Non-standard dishes or how we ate grasshoppers in Thailand
After I posted a video about eating grasshoppers by both cheeks, I was asked to tell in more detail what they taste like. Therefore, a short sketch on this topic. I don't pretend to be something original, but I'm sure not everyone has tried it, and not everyone knows about it «food product». Before that, I already wrote several posts about food, if anyone is interested: Thai cafes and street food, thai supermarkets, thai markets.
There is an opinion that Thais eat grasshoppers and other crawling and flying animals almost every day, and this is their traditional dish. Strange, but my conclusion is completely opposite. I saw that grasshoppers are sold only in places where tourists gather, and it seems that this is for us, not for them. I also read that in some provinces there was a famine at one time, and they began to breed insects there to replenish the protein. It may well be that once it was, but judging by the price, it is cheaper to eat a piece of meat than these with paws. Of course, they should be cheaper in the markets, but I haven't seen them there.
So what do these critters taste like? I only tried small grasshoppers and maggots (or were they caterpillars). And he decided only a couple of years after he saw them for the first time. Still, people ask, I have already started to drive groups around Thailand, the most interesting, but such a gap remains. But the big grasshoppers, huge beetles, similar to cockroaches, and all kinds of scorpions, I could not overpower, too scary. So, the taste is always almost the same, regardless of the name. «product», and resembles the most common potato chips, the same salty and crispy. One has only to eat the first grasshopper, the barrier breaks, you stop being afraid and crack them further. That is, if you grind an insect into powder in order to eliminate the scary look, and give it a try, you can hardly distinguish it from salted chip chips.
Big and so scary
Last winter we only photographed them.
And this time I decided to try them
Andrey demonstrates how much he likes grasshoppers
There is really one thing, but which I also encountered a little later. If the grasshoppers were not completely dried (or they were sprinkled with sauce too much that they became wet), then they still have their own taste, and because of this you begin to understand what you are eating. Mmm ... feeling so-so in my opinion. Probably because I am not originally a fan «alive» food. Well, the sauce was clearly not the same.
Insect prices fluctuate. Grasshoppers and larvae - 20-50 baht per bag, scorpions - 50-100 baht apiece.
And a short video about how all this is simply done, not a single muscle trembled on the face of the participants in the action :)
P.S. Who else has tried, share your impressions?