A headline in The London Times.
Prosecutors [in South Korea] put the total number of individual ants served at roughly 49,000. The owner argued the dried insects were only used in a “small part” of the restaurant’s 15-course menu, largely as a topping for sorbets, and that restaurants in countries such as Denmark, the UK and Australia also serve ants. They noted diners were also able to choose non-ant toppings, including fermented vinegar and edible flowers, and disputed the prosecution’s estimate, claiming only about 60 per cent of diners opted to try the ants....
Ants are not among the ten insect species approved for human consumption in Korea. Grasshoppers, locusts, brown-banded cockroaches and two-spotted crickets, however, are among those deemed safe to eat.
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40 comments:
I think we had a "Michelin-starred chef" on camping trips when I was kid.
I went on a street-food tour in Cambodia last year. One stop was the insect vendor. Fried spiders, crickets, beetles, centipedes.
Crunchy and salty, like the residue at the bottom of a snack-food bag.
No ants.
"Money Manger said...
I went on a street-food tour in Cambodia last year. One stop was the insect vendor. Fried spiders, crickets, beetles, centipedes.
Crunchy and salty, like the residue at the bottom of a snack-food bag.
No ants."
Well if the food was better the ants would show up.....
"All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be regarded as unclean by you. There are, however, some flying insects that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground. Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper. But all other flying insects that have four legs you are to regard as unclean."
Leviticus 11:20-22.
Quite the fad in some circles. Here Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear and now of Clarkson's Farm eats a cricket burger (May 2026):
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/moment-jeremy-clarkson-eats-insect-053200628.html
I'm no biblical scholar, but don't winged insects still walk on 6 legs?
Robins won't eat ants.
Remember those little chocolate sprinkles (that also came in colors) that go on top of ice cream. When I was a kid, my Irish grandma called the chocolate ones "mouse crap." She was never prosecuted.
@bagoh20 Yeah. Good point. According to AI:
"Leviticus is not necessarily claiming that insects anatomically have only four legs. The passage appears to classify them according to how they visibly move rather than according to modern zoology.
Leviticus 11:20–22 first refers to winged insects that “go on all fours,” then makes an exception for insects such as locusts and grasshoppers that have additional jointed legs used for jumping. These insects have six legs, but four function as ordinary walking legs while the two large hind legs are specialized for leaping.
So “go on all fours” likely refers either to the four ordinary walking legs or, more generally, to crawling close to the ground. The passage is written in observational, everyday language, not as a scientific anatomical description."
Have to draw the line somewhere.
Ants taste sour, at least the ones belonging to the genus Formica, thanks to their formic acid content. (Why that popular kitchen countertop goes by the tradename Formica is unknown to me.) Perhaps the tartness was what tempted the unnamed chef to use the ant topping.
"Ant" is not a species. There are 13,800 named species, and an estimated 22,000 in all. I'm sure they differ in fitness as a food garnish.
Where were the ants sourced? Locally, I hope, rather than just ordered off the Sysco wholesale webpage. And they better have been free range ants, not raised in the captivitiy of a plastic-walled ant farm, that is just triggering. Don't get me started on sustainable harvesting of the little critters, either, or the very morality of using a formerly living creature as a dessert condiment.
Here in Texas, we have Fire Ants. Spicier, I suspect.
I hope it doesn't go, it'll go away
It's just a passing phase, it'll go away
You can serve grasshoppers, learn to cook roach
A handful of locusts, they serve them in coach
But when you're all alone, and take a bite
You'd wish you'd stayed at home and eaten some rice
But when you think you made it disappear
It crawls again, hello, I'm here
And I've got angst in my pants
h/t Mael Brothers
I had fried grasshopper in a Mexican restaurant — tasted like shrimp tails with lime and say. I can get that at home.
Was Obama's Chef Michelle Starred?
He could open in Mexico
Ants and their larvae are a celebrated, seasonal delicacy in Mexican cuisine, most notably represented by chicatanas (large flying leaf-cutter ants) and escamoles (ant larvae
Ant? Not much meat on them once you clean them.
Let them really turn the magnifying glass of scrutiny onto his practices and himself.
That should do it.
Well, they are crunchy and a good source of protein.
I am reminded of the scene in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake where restaurant inspector Donald Sutherland argues with the chef about whether there are capers or rat turds in the food.
Climate change is no longer a hot button issue for our overlords but in the future we will still be eating bugs and liking it.
There are also 'honeypot' ants that grow a huge abdomen full of honey. Great eating I hear, and also employable by the deep state when clothed in tiny bikinis.
Were the entrees colonized with informed consent?
I don't (knowingly) eat insects of any kind. Millions of wheat stems harvested at one time, transported, ground up en masse into flour, then mixed with other stuff and baked into all sorts of food items... you're lying to yourself if you say there are zero insect parts in what you're eating.
I do eat shrimp, which are close cousins to insects, but I try not to make that connection while eating.
There are some things I can safely say I don't eat at all, balut being high on the list. It's not going to somehow accidently get mixed into my everyday food. No monkey meat or any other primate for me. No dogs or cats. Wild or domestic.
Westerners searching out such exotic delights as insects and monkey meat have something wrong with them. IMHO.
But then, I also think that those seeking out and eating the absolutely hottest peppers also have something wrong with them.
I wouldn’t think an ant garnish could garner stars from such a prestigious tire manufacturer
“Ants are not among the ten insect species approved for human consumption in Korea. Grasshoppers, locusts, brown-banded cockroaches and two-spotted crickets, however, are among those deemed safe to eat.”
Parisians would have been fine with it.
"Leviticus is not necessarily claiming that insects anatomically have only four legs. The passage appears to classify them according to how they visibly move rather than according to modern zoology.“
It’s not “modern zoology”. It’s being able to count. All insects have six legs. Period.
It’s not “modern zoology”. It’s being able to count. All insects have six legs. Period.
Blame the ancient tribe of Hebrews.
There are some animals that eat ants and termites. They have gastrointestinal systems that digest them well.
We don't.
People have too much money and too little sense to eat what our GI system is made to eat.
Spice it up a little — use fire ants.
Smilin' Jack writes, "It’s not 'modern zoology'. It’s being able to count. All insects have six legs. Period."
There's no period or full stop in biology. Every rule has its exception, including the six leg rule. The "rules" are a human invention, not laws of nature evolution is obliged to obey. For example, hemipterans of the family Belostomatidae, have only two pairs of functional legs. The proximal appendages are weapons used to seize and pierce the flesh of their prey, which can include snakes and even turtles. The have no other function.
Don’t take my word for it, take God’s (aka ChatGPT):
“Yes, all adult insects have six legs, which is one of their defining biological traits.”
@mikee,
"Where were the ants sourced? "
A local brand, Ant Jemima.
Formica has nothing to do with ants: the brand name is a portmanteau of formulated mica. I researched this while teaching Latin. As I recall, formic acid is named that because it was first isolated from ants, some of whom use it for chemical warfare. That means that formic acid literally means "ant acid" (get it?).
Dr. Weevil’s dad joke gave me heartburn.
Two words: centi pede.
Are Yorkies on the OK list or is it just Beagles and Dachshunds?
Sorry. I'll stick with my food culture, and some non-exotic versions of others -- Japanese, Vietnamese, and Mexican. We all eat some bugs in our grains and flours. No need to brag and play Anthony Bourdain, that silly dupe, about it.
I do eat shrimp, which are close cousins to insects
what?
is it legal for them to marry?
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