CHIANG MAI, THAILAND
People in Thailand eat bugs. Lots of bugs, usually cooked in a vat of oil sans breading. Any decent market will have a stall with big crickets, little crickets, cicadas, and all manner of worms and larvae, and if you’re in the right bar someone will make the rounds with 20 baht (0.60USD) snack plates later in the night. They’re all different – grasshoppers have a slightly musky taste, while crickets are more like buttered popcorn. Bamboo worms, the thin yellow ones at the bottom of this post, taste exactly like cheetos. But those are all child’s play, because every one knows the best are steamed males of the species Lethocerus indicus.

Around three inches long, giant water bugs are a favorite because of their extremely potent pheremones. The Vietnamese rarely eat bugs, but they make an exception for the extract of L. indicus’s phremonal glands because of the sharp, almost minty botanical taste it imparts into sauces (the English usually compare it to gin). Thais, who have no such reservations, eat them whole or ground into condiments.

special thanks to scott’s palate