My friends, Erik K. and Jason H., are adventurous in many respects. They love camping; they love eating. Above all, they like strange! To them, however, the idea of cooking and eating a cicada stir fry isn’t strange at all. But why don’t I let Erik do the explaining?
Also Sprach Erik!
Jason & I often think of new and interesting (read daring) things to eat. Insects always seem like something worth working our way into since so much of the world’s population is already way ahead of us on this front.
Cicada Stir Fry
We cooked up the Cicadas by simply par-boiling, then stir-frying. Set them aside and stir-fry in vegetables of your choice. Jason seasoned these “Thai-Style” (Fish sauce, sugar, chili paste, etc.) Add cicadas back into the mix and serve with a nice rice noodle or glass noodle.
After the Fact
In hindsight we realize we should have harvested the newer/younger cicadas. Ours were mature & crunchy. We also should have removed the wings. Flavor/texture wise they were like shrimp and had no offending overtones at all. Personally I’d take them over say, crab which basically feeds off of sea floor garbage at best.
The cooks-consumers chose not to publish their names or personal images. Too bad, don’t you agree?
Note: You might also enjoy Eat Onion Grass
References:
- 11 Edible Insects and How to Eat Them
- U.N. Urges Eating Insects; 8 Popular Bugs to Try
- Edible Insects
What is truly funny was the comment made by one of the wives: the result of eating cicadas, 24 hours later, is similar to the result of eating corn.
I love the bit about “we should have removed the wings first”! This is experimentation at its best!
The wife of one of the men told me (in laughter) that the wings of the cicada, the next day, affected her husband like the kernels of corn-on-the-cob do the next day.