I don't get it and I'm from a fishing family

Stamets@lemmy.world to Memes@sopuli.xyz – 710 points –
117

If you've got cleaned, cooked seafood that smells like fish shit, you're at a shitty restaurant. My only takeaway from this is that we should really see if we can make terrestrial insects taste as delicious as we make aquatic insects taste.

oh there's some tasty bugs out there already. people are just too squeamish about it.

For me its mostly the legs/heads. I dont fuck with heads on anything and legs need to be way bigger for me to be interested. I'd try one of those fly/mosquito burgers tho.

Or you could, y'know, just eat beans instead.

You ever had shrimp n bacon bbq beans with ancho and chipotle bbq sauce? Probably not because it's kinda my proprietary recipe but it's dead simple and amazing. couple cups of beans, cup of a good bbq sauce heavily seasoned with ancho, chipotle, smoked paprika, white pepper, into a fry pot with a 4 strips of bacon previously fried in and chopped coarse, simmer until thick and then add your peeled shrimp right at the end to cook,

5 more...

crustaceans and insects are two different things, not real complicated. The crustaceans have actual meat, not a fluid filled exoskeleton.

I dunno... Have you ever opened a crab up before cooking it? It's pretty much all goo inside an exoskeleton.

I mean I eat them raw and it is some yummy goo, definitely not bug like

While it is inaccurate to characterize crustaceans as bugs, they are arthropods and share an enormous amount of anatomical and psychological features with insects. Both have open circulatory systems and use hemolymph to hydraulically operate their limbs. That "meat" that you're talking about is only really visible after cooking, and consists mostly of denatured and congealed hemolymph.

Well I.kmow that's wrong cause look at an uncooked shrimp

Insects also have muscles in certain locations throughout their bodies. You'll find the exact same structures in similarly structured insects, just on a smaller scale. Honestly I have no idea what you're talking about because they both have muscles and both have open circulatory systems, both will solidify into "meat" when cooked. I'm not sure what you're suggesting meaningfully distinguishes them here other than their taxonomic classifications and their size.

It's not complicated. Quit trying to flex and just look at the obvious.

You're very resistant to learning.

You're very insistent on quoting Wikipedia

I am? Are you sure you're not confusing me with someone else?

Large bugs definitely have some meat on them. Chomp on a large beetle and you will see

Well the latter have more "meat" on them, whereas bugs are mostly just "shells" once they die. You aren't eating the shells of crustaceans, you're eating the innards

You got a point, but the kind of bugs eaten in some parts of the world are usually the fatty kind .

See, at a glance, that thing looks disgusting. I have an instinctive revulsion to the thought of eating it.

I guess some people would say the same for whole live shrimp though, and I grew up fishing them out of the sea and boiling them up in a pot.

Uncooked sea bugs looks unappetising as well

So I guess the same would apply to the uncooked land bugs. They will look better cooked.

The bottom ones have delectable white meat inside. The top ones are all brown guts and crispy, musty shell. Nobody is shelling crickets for a worthwhile piece of meat inside like you do a shrimp or a lobster.

They look similar to bugs, sure. But let's not pretend it's the same thing.

Sounds to me that the common preparation is to just blend them into a powder at which point they're just a non descript protein rich powder

Still no tasty meat.

Well yeah, this would be a poor substitute for meat, but I haven't really seen it suggested as such, just as another way to introduce protein.

In asia the bugs are often put with other condiments, lollipop, spices etc... to make them taste something.

And they are mostly like snacks. I don't know any culture that have them take the place of a meat in a dish.

We're pretty close to creating real synthetic milk by means of modified bacterial culture.

If we can have real milk, cheese, whey protein etc. from cheap feedstock in fermentation vats, I don't see a single reason why someone would choose bug powder over that as a protein source.

Because you need a wide variety of BCAAs and dairy alone doesn't cut it.

What do you mean? Milk is a complete protein mening it has all 9 essential amino acids. It also has them in good amounts in proportion to what humans need. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5149046/

A physiologically-significant increase in the rate of muscle protein synthesis requires adequate availability of all amino acid precursors. The source of EAAs for muscle protein synthesis in the post-absorptive state is the free intracellular pool. Intracellular free EAAs that are available for incorporation into protein are derived from muscle protein breakdown. Under normal conditions about 70% of EAAs released by muscle protein breakdown are reincorporated into muscle protein. The efficiency of reincorporation of EAAs from protein breakdown back into muscle protein can only be increased to a limited extent. For this fundamental reason, a dietary supplement of BCAAs alone cannot support an increased rate of muscle protein synthesis. The availability of the other EAAs will rapidly become rate limiting for accelerated protein synthesis. Consistent with this perspective, the few studies in human subjects have reported decreases, rather than increases, in muscle protein synthesis after intake of BCAAs. We conclude that dietary BCAA supplements alone do not promote muscle anabolism.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5568273/

EAA - Essential Amino Acids

I'm still not sure what you are trying to say, milk has all 20 amino acids, both the essential and the BCAAs. The study you linked is on BCAA supplementation alone, not milk

Even if that was true, that's assuming your diet consists of only dairy. No beans, grains, meat, eggs... You could easily say the same for the bug powder.

However if you're going to eat a diet based on one thing, make that thing dairy. It does contain all the nutrients required to grow a calf at a massive rate, and a human as well. In my youth I did the GOMAD diet for awhile to put on bulk, and the results were incredible. Milk is close to an optimal food, it evolved to be exactly that.

That only works for people of northern European stock, literally evolved to survive a winter on milk and stored potatoes. The rest of us are lactose intolerant for the most part, and besides that, cows milk will literally kill an infant, you need goats milk in that situation.

Oh I can explain it easily! One of them tastes good and the other one tastes bad. That's pretty much it... Not sure how it's so confusing though

Have you ever tried insects? Those who have have said that they taste good. They said it tastes like shrimp.

Those who have have had a different day of taste buds. With insects you're supposed to eat the exo skeleton, which is crunchy, but not nice. Then the meat is a bit nutty, is ok but the texture is off putting imho. Maybe eating your shrimp unpeeled would be a good equivalent.

I eat shrimp unpeeled. Learned to do it from Vietnamese restaurants. It's not bad! It saves a shitton of time peeling them, the spices are usually on the outside so you get more flavor, and the shell gives a nice crunch. I don't eat the tailfins tho that's dumb. They're hard, pointy, and have no meat.

That said... I advocate for finding ways to incorporate insects into western diets. I think we need to start a program to breed them for purpose though. Just like how bananas used to be small and full of seeds but were bred to what they are today. Breed a grubworm or something to be better eatin' and grow them in huge quantities. But no way am I eating a roach.

Yes. Do not recommend. It is okay to say no to drunk dares, ugh so gross.

I dunno I feel like most bugs would be pretty decent fried in Gaelic butter with salt.

I've tried crickets and ants before and they were decent with a ton of seasoning but it sure as hell wasn't as good as lobster.

Ants? Who eats ants?!

It's a big deal in Oaxaca and they're not bad. They add a ton of lime and salt and other seasonings. I had them when drinking Mezcal. The ants are really big too. Apparently they have like a spawning period where they're just everywhere so you can just scoop them up and put them in a skillet really easily.

Sorry to any actual big scientists. I'm sure I butchered that.

Can't imagine if I were to eat ants. Grasshopper I can imagine. But ants... I come from Indonesia and there we have small ants that smell like shit..

If I am to believe the tellings from It Came From The Desert, there could be ants as big as a house.

I live in a fishing town, and I used to love crab, until I was adult and it was my turn to prep them. The first time I turned a crab over and saw the bottom, where all its freaky little legs connect, I had a real "oh god this is either a bug or a space alien" moment. I can't stand crab anymore, just the thought of it makes me feel nauseated. Lobster too. Somehow shrimps are okay, though.

Bro... Shrimp are bait. How can you be grossed out by crab and then pinch a shrimp in half XD? I myself like all the water bugs... But land bugs are still gross.

Land bugs mostly have pretty blend or bad taste, regardless of their looks anyway. In Asia they often add spices to make them taste something.

It's a bit like snails too, it's not that tasty itself, the only reason it's good is because it tastes like the butter and garlic we put in.

And for both it's mostly the texture that's off putting. Some people can grow used to the texture though.

I can see it, I grew up fishing for both too and shrimp are so easy and casual to twist and shuck off the shell and chow down, while crabs are all armored up and feel a lot more like eating an alien being.

A tasty alien being, though.

No land bugs for me either, they're just full of goo inside. I like my animals full of meat, personally.

It's gross sure but i never understood how that would make someone stop eating it. For me no matter how gross something is the taste is the only thing that matters.

Other examples, rabbit's brain, black pudding, or in general how we kill most animals to make steak... It's always creepy, gross or a bit disturbing, but it never changed my taste for it.

If all the meat on earth disappeared tomorrow, I would become a vegetarian before ever knowingly consuming a bug.

What if they were raised in a hermetically sealed environment, dried out, ground into a fine powder, then added to batter to make pancakes?

Lol this is something I do from time to time. Cricket flour is available where I live and it makes great breakfast pancakes!

I've had crispy dried grasshoppers that were chill once, and some BANGIN cricket tacos in NYC.

They're actually pretty great for protein.

I don't have to eat the shells, offal, or shit of I eat the big sea ones though.

This is my thing as well.

If they had shrimp sized grasshoppers that came peeled and deveined, heads removed...with a nice sauce to go with it?

I'd at least try it.

Some of the offal is quite delicious IMO. Like the scallop's skirt (where the eyes are) surrounding the meat, and gonad (the orange or white sac) are great, and don't actually have any sort of fishy taste if that's not your thing.

I watched a yt clip of a scallop boat in the US where the guy was cleaning the scallops by cutting out the meat and throwing the rest away and it just seemed so wasteful! A lot of countries don't throw the rest of it away.

Some of the offal is quite delicious IMO.

Japanese cuisine contends that offal, like fish liver, is sometimes the best part. Monkfish comes to mind. Also, some people really like crawfish and lobster liver.

Hot take: Blue crab offal is where some of the aroma and flavor comes from when you steam them. Especially the "mustard" (although that's not recommended these days - see "bio-accumulation"). The innards, except the gills, are fantastic stacked on a saltine with some Old Bay seasoning and vinegar on top.

In Japan they call the crab or lobster liver (the tomalley) miso, I guess because it looks like miso (well, lobster tomalley doesn't really because it's green, but they're not native to Japan anyway). It's not uncommon to find the gunkan style sushi with crab miso at a lot of shops.

In case your serious that you don’t get it. The bottom pic is all crustaceans that are more closely related to insects than fish.

Op is saying they don't get why many ppl frown upon eating terrestrial insects but do eat aquatic ones.

Of note, insects diverged from the arthropod line that would become crabs, lobsters, etc in the beginning of the Carboniferous or late Devonian, a solid 350-400 million years ago. This means crabs and grasshoppers are more distantly related to each other than humans and frogs.

...That's the point they're making....

They don't get how we like to eat water arthropods but not land ones...

Stamets, do you want me to catch the 4 inch cockroach that I've been raising free-range in my apartment and send it to you to find out? It's on a non-GMO diet.

Most people are definitely quite squeamish about eating unshelled shrimp. This feels like a strawman.

I don't eat water bugs either. They're also gross.

they’re in the water so they’re clean obvs

I'd rather eat bugs than shellfish. Never had bugs but I know I don't like seafood so at least there's a chance the insects won't be bad.

I don't get it either, but head says no no and yes yes.

It's upbringing mostly. I grew up in a family that ate sea brass fillets or tuna steaks at most, and was 20+ when I tried my first shrimp. I hated the taste & texture.

I now like tiger prawns, lobster and other large crustaceans with lot of meat and little actual seafood flavor, but the tiny ones are just like bugs to me. I can tolerate them readily peeled in a strongly flavoured dish, but can live without just fine.

Really is an acquired taste.

It's all about presentation. I can prep crickets in a way that almost anyone will eat them. Feed them oatmeal for a few days, then slow roast, powder in a blender, combine with sesame oil, salt, and spices, stuff it into wonton wrappers and steam. If nobody knows what's in them they disappear. But if I do fried crickets like the ones the Korean street vendors sell, very few non-Asians would touch them.

A lot of insects can be prepared using familiar presentations and the unsuspecting will devour them. I found ant cookies delicious - like a molasses cookie. And ground rolly-pollies (sowbug/pillbug/armadillium) could be used to make shrimp shumai and nobody would be the wiser.

So they're really popular if you pulverize them so they're totally unrecognizable and then trick people into eating them without respect for bodily autonomyβ€½

It doesn't sound like a trick, it sounds like a simple offer that people take up without bothering to ask what's in them.

Right?

Like this person is saying all this and coming across as quite smug about getting people to eat something by deception that they wouldn't choose to eat...and acting like it's something to be proud of.

I can't imagine it'd be getting a similar positive reaction if it were about sneaking animal products into a vegans meal.

He's describing substituting them in for similar things. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference in shrimp shumai because those listed aren't insects, they're terrestrial crustaceans. (I better not find comments in favour of forced vaccination on your history) EDIT: Jeez...you know like the age of consent in every state dude. And all the "close in age" statute gaps by how many years.

I own a bar in south western Saskatchewan. The other night I pulled the jar out of jalapeno garlic fried crickets i got offn Amazon, roughly 3/4s of the patrons gave them a try.

Real question: if you somehow fed those crickets seaweed, do you think they'd taste a little more... fishy or shimpy?

And ground rolly-pollies (sowbug/pillbug/armadillium) could be used to make shrimp shumai and nobody would be the wiser.

I'm honestly waiting for someone to breed these big enough to use whole, somehow. Terrestrial cultivation of shrimp-like food has got to be a better way to go than actual shrimp.

Well to be fair, land bugs have harder shell, and are therefore more uncomfortable to eat.

I want a bug burger and I want it NOW

Now that you mention it I don't think i've ever smelled fish shit in my life.

You VILL eat ze bugs! JAWHOL!

mmm adrenachrome sooo good!

Thank you for yuor sakrifice! I despise you!

You vill own nothing, und be happy!