Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270315
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RENEE TAWA LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
People magazine wanted a picture of DeFoliart last year practicing what he preaches - insect cuisine - but the University of Wisconsin, Madison, professor refused.
"I said, `That'd be for shock value, not education.' I wasn't about to stand there, dropping insects into my mouth, and look crazy," recalled DeFoliart, 65, editor of the 800-circulation Food Insects Newsletter.
Grandstanding requests aside, DeFoliart is happy to talk about his insect favorites, including the greater wax-moth larvae (deep-fried, they "melt in your mouth" like bacon) and crickets ("a crunchy, tangy flavor all their own").
Insect munchies are on restaurant menus in countries such as Australia (wichetty grubs) and Japan (fried bees), but the closest most Americans get to cooking insects is frying mosquitoes on fluorescent-light bug zappers.
DeFoliart and other entomologists are leading a new charge to get Americans to toss crickets in the wok by promoting insect recipes, articles and taste tests in these days of health and environmental concerns.
Most insects are cheap, tasty and a good natural protein source, entomologists say. And pesticide spraying could be cut back if people weren't so worried about getting every trace of a harmless worm from an apple, DeFoliart said.
They also are touted as ecologically sound choices - insect breeding requires less land and feed than raising cows or pigs, for instance - and as alternative food for poor nations.
If only they weren't bugs.
But insects seem to be as stuck with their creepy, slimy, unsanitary image as bees are with their stingers.
Entomologist Ronald Taylor of Yorba Linda said it's probably easier to eat raw fish or fish eggs because they are not a big part of our daily lives. But we swat flies, step on ants and hear crickets all the time.
"Things from the sea, you don't see them everyday," he said. "They're not underfoot. They don't move quickly and scare you."
Taylor can't understand why connoisseurs of lobsters and crabs draw the line at eating flying creatures with antennae.
"Many insects are far cleaner than some of the scavengers I just mentioned," Taylor said. "Lobsters eat any kind of foul thing they can get a hold of, whereas grasshopper and crickets eat green, clean plant matter."
Taylor should know. He wrote two books on cooking with insects in the 1970s: "Butterflies in My Stomach" and "Entertaining With Insects, the Original Guide to Insect Cookery," which includes recipes for sauteed bacon-pepper bees, cricket pot pie and mealworm chow mein.
"My publisher [Woodbridge Press of Santa Barbara] said he never had books that caused such a publicity stir and sold so little," said Taylor, adding that he didn't know total sales figures. Taylor promoted his book on "The Tonight Show" and several other TV and radio shows, but interest has died down until recently.
"Just the fact that DeFoliart has a newsletter going shows continued interest in the area," he said. "But I think our average American is still going to shriek at the thought of eating insects in any form or food."
Not necessarily, said Leslie Saul, curator of the San Francisco Zoo's Insect Zoo.
At the Insect Zoo's annual "What's Bugging You" open house, the taste-testing table is a hopping one. Since 1979, from 2,000 to 3,000 people have snatched up samples of Chocolate Chip Mealworm Cookies and Flying Frittatas.
"We sort of look at it as expanding people's horizons and looking at their cultural prejudices," Saul said. "It's very cost-effective - 1,000 mealworms for $1.86. It's really inexpensive. If people are having a hard time with their budget, it's a nice alternative from time to time to mix in."
And it's good for people to know about insects.
"I think people are interested in the fact that it's protein," Saul said. "It's also good survival training for people. It's hard to come across a side of beef if you're outside somewhere, but you can certainly find insects."
Zoo workers also hand out insect recipes with lists of bait and pet shops that carry the ingredients and instructions on cleaning and preparing the critters. For fried locusts, for instance, pluck off the wings and legs before cooking. Heads optional.
Most insects caught in pesticide-free back yards are safe to eat, except for dark-colored ones that eat plants with toxins, Saul said. But experts recommend buying insects from dealers, who get them from breeders, to ensure that the critters are toxin-free.
Only a few queasy people leave the zoo's taste-testing table without a bite, Saul said. But she doesn't expect insect bars to pop up like sushi bars in mini-malls.
"It would be a matter of making it sort of a designer food," she said. "They used to import chocolate-covered ants as novelty things. Maybe some fancy-food purveyor will do it in the future."
It took author Taylor awhile to get used to the idea.
As a San Jose State University student, he cringed when his entomology professor offered canned 3-inch-long insects from Mexico.
"I was abhorred by the idea and utterly fascinated and could not take a bite," Taylor said. "Without anyone observing me, I went out of the room and spit it out."
And DeFoliart doesn't eat insects at home. His wife doesn't like them.
But that doesn't mean he won't indulge himself occasionally.
"Once in a while, when we have a lab party, we'll do up an insect," he admitted.
by CNB