Alan: I just learned there will be a major emergence of cicadas this summer, and here is my reply to the friend who alerted me.
I have heard many people rave about the taste of cicada larvae -- without a single naysayer. Even NPR sing their praises. This summer, I will actively track them down, and look forward to a taste that many people compare to shrimp, which - like lobster - belong to the arthropod-insect family. https://www.quora.com/What-do-cicadas-taste-like In Oaxaca I have developed a taste for grasshoppers (chapulines), but I would never seek them out. It sounds to me like cicada larvae deserve the praise they get.
Quora Question: What Do Cicadas Taste Like?
It's the single most delicious food I’ve had ever.
When I was a kid, fried cicada is a common dish in my family. In mid summer evenings, we go out for a walk after dinner. My parents will bring a knife and a bottle of water. We find the small holes on the ground near trees, about 4mm in diameter, those are the “peeking” holes cicada larvae opened to scout the outside environment. Sometimes you can see their nose tip at the hole, in which case we insert the knife below it and dig it out. If alerted they might fall back to the depth of the hole, then we dig the hole open and pour some water in there. They hate water and will come out. If it has rained during the day you may find some of them on trees ready to molt. (Their molt success chance depends on the level of moisture)
We usually catch 10~30 of them in a 30 minutes walk. We will wash them clean, soak them in salted water overnight. The next evening we rinse them a few more times and pan fry them thoroughly with oil. Fried cicadas are then served on a small plate with sprinkles of salt.
Cicada has a chunk of real muscle on their back, kind of like crab meat, but firmer. The belly is rich in protein, like a mix of sea urchin and egg. All these texture and flavor covered in a crispy shell, combined together to make a bite of awesomeness. My mouth is watering as I write this down!
Picture from internet:
A few years later some sort of infrastructure project has taken place and changed composition of the soil (So it no longer gets muddy after rain) and our local cicadas are gone. We can still catch them from less developed areas but are kind of rare. My parents bought canned cicada from supermarket, they don't taste as good as the fresh ones.
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