My name is Mic and I'll teach you how to eat bugs

My name is Mic and I'll teach you something; probably how to eat bugs.

I'm an autodidact, always obsessed with something new on a 2-5 year cycle. Right now I'm interested in entomophagy.

What is Entomophagy?

Entomophagy is a fancy word for "eating insects".

That word "Entomophagy" is pretty silly, because most of the world actually eats bugs, it's just North Americans and Europeans that think it's weird. I don't self-identify as a choiromophagist (eater of pigs), ageladaphagist (eater of cows), or a tyriphagist (eater of cheese), so why might I call myself an "entomophagist"? Don't we usually have words to describe dietary restrictions, like paleo, vegan, kosher, instead of dietary inclusions? Well, yes, you're right. Languages are always biased by the people who use it to describe themselves, English is no exception. Entomophagy is the word that's most useful to find information at this moment in time, so like it or not (I don't), we're stuck with it.

Why Eat Insects?

There are many of reasons, from ecology, to nutrition, to classic personal taste. The question of why has already been addressed by many Steemit community members, namely:

• @espressodopio: Why we should eat insects
• @lndesta120282 : Eating insects
• @venturopoly : 8 reasons why eating insects is the #FutureOfFood, and why now is the perfect time to invest in Entomophagy!
• @foodart: Food Journal #5: Time has come to eat insects even in Europe?
• @kric8 : How much protein is in a cricket

For me, there are over 2,000 edible insects in this world of ours, and people who don't eat them are missing out on a ton of flavor, just on account of cultural brainwashing. How different would your life be, if you came from a place where tomatoes were the forbidden fruit? Would you go your whole life without trying them, or, if you went to a place where it was totally normal, would you give them a taste?

How Do You Eat Insects?

For the most part, cooking and eating insects is not a lot harder or different from other food ingredients. You can't eat just any old mushroom you see in the wild, but you can eat a lot of them, if you know which ones. You don't generally chow down on raw meat; it's safer to cook it first. You might have food allergies. All of these rules apply to insects as well.

That's the entirety of my plans a this point. Insect recipes, bug food photography, ento food writing. For the sake of transparency, I will disclose that I am writing a book about it (hence the watermarks), but I plan to release lot of content here as well. That's fine if you don't want to buy my book, but some follows and upvotes would be appreciated.

Who Are You, Anyway?

Oh yeah, isn't this supposed to be about me?
I'm not interesting. But I like learning and talking about interesting things.
My name is Mic and I eat bugs. Follow me if you want me to teach you how.