Insects

[GreenArrow45]

I am wondering what insects people have eaten (from a restaurant) in China and what you thought of them. I had some fried cicadas at a restaurant the other day and while I tried to keep an open mind, I just had this strange almost dirt like after-taste in my mouth that turned me off. Although, I think part of the problem is we were eating the shells as well as the insides and someone later told me we weren't supposed to eat the shell too. Anyways, I have heard that scorpion tail tastes a lot like lobster, so I am wondering what other insects people have triedand what they're like.

[gougou]

Anyways, I have heard that scorpion tail tastes a lot like lobster

Where did you hear that? From a scorpion merchant?

I had scorpion twice so far, but both times it tasted like fried shell.

[roddy]

Silkworms are quite tasty.

[889]

As are 蚂蚁上树 Mayi Shang Shu.

[anonymoose]

Anyways, I have heard that scorpion tail tastes a lot like lobster, so I am wondering what other insects people have triedand what they're like.

Scorpions aren't insects.

I've had silk worm cocoons. The taste is tolerable, but combined with the texture, they're quite awful.

[Zomac]

The most appalling one I've been told is a dish made of corpse-eating insects, practiced by a minor ethic group in the red river delta in the Yunnan province.

According to the legend, they prepare a cube of raw pork meat, bury it underneath for 3 months. The rotten meat will be thrown away and they only keep these insects which can be served raw.

I tried to look for some info over the internet but nothing shows up.

In my real life experience, the weirdest insect I tried is spider (in cambodia) which tastes like a soft shell crab.

[GreenArrow45]

<_< so sorry, I should say: insects, arachnids, or nematodes

I can't imagine eating a spider, but, that's mostly because I hate spiders.

Not entirely sure what 蚂蚁上树 is, but it looks like something I have eaten before here :o

As to the scorpion, I don't remember if I read it on here somewhere or one of my friends who had it told me that, but, everyone I know who has tried it has liked it (all 2 people).

[miss_China_so_much]

蚂蚁上树 has nothing to do with ants. It's minced beef with thin rice noodles!

[Zomac]

Scorpion tastes like a mildly burnt lobster/shrimp shell to me and it was a specialty item in a Hong Kong Pekingese restaurant, sold at HK$150 for 8 pieces. It seems to me that even in Beijing's Huangfujin snack food street, scorpion is regarded as a "premium" insect food and not really cheap.

I had some problems with Silkworm and the texture is like....excrement or liver (of course i've never tried excrement so don't ask me how to come up with this conclusion ). I just hate it.

For spider, I agree it's pretty disgusting but I can't tell how it's different from a crab... a crab is so ugly that there's an idiom to say that the first human to eat a crab must be an hero. You made me think of one of my best friends who has problems with color-dyed fruit pickle in malaysia and she said that it's impossible to sell anything so unnatural like this in Europe. But she has no problem at drinking Fanta. I think the color in Fanta could be florescent...

[SiMaKe]

While visiting southwest China, one of the dishes our hosts were eager for us to try was this one served in a little, side-street restaurant in Yiliang 宜良 (in Yunnan). I believe it is some type of fried "cricket". While not our favorite dish, this westerner found it interesting. Being quite "crunchy", it suggested what eating fried twigs might be like. Interestingly, it and the salted fish - the dish at 1:00 o'clock in the picture - were the only leftovers in two weeks of eating out that our hosts ever took back home with them. Apparently it was quite a treat for them and not readily available in their hometown.

The other main dish in the picture was roasted duck - very tasty! The little side dish was crushed HOT HOT HOT HOT pepper.

[xiaocai]

Talking about 宜良, it is where I had deep fried wasps for the first time of my life.

[SiMaKe]

@xiaocai

At the risk a going off-topic, I do have to say that in Yiliang we were also introduced to rice-pineapple-chicken-cooked-in-a-bamboo-stalk. Now that was delicious!

[gougou]

The weirdest insect I ever ate in China - a few days after arriving - was a live wasp larva courtesy of my girlfriend's mother. They found a wasp nest and everybody was really excited, which I couldn't understand as wasp nests aren't all that special, until I saw them pulling out the larva one by one and happily munching away. You can only eat the ones that haven't begun metamorphosis yet though.

I also had crickets and spiders in Cambodia. I liked the crickets tastewise, but the shell/flesh ratio is just not very good. The texture of the spider was horrible - hairy fried shell on the outside and oozy slime on the inside. It either had no taste or my tastebuds turned off as a precautionary measure after detecting the consistency...

[xiaocai]

At the risk a going off-topic, I do have to say that in Yiliang we were also introduced to rice-pineapple-chicken-cooked-in-a-bamboo-stalk. Now that was delicious!

What, they never told me about that.

I remember they also served roasted ducks there. Pine leaf braids were used instead of 果木 so the dish as a very unique aroma which was different from all the other 烤鸭 I tried before.

Hmmm, guess it's time for me to pay it a visit again since 宜良 is not too far away from where I live.

[Flying Pigeon]

I am wondering what insects people have eaten (from a restaurant) in China and what you thought of them. I had some fried cicadas at a restaurant the other day and while I tried to keep an open mind, I just had this strange almost dirt like after-taste in my mouth that turned me off. Although, I think part of the problem is we were eating the shells as well as the insides and someone later told me we weren't supposed to eat the shell too.

I had fried cicada(蝉) at my in-laws' house. Peeled them before I ate them. I liked the taste and texture, reminded me of crayfish. You should try them again without the shells, and see if they taste better.

[xiaocai]

I don't know why but from what I have seen insects are always deep fried. I had deep fried caterpillar many years ago and it was not bad it my memory serves me right.