ST, July 16, 2006
How to eat fried worms
NEW YORK - A guest at a Manhattan cocktail party removed a scorpion from its bed of cheese and popped it in his mouth, determined to savour the taste.
'Nutty, sweet,' was the verdict of Gourmet magazine food editor Ian Knauer at the recent soiree.
He was at the Explorers Club in New York, which likes to entertain its well-travelled members with exotic culinary adventures.
Founded in 1904, the exclusive international club has some 3,000 members around the world including Edmund Hillary.
Mr Gene Rurka, a biologist and the Explorers Club's exotic foods expert, devotes much thought to devising dishes for the club's annual dinner in March.
There, guests feast on tarantulas, maggots and exotic parts of livestock such as eyeballs and penises.
He has experimented with worms and decided the best option is to disguise them as a pretzel, tying them in a knot like the salty dough snack, and to serve them with mustard.
First, they have to be fed on oatmeal for 10 days to cleanse the system, and he does not recommend taking worms from just anywhere.
'You don't want them raised in manure,' he said.
He sources the more exotic ingredients such as spiders and scorpions from farms in Texas and Nevada where they are raised as pets or to feed animals.
At US$30 (S$47.50) each, the scorpions make a costly canape.
Mr Rurka said he tries to overcome people's aversion to creepy-crawlies by serving them with something appetising - for example cheese and sun-dried tomato with the scorpion.
He admits he would not normally feast on such creatures by choice. 'This is for sustenance, this is not an everyday meal,' he said.
But he said attitudes to food change over time and between countries, and with environmental problems and a growing population, the food industry could eventually be looking for new sources of protein, such as maggots or worms.
'I would say, in the future, our protein source will be different,' he said, comparing raising insects to farming chickens.
'It's getting over that hurdle; it's hard to put a worm in your mouth,' he said.
For the record, a worm pretzel, or worm-zel, is a little chewy but doesn't taste too bad smothered with mustard.
Reuters
