I Ate a BUG

Yes, you read that right. But don't get too excited, I'm certain it is only the first of many. Nevertheless, it was the first and therefore noteworthy.

My entire family picked me up from school the other day and before going home we took a detour to Chiang Mai University. It's a pretty big, and apparently a pretty good, university right in the city. My Meh studied there, and so was excited to show it to me. We drove around the campus, weaving in and out of the motorcycles (the University students' vehicle of choice). The campus is really gorgeous. They have some old buildings in traditional Thai architecture, they have some new modern buildings, and everything in between. While there is no unifying style, all of the buildings were nestled amongst towering tropical trees and placed between gently rolling hills. On one of these hillsides, we watched a group of students sliding down the slope atop makeshift 'sleds' made from TV, pizza, and other cardboard boxes. College kids...

Anyways, we pulled over at the side of this beautiful lake. We were just gathered around the bed of the pickup admiring the landscape when my family decided to show me what they had purchased at the market-- which consisted of a large bag of large bugs. Large, creeping, crawling, ALIVE bugs. I started to panic thinking they would make me pop one in right then and there. But no worries, we'll just go home and fry 'em up for later. That night, I was bringing my dinner dishes back into the kitchen and found my grandma hard at work. She was drowning the bugs in water, then picking off the wings and pulling some of the insides out. It actually made me feel better that there was some preparation and care going into these poor guys.

Then, the next day, I returned from school to find the bugs fried and ready to go. They are around an inch long and maybe the width of an almond-- a serious critter in my book. My sisters dug right in. This species is a traditional food in Northern Thailand but only available seasonally. I watched as they picked off the legs and threw them into their mouths. I knew I couldn't delay the inevitable--I had to try it. So Fern prepared one for me and handed it over. I tried not to think about it too much and just popped it in. I chewed it up and managed to swallow it with only a small shudder. I was a bit surprised when I hit a juicy pocket, but even more surprised when I realized... it didn't taste bad. I mean, it was no molten chocolate cake, but it was just mostly crispy and salty. I even ate a second one. Plus, my family mentioned multiple times that Mae Hong Song has LOTS of bugs, which is one of the areas we will be spending three weeks at. So maybe by the end, I'll be laughing at my resistance to eating creepy crawlers, who knows?