Eating grasshoppers

The African leg of our round the world voyage wasn't the most extravagant in terms of food but when we heard that in Uganda people eat grasshoppers we knew that might change.

At Entebbe our hosts had told us that grasshoppers were a common delicacy but that they are only available at the right season and that they had not seen them in some while.

Undiscouraged, we asked them to try and get the little green critters and after days of trying we were surprised by a full pot of them!

When it begins to rain (and we were in the beginning of the small rain season in Uganda), grasshoppers feast on the vegetation, become fatty and are then caught by the thousands. Half alive after having their legs and wings removed, suddenly they are sold by the cup full on the side of the road all over the country.

Amazed by the surprise we were offered, we hurried to see how they should be prepared and discovered that indeed many of them were still attempting to move.

It wasn't the most humanitarian of starts to the food endeavor and knowing that we had to wash them repeatedly to remove the ash marks left from the removal of their extremities didn't do much to help.

In any case, once the dirty work was done, the cooking could begin!

Turns out they are extraordinarily easy to cook. You simply throw them in the pot and stir fry them on their own fat, add a little salt and wait until they are nice and crispy. And if you are feeling particularly frisky, you can even add onion and bell pepper to add to the composition!

Turns out, grasshoppers are freakin' amazing!

The base version is pretty good as a beer snack but when you factor the onion and bell pepper it just takes a turn to the unexpected! It tastes like fried liver with onion!

I swear that those grasshoppers tasted like liver and I absolutely loved the surprise!

A, on the other hand, had some difficulties getting past the fact that we were eating grasshoppers which eventually meant that my portion of the hopping delicacies almost doubled. Oh the sacrifices a man must make!

How about you? Would you try them out?