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How To Hunt a Cicada Smorgasbord

Posted by Unknown on from the goes-well-with-beer dept.

seagirlreed writes "During this year's cicada swarmageddon, make a cicada smorgasbord by selecting the tastiest bugs from the richest cicada hunting grounds. They taste like asparagus!"

22 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. "They taste like asparagus!" by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 4, Funny

    You know, in Japan, parents tell their children that chicken tastes just like squid.

    1. Re:"They taste like asparagus!" by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'll take everyone's word for this.

      I'd rather listen to them sing, than eat them. Something about their song puts me in mind of tall Cottonwood treeds, whiling away summers along the lazy rivers of the midwest, where I spent my youth fishing for carp (didn't eat them, either) with corn for bait and a lugnut for a sinker.

      Now I spend summers dealing with technology issues. Hmm.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    2. Re:"They taste like asparagus!" by Type44Q · · Score: 2
      Funny you should mention that.. I can still remember the sounds the cicadas made in the trees during the warmer months of my childhood spent growing up in Japan (my parents called them "locusts" but you'll have to excuse them; they were from the Midwest so I expect they couldn't have told a plague of locusts from a plague of boils).

      I seem to recall that they were called "semis" in Japanese...

    3. Re:"They taste like asparagus!" by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 2

      If I had gone with the more standard backwards "In Soviet Russia, cicadia eats YOU!", perhaps you and the adjectivially-challenged AC directly above you would have gotten the joke. Then again, probably not.

    4. Re:"They taste like asparagus!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, that was just a funny bit of anachronism. Emperor Temmu issued a decree banning the consumption of non-fish meat, including chicken, in 675 A.D. And the culture was slow to warm back up to non-fish meat in the ages to come.

      The 6 Tokyo Outback Steakhouses use different seasonings than the US versions (much to the disgust of my Japanese girlfriend), but their culture is quite integrated with all forms of modern food... except mint, which she claims is like eating toothpaste.

  2. Not just with Shellfish Allergies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Many people who don't have shellfish allergies are still allergic to insects like cicadas and scorpions. It's surprisingly common... so if you want to be adventurous, take precautions to make sure you don't bite down and keel over.

  3. Taste like asparagus? by DougOtto · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do they make your pee stink?

    --
    Solving Unix problems since 1989...
    1. Re:Taste like asparagus? by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You've just eaten a handful of bugs. Seems to me what your pee smells like is the least of your worries.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    2. Re:Taste like asparagus? by matrim99 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Why, because they look funny to us? Check out how freaky lobsters look.

      Because they're small? So are all of those tasty yeast microbes.

      Because you were told that bugs aren't food, so eating them is something to worry about? Some bugs are very tasty, and most are quite safe to eat and are quite nutritious.

      --
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  4. Know what goes well with a Cicada smorgasbord? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nothing

    1. Re:Know what goes well with a Cicada smorgasbord? by X0563511 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Alcohol. Lots of alcohol.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    2. Re:Know what goes well with a Cicada smorgasbord? by hey! · · Score: 2

      Well, I haven't tried cicada, but I *have* tried escargot (with champagne). To tell you the truth, broiled in garlic butter that way it *could* have been cicadas in that snail shell. If you broiled snot in that much garlic you wouldn't be able to tell what it was.

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  5. The economy isn't that bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The economy isn't that bad. Yet.

  6. Why not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No.

    we humans evolved to eat pretty much anything that moves. And thinking about it, we do ingest some horrid things of our making like booze. And we eat mushrooms, fungi, bacteria, and other nasty shit that makes these bugs seem like steak.

    1. Re:Why not? by Antipater · · Score: 4, Funny

      other nasty shit that makes these bugs seem like steak.

      Yeah, like asparagus!

      --
      Everything is better with chainsaws.
    2. Re:Why not? by ByOhTek · · Score: 2

      No.

      we humans evolved to eat pretty much anything that moves. [...]

      And many things that don't!

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
    3. Re:Why not? by Kreigaffe · · Score: 2

      That's all fine and good, and I agree wholeheartedly.

      That said, I'm.. I'm full. I ate earlier, at home. Naw, really. Thanks but no thanks. I suddenly developed a severe allergy.

      --
      ... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about. :|
  7. Eww. by Deimos24601 · · Score: 2

    I know food prices have gone up a lot recently, but damn.

  8. Re:News for nerds? by roc97007 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > What is this, the new Slashdot, news for survivalists?

    We may all be survivalists someday.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  9. I guessing none of you have ever tried them. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    If it doesn't come from a factory of some sort it can't be food ...

  10. Red Planet by v1 · · Score: 2

    When I was younger I used to climb up trees and try to catch them. Wow, they've got quite a voice. Sounds like you have a fire alarm bell from school going off in your hands when you manage to grab one off a tree!

    Anyway, I remember when I watched Red Planet, how much the bugs (cephlopods or whatever they called them) looked like cicadas. VERY similar looking.

    And they're interesting to watch fly, sort of like Wyle E Coyote with an Acme Jet Pack. I don't think they even bother navigating as they fly through the air far too fast for their own good, running into walls, cars, houses, PEOPLE, whatever. If they can grab it after smacking it, they call it a "landing".

    Neighbor went to Japan for a vacation. They apparently grow them extra large size there, and when they're in full chorus in the parks you can't even hear the person sitting next to you on the bench trying to talk with you.

    AAANd one final thought. Another neighbor next door told me one time he got bit by one. I've seen then, they have a mosquito-like straw on their head, and they can tap into trees to drink sap during their 7-10 days alive as an adult, so I suppose it's possible they might confuse you for a tree... has anyone else heard of getting bit by one?

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  11. Why the revulsion? by kbahey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why all this revulsion at eating an insect? There are lots of exotic yet disgusting food out there in this world.

    And how are Cicadas that much different from edible locusts, which are eaten in the Middle East, Mexico and elsewhere?

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