this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Food and Cooking
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Honestly, I foresee this angering people a lot more than plant-based food would.
Eating plants is normal, and even meat-eaters eat plenty of plants. Most of the ingredients of a conventional burger—the bun, the lettuce, etc—are plant-based. No surprise, then, that veggie burgers have gained some traction in the market.
Eating bugs is another story entirely. There are very few cultures in which that is considered anything but a desperate last resort when literally no other food is available. Tell most people to eat something made out of bugs, and they'll take it as an insult; that you're insinuating that they're too poor to afford literally anything else.
I thought there were quite a few cultures that eat bugs.
There are. Ignoring, for the moment, that lobster and shrimp are sea-bugs that billions of people eat without complaint, there are plenty of North American cultures that readily incorporated bugs into their daily diets. Here's a scholarly article on the topic (pdf warning)
I was even lucky enough to meet an Oneida man who gave me a recipe for cooking may/june beetles at a bonfire. They taste a lot like shrimp.
(The recipe: Catch a few beetles, shake them up in your hand to stun them, then toss them onto one of the rocks at the edge of the fire. Wait until they make a popcorn-like "pop" noise. If you like them less crunchy, you can peel off the wings before you eat them.)