<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Subject: Thai-Fried Grasshoppers Species name: Caelifera siamese Habitat: Theoretically speaking, you could make a stir-fry using just about anything currently burrowing in your garden (or under your sink), but the world capital of insect consumption must be Thailand, especially in the northeastern Ubon province, near the Cambodian border. Here, as The New York Times once attested, the impoverished locals will happily fry up anything on six legs in pursuit of inexpensive protein, including ants, scorpions, crickets, silkworms, and the tasty larvae of all of the above. I found my sample, however, in a pushcart parked in the middle of the Soi Cowboy, one of Bangkok&amp;#039;s more notorious red-light districts, from which a young man was filling small plastic bags with the crispy critters of one&amp;#039;s choice. Origin: Humans have always eaten bugs (as our cousins the chimps still do on occasion), but it took the Greeks and the Romans to raise the practice to culinary art form. Aristotle jotted notes on the best times to harvest cicadas, while Pliny the Elder mentioned in his writings that well-to-do Romans preferred beetle larvae cultivated on flour and wine. A few thousand years later, a superintendent on the Pony Express observed the Paiute tribe herding crickets into trenches filled with straw that was then set ablaze. These days, winged termites are a staple in Ghana, dragonflies are a delicacy in Bali, the agave worm is still big in Mexico, I hear. But maybe only the Thais consume insects as bar snacks. Description: Grasshoppers and their kin are typically fried in oil and then seasoned -- in my case with a combination of chili powder and an evil-looking orange solution applied as a mist from a spray bottle. &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t eat the legs,&amp;quot; a fellow customer warned me, so instead I gripped them as one would hold a toothpick skewering an hors d&amp;#039;oeuvre. Literally fried to a crisp, the grasshopper&amp;#039;s skin cracked and popped beneath my teeth like popcorn kernels. Somewhat depressingly, the flavor had been reduced to whatever had been sprayed on it -- there was a hint of heat from the chilis, but otherwise it just tasted vaguely meaty -- and certainly wasn&amp;#039;t delicious enough to overcome my lingering American squeamishness at eating bugs. I discarded most of the bag in the trashcan of my hotel bathroom, which proceeded to stink like rancid McDonald&amp;#039;s over the next two days.  See Also: Liquid Feta-Cheese &amp;quot;Linguine&amp;quot; In our debut edition, we explore the bizarre world of food. This week? Pasta made from water and oil. The Hot Dog Made from Horse Meat Everyone jokes that hot dogs are made from nasty meats. In Holland, they don&amp;#039;t seem to care.  Somalian Camel Surprise Somewhere in Ethiopia, our far-flung food explorer tucks into a local delicacy: camel meat.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/food/a3465/foodsafari092607/>