Would you eat cicadas?

[Brent Burns]

While watching 9.yahoo.com, there was a brief segment on Cicada-Licious, so I checked it out at:

http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/pdf/cicada%20recipes.PDF

Of course, there is a disclaimer and nutritional information made by the University of Maryland and cicadamaniacs at the very beginning. They stressed that they do not advocate eating cicadas without consulting your doctor first.

I really had to check it out first because I was not sure if the URL address including "umd" was either University of Minnesota Duluth or University of Maryland. It turns out to be the University of Maryland.

[Campbell]

I have eaten cicadas, on pizza, steamed with Old Bay, and raw, all forms were moderately disgusting. When I was a kid in MD the Washington Post used to publish recipes for cicadas because so many people would eat them. Since there were so many cicadas available a lot of the poorer people would gather them for food.

[Zeuslax]

I really had to check it out first because I was not sure if the URL address including "umd" was either University of Minnesota Duluth or University of Maryland. It turns out to be the University of Maryland.

Obviously your not from the east coast? Every seven years its a summer of joy in Maryland and up and down the east. 2 summers ago was the last arising. With each cycle there's always all kinds of crazy recipes. One of the funniest things I've ever seen was a cicada eating contest in Fells Point (huge bar district) located in Baltimore. I've seen it twice down there and it's a riot. Nothing like people climbing up trees or picking them off the ground alive! I guess you call that the raw recipe.

[Brent Burns]

I really had to check it out first because I was not sure if the URL address including "umd" was either University of Minnesota Duluth or University of Maryland. It turns out to be the University of Maryland.

Obviously your not from the east coast? Every seven years its a summer of joy in Maryland and up and down the east. 2 summers ago was the last arising. With each cycle there's always all kinds of crazy recipes. One of the funniest things I've ever seen was a cicada eating contest in Fells Point (huge bar district) located in Baltimore. I've seen it twice down there and it's a riot. Nothing like people climbing up trees or picking them off the ground alive! I guess you call that the raw recipe.

The last time I was from the East Coast was in 1981 when my family and I moved down to Texas. That was when I was living in Rochester, and I do remember hearing a lot about the cicada cycle.

In fact, I am learning something new from you as well as from TSULacrosse. That adds to my trivia "memory" bank.

[Zeuslax]

I thought they crept into Western NY, but most maps only show them on the eastern side of the state. They are losing lots of habitat due to development and paving. But they can burrow sideways before coming up, which is pretty cool. Here's a Mid Atlatic map that I found.

[Brent Burns]

Cool! That is really a very visual map to get the idea about the cicadas.

[mbuff]

Brent, I'll eat just about any bug if you fry it up and put a little Tony's on it. Our dieticians at work had a Fear Factor type thing for lunch one day and out of 400 employees, I was the only one who would eat the mealworms--I still get people looking at my plate in the cafeteria.

I've never tried a cicada because it was more fun to tie a string on them and fly them around.

[StrykerFSU]

All I remember from the 1985 cicada event was the noise and the smell. Who wouldn't want to eat one of those things?

[Campbell]

All I remember from the 1985 cicada event was the noise and the smell. Who wouldn't want to eat one of those things?

Don't forget the crunch under the feet. Those things were everywhere. Fresh, cruncy and a cirtual flavor explosion in your mouth.

[Brent Burns]

Just for your amusement as I got this from www.cicadamania.com-