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Comment by wiradikusuma | Hacker News Reader

How do you convince a person like me who thinks it's gross to eat insects? Esp. Out of fear they (or the parasites they bring) might "become alive and crawl up to your brain or start a colony inside your bowel".

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Peer pressure works. I had some chili dried grasshoppers in Mexico. My sister forced me to eat them. They weren't that great, but weren't bad, either. Sort of like eating sunflower seeds. I'll admit I don't know how one would psych themselves up to eat a plate of grubs on their own. Maybe drop some hallucinogens first?

Add hallucinogens and they start to crawl... :(

Have you guys considered a career with the CIA?

I would think you typically cook them or prepare them in some way, not just pop them alive into your mouth like a bird.

Put half a pound of crickets in food processor. Two teaspoons starch (for binding). Add 4 small sliced green chili peppers, some grated ginger, 2-3 thinly shredded kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, teaspoon of fish sauce (for the msg!). Form into patties, deep fry until golden brown.

I think i had something like that from a food stall in Thailand, not far from Cambodian border O_o

+1 to this.

Ate toasted grubs as part of an outdoor survival class once, nobody would think that those were alive. There were also some battered and fried mealworms but I don't recall having any of those.

Would it help if they were prepared in such a way as to make them unrecognisable? I know plenty of people who will happily eat mince, chops, etc., but who find it offputting if there are signs of where the meat came from, (e.g. a hog roast, fish/poultry with the heads still on).

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