Waiter, theres a bug in my grub In a world grappling with food shortages, insect dishes like silkworm soup, cricket protein bars and red ant chutneys may be set to gain wider acceptance. Picture this. Youre watching Hollywoods latest Biblical interpretation `Exodus: Gods and Kings while stuffing your face with caramel popcorn. The ravaging Eighth Plague has swept Egypt with a swarm of pesky locusts that are devouring almost everything in sight. Suddenly, chappie to your left decides its time he lightened the mood. “Fried locusts taste just like prawns, man!“ he declares to no one in particular , while you almost choke on your caramel popcorn. But then he just might be onto something...A tad panicked and ever-mindful of the impending world food cri sis, several western countries have recently cottoned on to the bug-eating craze while heralding insects as the “food of the future“. How else can one explain the EU -otherwise notorious for putting some of the strictest food safety laws in place -investing almost 3 mil lion euros into investigating the potential of insects as healthy , protein stand-ins to bolster the continents food supply? Belgium, famous for its calorific waffles and fries, recently became the first EU state to approve insects in food. And the first insect-laced food product to infiltrate supermarkets and grocery stores across the country is a bread spread branded Green Bugs made from tomatoes, carrots and almost 6% mealworm. Entomophagy-the practice of eating insects and other creepy crawlies --has always had strong underpinnings in the dietary habits of many Sub-Saharan African and South-east Asian countries. But whats more interesting is that the traditional diets of several Indian communities -mainly in the Northeast and the central parts of the country -have for millennia included insects. Probably the most potent and celebrated of all insect-based dishes in Chhattisgarh, the Dhruva tribes chaprah or red ant chutney is made on special occasions. This remote Bastar tribe first hunts down a tree infested with the angry red ants and then proceeds to gather the nests, eggs et al and grind it all together with green chillies, ginger, garlic and forest tomatoes. Even Gordon Ramsay couldnt get enough of the dish when he visited the tribe. Red ants are also used in other parts of the state and Jharkhand as a spicy condiment. The nutty-flavoured polu leta fry, a delicacy made from silkworm pupae (polu) and the silkworm (leta) itself after it has spun its cocoon, is tribal Assams star dish. sold in markets like the Beltola Bazaar in upper Assam, The Assamese are also fond of the ant and ant egg dish, amloi parua, eaten especially during the spring festival, Bihu. Amloi parua has a distinctly minty citrus taste due to the green ants foraged from the overtly citrusy nemu tenga or Assam lemon trees. In a recent study, Arup Kumar Hazarika, a professor at Cotton College in Guwahati, identified 29 insect species commonly consumed by the Bodos in Assam. Caterpillars, termites, grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles -all are dried and consumed on a daily basis. “Dried koroi puk, a stink bug found under stones in river beds, is a popular source of protein for the Adi people of Arunachal Pradesh. They also eat ant eggs and bee larvae which is very seasonal
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 11:03:16 +0000
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