A Buggy Good Time

So this past Saturday was the opening of the Creeping, Crawling, and Carnivorous Show at work. We spent several weeks prepping the showroom for this event, creating an amazing bog as the centerpiece, and decorating the Asian statues with cobwebs, not to mention bringing over many of our critters, as well as some snakes from the zoo. On Saturday, however, the public was treated to the chance to eat some bugs. Openly available were a selection of mealworms and superworms, which taste like pork rinds, according to those who have had pork rinds. Bleh. Still, they were fried and crispy, and almost good, if you could get past the fact that you were eating a bug. Waxworms, the candy bar of the lizard world, tasted a bit like popcorn. They also had scorpions, which ran out quickly, though Megan was kind enough to save me one. I really don't remember much about it, save for it was very exo-skeletony. Oh yeah, and you have to remember to take the stinger off. I managed to sting myself with it while it was in my hand. Nice. I'd tried a dragonfly a few weeks prior, and those are crispy and good, almost like softshell crab. Finally, they had lubber grasshoppers, gigantic grasshoppers that they'd give you a soda for if you'd finish it. I was pretty squeamish and picked off the legs (as you're supposed to do). Then I pulled the head off with the intention of eating it separately. People watching ran off in horror as some of the guts came out along with the head. I have a strong stomach, but that was a bit much. So I stuffed the guts back into the body and tossed the whole thing in my mouth...that's the worst part...not the fact that it's a bug, but that you're eating all the guts, too. And who knows what else...in fact, my grasshopper was oozing stuff I don't want to think about. Anyway, I shoved it in the side of my mouth and slowly gnawed on it for about 10 minutes before I finished it. Thank goodness for that soda - you need something to wash that down! Bleh!!!! Luckily, it, too was a lot like softshell crab, and if you tossed it in some rice, it wouldn't have been that much different from sushi.

So opening day was basically a big party. My coworkers and a number of volunteers I knew were there, and it was just a fun day full of positive energy. It was a huge hit with the public, too, and we got a great deal of compliments. Our next bug eating event is on Nov. 7th - I can't wait to see what they'll have in store for us then!