There’s a childhood song about worms that we used to sing in school, and it was one I recently remembered when my nephew started singing it too. It goes something like, “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I’m going to eat some wo-oorms…” Well I’m pretty sure I have people who like me, but today I went and ate the worms anyway.
I found this in my local supermarket, reduce to 90c – I can’t imagine why – I thought it would be an “interesting” new food to try. I like to consider myself an adventurous eater, but there’s something about the thought of eating insects that turns my stomach.
It seems it’s only the Western world that are slow to catch on to the benefit of eating insects. There are traditional dishes including insects across Asia, Africa, and South America, amongst other areas around the world. Not only are they packed full of protein, iron, and calcium, they are also far more environmentally friendly than traditional farming. Sounds great, right? Worth giving a try anyway…
I loaded my insect pasta with truffle butter, parmesan, and black pepper, in the hopes of making it as delicious as possible would hide the fact that I was eating insects. I think this would have worked ok if I hadn’t caught a glimpse of the word “mealworms” on the ingredients before cooking. The first few mouthfuls tasted so good, the truffle butter was doing it’s trick, but around half-way through my brain caught up and decided enough was enough. I just couldn’t get past the image of mealworms now being in my stomach.
My problem with this, and I think for many people, is without a doubt the psychological aspect. The pasta didn’t taste any different to the normal stuff, and I really tried to pile on all of my most indulgent, tastiest ingredients, but I just couldn’t make it past that image of the worms!
New Day, New Thing 