Mexico Gets a Taste for Eating Insects as Chefs Put Bugs Back on the Menu Nick Miroff - The Washington Post
go to original July 23, 2013

Mexico's taste for eating creepy crawlies - originating from the Pre-Columbian era - could be the answer to ending hunger. United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is encouraging the production of edible insects to supplement diets in areas where malnutrition is rife and as a measure to combat obesity. (NTDTV)

The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile. Only the city zoo offers greater species diversity. But the priciest items in the market aren't the armadillo steaks or even the bluefin tuna. That would be the frozen chicatanas – giant winged ants – at around $500 a kilo.

Apparently, they're delicious in salsa. "Much better than the junk food they sell in supermarkets," said vendor Benjamin Rodriguez, showing off his ant stash beside trays of crispy fried crickets and live snails. "All natural," he said with a wry grin.

Rodriguez and the other bug mongers of San Juan offer their wares as pre-Hispanic foods, a nod to the Aztecs, Mixtecs and other civilisations that flourished for millennia on diets rich in grubs, grasshoppers and other edible invertebrates. Insect-eating was long regarded with shame and disgust by elite Mexicans, who viewed the practice as a vestige of rural backwardness.

Read the rest at The Guardian

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