food. What is that food?

Typical fig display of seeds inside the fruit

There are two species of the fig and while processed in a slightly different manner, the end goal is the same. The fruit is picked ripe, put in a porous bag, then squeezed. The resulting juice is cooked then cooled into a gelatinous jelly. It is mixed with water, or syrup and flavorings — usually lemon — to make a refreshing drink. Or it is served as a cooled gel, like “jello.” Many Asian markets sell the canned jelly under the name “Grass Jelly” or “Ai-yu Jelly.” A second species, really a variety, Ficus pumila var. awkeotsang is slightly different. Called the Chinese Jello Vine or Ai-yu-tzu, its fruit is sometimes eaten out of hand. Or, turned inside out when not quite ripe, dried, then the seeds are mixed with water to again get a gel used the same way as its relative.

Aiyu jelly ready to eat

Who discovered the fruit makes a jelly is unknown but there is a traditional story. In the 1800’s a businessman stopped at a river to get a drink and noticed a yellow gel in the water which he tired and liked. He noticed figs nearby dripping liquid into the river. He then delegated his daughter, Aiyu, to figure out how it was made and sell it. After she was successful he named the jelly and the plant after her. Nice guy. Almost a cute story. Would you taste a yellow gel you found floating in a river today? Or then?

Ficus (FEE-kus) is Dead Latin for fig. Pumila (POO-mil-ah) is Dead Latin dwarf. Repens (REE-penz) is also Dead Latin for creeping, or recent, but with plants it usually means creeping. Awkeotsang is anglicized Chinese for the vine. The Jelly is called “Aiyu.”. There is at least on cultivar, called Minima, which has small leaves. Species is sometimes wrongly called Ficus scandens.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: Climbing Fig

IDENTIFICATION: Ficus pumila: Vigorous, self-clinging, evergreen vine. Holds to any surface with aerial rootlets. Ovate leaves are heart-shaped, juvenile foliage, half-inch long, much lager in age, two three inches long, sticks out from vine. One variety has an oak leaf shape. A common landscape vine in tropical, subtropical areas, to feet or more. Very pronounced venation on underside of leaf. Two distinct leaf types: juvenile foliage is very small and tend to hug wall, or trellis that it is growing on. Hairy pear-shaped fruits to 2.5 inches long may appear on outdoor plants throughout the year. Potted plants rarely fruit. Fruit purple when ripe. It can cover a fence to the point it looks like a shrub or a hedge completely hiding the fence.

TIME OF YEAR: All year long but locally they favor the fall but can be found in late spring.

ENVIRONMENT: Likes full sun and something to climb on. Do not over water. Where I’ve seen it growing it only gets rain water.

Fig is turned inside out and allowed to dry some

METHOD OF PREPARATION: With Ficus pumila the fruits are squeezed in a porous bag and the liquid cooked. With  Ficus pumila var. awkeotsangthe nearly ripe fruit is tuned inside out and allowed to dry for a few days. The seeds are put in porous bag which is put in water and rubbed. The seeds release a gel which takes a few minutes.  The gel is allowed to set in a cool location. There cannot be any grease in the jelling pan or sugar. Distilled water cannot be used and the seeds should not be rubbed so hard they break. The jelly usually served with honey and lemon juice but can also be used to flavor shaved ice. The gel will not dissolve in hot water, thus it is sometimes added to various dishes.

HERB BLURB

What this abstract means, I think, is that adding the jelly to a fermenting must reduced the alcohol production.

Crude pectinesterase (PE) inhibitor (PEI) extracted from jelly-fig achenes (JFA) (Ficus awakeosang Makino) was added to carambola (Averrhoa carambola L.) puree to determine the change in methanol production during fermentation. Addition of pectin or microbial pectic enzyme to puree increased dose-dependently the methanol content in fermented products. Decreasing ratio (from 1:0 to 1:19, v:v) of pectic enzyme to diluted crude PEI solution in the puree−enzyme mixture decreased the PE activity remarkably. Except for transmittance (%T), addition of crude PEI to puree did not affect apparently the physical and chemical properties of wine; however, it reduced methanol content in the control from 256 to 58 ppm. The degree of esterification (DE) of pectin in starting puree was 70%. It decreased to 27% in the control group and reduced slightly to 67% in fermented puree with crude PEI added after 14 days of fermentation. This reveals that crude PEI solution was potent in inhibiting intrinsic carambola PE activity and appeared to be a potential alternative for methanol reduction in wines

Edible Flowers Are An Excellent Addition To Salads

Apple, Fuchsia, Sweet Goldenrod, Basil, Gorse, Bauhinia, Eastern Redbud, Angelica, Honeysuckle, Eastern Coral Bean

Every seed in every apple is different than the parent apple trees. Every apple you eat of the same kind is a clone because there was only one original apple tree with that apple. That’s how there came to be some 7,000 different kinds of apples over the years. With mechanization that number has about half. Around the home I grew up in were many wild apples of no distinct variety, just something that sprouted from a tossed away core. Each one unique and the product of littering. What most folks don’t know is that you can eat apple blossoms. Soft scented, floral, only consume a few at a time because they contain a precursor to cyanide which gets release during digestion. A little is tasty. Too many is a tummy ache. A lot is a trip to the hospital. See separate article on site.

Fuchsia

Discovered by Europeans in the Caribbean in 1703 — the natives already knew it was there — Fuchsia has been an ornamental for centuries. It’s a native of the warmer Americas and parts of New Zealand. There are 110 recognized species now, even some that can grow in cooler climates. Most of them are shrubs though one is known to reach tree height. Fuchsia blossoms are edible as are the peppery grape-tasting berries which grow on long stems. The flower is a favorite garnish because of its many strong colors which can range from white to dark red, purple-blue, and orange. Their flavor is slightly acidic. See separate article on site.

Sweet Goldenrod

As you might assume the Boston Tea Party of 1773 reduce the colonists store of tea, and think how far that tea had come, from the other side of the world by sailing ship. It wasn’t as if a new shipload was arriving anytime soon as a replacement. The colonists, already an irritated independent lot, came up with their own “Liberty Tea” and even shipped it to China. Called into action was the Sweet Goldenrod, and not just any Goldenrod but the Solidago odora. While it is reported you can make a tea out of any Goldenrod the top of the botanical heal is the S. odora because it tastes like anise. The flowers and the leaves can be used to make tea. See a separate article on site.

Basil Blossom and Bee

I will admit to being lazy and throwing basil blossoms into my pesto, and soups and stews. That workhorse of the kitchen and Italian cuisine also has edible flowers. It was a practical matter besides culinary. At some point your basil plants begins go to blossom. It’s making enough energy to reproduce and send forth seeds. If you let it, the bush senses its purpose is over — no doubt a chemical signal — and retires. But if you keep snipping off the blossoms it keeps on living to reproduce another day. By using the basil blossoms you get more basil leaves. The blossoms are usually white but can be pink to lavender. The taste like basil lite. They’re a nice salad sprinkle.

Gorse and thorns

There is a saying: “When Gorse is out of bloom kissing is out of season.” As Gorse is never out of bloom, that’s the good news. The bad news is that it is cover with thorns… Perhaps the wedding analogy is appropriate. A spray of Gorse was traditionally put in the bridal bouquet as a reminder. Weather that is of kisses or thorns I am not sure.  One of the The thorns might also explain why its seeds are mostly distributed by ants. Gorse flowers are a trail side nibble. They can be added to salads, made into tea, or used to flavor wine. Oddly, the blossoms smell slightly of coconut but taste like almonds. The bright flowers have also been used for dye, Easter eggs to clothes. See separate article on site.

Bauhinia variegata

Bauhinias since first discovered have been a pain to sort out, and now there are some 600 species in a variety of colors. The blossom of the Bauhinia variegata  and Bauhinia purpurea are eaten raw, pickled or cooked as a vegetable. Some Bauhinia blossoms are used for their nectar. Check out your local species with an expert as they are quite varied in use. My friend Sunny Savage, resident of Hawaii and now sailing about the world, uses Bauhinia blossom raw in salads. Often called the Camel Foot Tree because of the shape of the leaf, Bauhinias are also known as the Orchid Tree and the Hong Kong Orchid Tree. To see a separate article on site.

Eastern Redbud

In the spring time in North America if you see a tree with no leaves and small pink blossoms it is almost certainly the native Eastern Redbud. I say almost certainly because here in Florida there is an imported ornamental that does the same thing at the same time with pink blossoms, except they are huge whereas the Eastern Redbud’s blossoms are small. Native Americans ate redbud flowers raw or cooked as well as the young pods and seeds raw or cooked. The flowers can be pickled. They have a slightly sour taste and are high in Vitamin C . They’re  a pleasant addition to salads and can also be used as a condiment. The unopened buds can be pickled or used as a caper substitute. To see a separate article on site.

Angelica

It’s difficult to imagine a kitchen or herbal medicine cabinet without Angelica around someplace. Angelica has long been valued for its seeds, stems, leaves and shoots. The first two for flavoring — such as in Chartreuse — and second pair as cooked greens, particularly in the Izu Islands of Japan where there are a favored addition to springtime tempura. They have a celery-like flavor. North American Indians, however, smoked the leaves for medicinal purposes. Celery-ish may its green parts be the blossoms, like the Sweet Goldenrod above, have a light anise flavor.

Honeysuckle is a classic

The greater honeysuckle family is an odd one. It straddles the edible/non-edible line, with some members long used as food and other members at least mildly toxic. For example, elderberries are in the Honeysuckle family, then tend to be edible in North America and not in the Old World. A famous or should I say infamous invasive member of that family is the Honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica, or Japanese Honeysuckle. It’s definitely the one we have here in the south spreading everywhere. Kids have known for generations that you can suck the sweet nectar out of the blossoms. Most of them don’t know, however, that the blossom is edible. It has a sweet, honey flavor. You can flavor wine with them as well. Tea is good, too. See separate article on site.

Eastern Coral Bean

Like the Eastern Redbud the Eastern Coral Bean is a seasonal treat. Unmistakable in the springtime it sends up a flower spike populated with red, tubular flowers. The plant has hummingbirds in mind. They ripen for a few weeks then turn into toxic berries, which we do not eat. While the blossoms can be eaten raw they are usually cooked first by boiling. When you do the loose their color and turn light green. Slightly beanish, their traditional use is to mix in with scrambled eggs. Other species such as the Western Coral Bean are in similar ways, and also usually cooked. See my full article on site and video. See separate article on site.

See Edible Flowers: Part Six

High Bush Cranberry Corymb, not a pleasant aroma

I miss High Bush Cranberries. They don’t grow within a thousand miles of here, and they aren’t really cranberries. But they are hearty and familiar fare in northern climes.

Viburnum trilobum has clusters of fruit

The High Bush Cranberry  is actually a Viburnum (Viburnum trilobum) and a cousin of the elderberry. Both are in the greater Honeysuckle Family and have a characteristic musky odor.  That family by the way straddles the edibility line, with some members edible and others not, some tasty and some not. As one might suspect by the name, the High Bush Cranberry has tart fruit. Bradford Angier, a well-known Canada-based forager along side Euell Gibbons, wrote they require a “conditioned palate” to appreciate.

In North America the High Bush Cranberry is found in Canada and the northern half of the United States plus, oddly, New Mexico. It is not as that friendly to wildlife as one might suspect. The fruit persists into the winter because they are not on the top of birds’ preferred food. Birds like the berries after they soften and ferment. White-Tailed deer also browse on the twigs and leaves. For humans the berries are high in Vitamin C, about 30 milligrams per 100 grams.

Virburnum edule has smaller clusters

Viburnum trilobum has several disputed botanical names and several mistaken common names including Pimbina, Mooseberry, Cranberry Tree, Cranberry Bush, American Cranberry, and Squashberry.  Around the world there are at least 10  Viburnums and several cultivars used for food or tea. Among them are: Viburnum alnifolium, Viburnum cassinoides, Viburnum edule, Viburnum lentago, Viburnum nudum, Viburnum opulus, Viburnum opulus xanthocarpum, Viburnum prunifolium, and Viburnum setigerum. In North America V. trilobum, and V. edule are preferred. Generally native North American species taste better than imported European species. This holds true for elderberries as well.

Uncharacteristically “Viburnum” (vye-BUR-num)  is not bastardized Greek but dead Latin for “wayfaring tree.” A Eurasian shrub, Viburnum lantana, is called the wayfaring tree because it grew beside trails that are now roads.  Trilobum (try-LOW-bum) means three lobes, a reference to the leaves. Edule (ED-yew-lee) means edible.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile: High Bush Cranberry

IDENTIFICATION: Viburnum trilobum: A deciduous shrub to 12 feet (4 m) tall. Bark gray and rough, scaly. Stems arch, dense, twigs reddish-brown. Leaves opposite, palmate, three-lobed, five inches (6-12 cm) long and nearly as wide, rounded base, serrated edge, resemble maple leaves but with a wrinkled surface. Flowers white, unpleasant aroma, resemble hydrangeas, four inches across (13 cm) in corymbs with a ring of large sterile blossoms surrounding a center of small, fertile flowers. Fruit an oblong red drupe, 5/8 of an inch (15 mm) long and about a half inch (12 mm) wide, one flat, white seed.  Shrub fruit around five years old.

TIME OF YEAR: Flowers in late spring, fruits in late summer, fruit persists into fall and winter.

ENVIRONMENT: Full sun or partial shade, woods and moist meadows, well-drained soil. Moist is important. Can be trained to be a hedge, favored for colorful foliage both in the spring and fall.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: The fruits are sour with a lot of pectin, can be eaten raw or cooked. Fruit in the early fall can be bitter but can be made into excellent jelly, jams, and syrups for pancakes, meat and game. The flowers can be added to pancake batter or the like and made into fritters. Some think the berries taste better after one or two frosts, others think they are best collected before a frost. It is a conflict of taste and texture, sometimes a confusion of species.