Would you feel the same if they make "insect butter" instead of selling fried roaches ? I guess most of the psychological repulsion comes from the appearance...
> I've tried chocolate covered crickets and they were like nothing I've ever ate before.
Can you describe what it was like ?
By the way, I wonder if there are people who feel the same level of disgust when eating shrimps. Shrimps are not insects per se, but it's not very far from that either, and most people consider them to be a delicacy and have no problem eating them...
This was about 10 years ago, but I still have a vivid recollection of eating them. I think I had the Hotlix brand; they came in a little box like this with 3 or 4 white chocolate-covered crickets:
For the first one, I popped the entire thing in my mouth; the chocolate tasted terrible (like really cheap, stale, Advent calendar chocolate) and overpowered the taste of the cricket. I swallowed it after a few bites, so the texture didn't really bother me.
For the second one I wanted to see what it'd be like without the chocolate, so I sucked it all off until I was left with just the cricket itself. You can see here what it might have looked like:
It was the real deal; wings, legs, the abdomen, and the head. It was fairly dried out, so it was a bit flaky, feeling like it'd turn to dust if you overhandled it. I started with the head, which was kind of weird; it sort of...popped, like a grape does when you bite into it. Chewing it broke it down into a sort of powder that got stuck in my teeth. I hated the wings, which reminded me of eating wood shavings, and the legs were pretty gritty. The abdomen was kind of soft and chewy, which wasn't so bad, but it left even more little pieces in my teeth (they weren't as bad as eating fig seeds, which in my opinion is like chewing on sand, but I didn't like the texture at all).
The taste was actually quite plain; I definitely wouldn't compare it to meat. I don't even know how to describe it, because there was barely anything there. To me, the main thing that sticks out is the texture. Maybe it had something to do with the way the product was stored, or that the chocolate coating dried it out or something; given the opportunity I think I might try something fresher.
I actually really like shrimp, crab, and lobster, but the thing about them is that they're a lot more uniform; the parts that you eat all have the same texture, and aren't broken up into a bunch of little pieces (except for crab I guess). Maybe Hotlix should take a cue from seafood, and serve crickets with melted butter?
I'm pretty open minded, so I think I'd try eating almost any insect; well, except for spiders or these cheddar cheese "Larvettes":
Shrimp, crab, lobster: shudder. They are bugs!!!! (cue mental shrieking) I can handle eating processed crab for some reason I cannot understand. But to watch somebody breaking down and eating a lobster at the table is almost more than I can take.
Probably the thing that wigs me out with insects is the thought of eating their guts - digestive track and such. I know it is irrational, but there it is. Just the general ooze that is inside them - ughh. On the other hand, the idea of eating a tiny steak taken from the leg of a grasshopper seems perfectly fine and palatable to me. Eating a lobster claw? Not so much. I know none of that is rational.
> who feel the same level of disgust when eating shrimps
Yes. I forced myself to try and they don't taste bad at all, but I will not get close to them again. They'd be quite close to spiders if I had to order potential food by how repulsive it looks.
I have no problem with eating insects as long as the finished product doesn't leave insect grits in my teeth for hours after a meal.