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24 June 2011

It's the Friday Night Question, chosen at random from The Book of Questions...→[More:]

#206: Would you be willing to eat a bowl of live crickets for $40,000 US?

£25,056.46 UK
$38,131.15 AUS
$39,492.16 CAN
€28,206.75 EUR
¥3,218,847.60 JAP

post by: BoringPostcards at: 17:25 | 50 comments

No. I couldn't eat any living creature, and I don't eat sea-bugs (shrimp, prawns, etc) so wouldn't eat land-bugs either, even if they were cooked.

posted by Senyar 24 June | 17:31

How big of a bowl? I would say yes. Yes I would.

posted by LoriFLA 24 June | 17:37

I don't eat sea-bugs, either, and leggy critters freak me right out. I do NOT want them jumping on me. However, for 40 grand, I have to say I'd try. Crickets and grasshoppers are supposedly the protein of the future, after all.

LoriFLA brings up an interesting point- this better be a cereal bowl and not a mixing bowl. Let's say it's a cereal bowl.

posted by BoringPostcards 24 June | 17:52

I'd give it a go, certainly.

posted by gaspode 24 June | 17:54

I can barely eat a soft-shell crab.

posted by Ardiril 24 June | 17:55

Nope. Projectile vomiting would ensue. Sorry. I could use the cash.

posted by Splunge 24 June | 17:55

As much as I could use the money, I wouldn't do it for a million dollars.

posted by deborah 24 June | 18:00

For 40K, I'd try, but I just google-imaged them, and shuddered a bit at a screenful, so not sure about a bowlful.

posted by wens 24 June | 18:02

Crickets? Maybe. Depends on the size of the bowl and, uh, whether I could actually bring myself to bite down on a live creature. Would I try? Yup.

Almost any other bug? Nope. No no no no no no no.

Maybe ladybugs.

posted by Elsa 24 June | 18:10

No, no, no. I'd be OK with it if they were dead, not alive. For example, I have eaten mopane worms without a qualm. And they were delicious.

posted by bearwife 24 June | 18:15

Sure. Can I get chocolate sauce for dipping? Or ranch dressing, maybe?

posted by youngergirl44 24 June | 18:16

Yep. I sure would.

posted by Specklet 24 June | 18:18

bearwife: I learned about mopane worms in an issue of 3-2-1 Contact when I was a kid. There was a picture of someone eating one out of a can. Can you relate the taste to anything else?

posted by youngergirl44 24 June | 18:18

I think I would, yeah. I'd certainly try my hardest for $40k!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 24 June | 18:29

Now we're discussing how low we'd go for just a cereal bowl. I said $10k.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 24 June | 18:29

Would Joe Rogan be there? If not, then no. If so, then probably still no.

posted by mullacc 24 June | 18:30

No. NO. No chance. As deborah said, not for a million bucks.

Eeewww.

posted by Kangaroo 24 June | 18:34

I would deaden my mouth with some sort of alcohol and give it a serious try.

posted by notquitemaryann 24 June | 18:45

Willing, yes. Able, I really don't know. A bowlful (even a cereal bowlful) is a lot.

posted by jeoc 24 June | 18:59

How would you make them stay in the bowl while they're waiting to be eaten? Surely they'd see the first few of their friends eaten and then the rest of them'd leg it.

posted by Senyar 24 June | 19:02

Yeah, I'd do it.

posted by mygothlaundry 24 June | 19:07

I'd give it a go...but it would probably end badly.

posted by cooker girl 24 June | 19:26

How big the bowl and yeah probably. I've eaten fried crickets and that's a lot of money for being uncomfortable for 15 minutes.

posted by The Whelk 24 June | 19:36

I mean, the biggest problem would e any acids in the digestion system, and the still-moving, but their small and bineless and I've eaten much weirder things.

And 40K is a lot of money.

posted by The Whelk 24 June | 19:38

Did you ever see that scene in the movie Oldboy where the guy eats a live squid, and it's flailing all around his face as he stuffs it in his mouth? Apparently that wasn't a special effects shot- the actor ATE A LIVE SQUID. Not one, but three, because they had to do three takes on the scene.

If he could do that, I could eat some crickets. At least crickets don't flail.

posted by BoringPostcards 24 June | 19:39

Tax free cash munny? I'd have to do it.

I do agree with Elsa that crickets are on the less gross side of the bug spectrum. Worms or spiders or something I couldn't do.

posted by rainbaby 24 June | 19:42

I've eaten a semi-live squid.

I'm not proud of it, but it was given to me.

posted by The Whelk 24 June | 19:44

Senyar: the trick would be to pin them all down with a layer of ranch dressing. At which point they get both immobile and much more tasty.

posted by BoringPostcards 24 June | 19:55

OMG, we get ranch dressing? $5. And a fork, I really don't want to use my fingers.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 24 June | 19:56

According to IMDB, Nicolas Cage got $40,000 for his single cockroach (plus some acting, but hey).

posted by notquitemaryann 24 June | 20:06

As long as I can have a (mixing) bowl of beer before the bowl of crickets. Also Sriracha sauce would be good.

posted by Wolfdog 24 June | 20:45

I'd give it a go...but it would probably end badly.

this.

when I was younger, my dignity meant more to me and I would have emphatically said "no"--in fact, I think I did say "no" when this Book of Question Q came up at a drinking game party in college. Now I would ask how much I get for trying, as opposed to succeeding, and then give it a go.

posted by crush-onastick 24 June | 20:46

I don't need the money, but I'd be willing to try a cooked one.

I draw the line at chitterlings...even though I eat sausage with casings. Yes, I KNOW it's the same thing!

posted by brujita 24 June | 21:17

Fried crickets aren't bad, like fried shrimp but not ...sea-tasting. They really ust taste like whatever oil they were cooked in.

They cut the heads off tho.

posted by The Whelk 24 June | 21:20

Nah. I'd rather earn $40K a different way.

posted by Miko 24 June | 21:30

My chickens ate large crickets. They'd grab one out of the air, then bash their heads against the ground until the cricket in their beak was killed. Then one of the other chickens would dash in and grab the cricket and eat it.

The chooks were pretty stupid, so it didn't seem to affect them much. I think I'd have some problem with head trauma if I tried that.

posted by galadriel 24 June | 21:51

Nah. I'd rather earn $40K a different way.

In a way that would take you more than the 15 minutes this would, I take it?

posted by BoringPostcards 24 June | 22:22

For forty grand? How big's the bowl?

I've eaten a live cricket before. We had a box of them we were using as crappie bait. And there was only one beer left. So whoever ate a cricket got the last beer.

It was a delicious, refreshing beer.

And the cricket didn't taste like much of anything. Disconcerting to feel something hopping around in your mouth, though.

posted by BitterOldPunk 24 June | 22:24

I buy two dozen crickets every month from the pet store to feed my spider. They cost about $2.50. For that much money, I'd probably eat them myself.

posted by octothorpe 24 June | 22:39

Sure. Homemade ketchup or a garlic aioli do you think goes better?

posted by gomichild 24 June | 23:26

Nope. My wallet would never talk my mouth into this.

posted by toastedbeagle 24 June | 23:41

During winter, I buy crickets, pull the legs off and pop them into the carnivorous plants (some of them are tropicals that do not enter dormancy and need year-round feeding). I wouldn't mind eating these kind of farmed crickets (grown to maturity on a diet of oatmeal) but I'm not quite as sure about eating free-range crickets that have been eating who knows what. I suspect I'd prefer them roasted too but they wouldn't be too bad raw, without the legs.

posted by jamaro 24 June | 23:46

I asked the mister and he said, "hell yeah!" I have no idea how many ~~days~~ ~~weeks~~ years it would take for me to kiss him again.

posted by deborah 24 June | 23:57

I'd do it for the amount remaining on my mortgage.

posted by craniac 25 June | 00:46

Sure. I've eaten worse and lived. Long John Silver's, for example.

posted by ufez 25 June | 00:48

If I started doing icky things for the sake of a greasy buck (OK a lot of greasy bucks), there is no telling where I might stop.

posted by danf 25 June | 09:11

I suspect I'd prefer them roasted too but they wouldn't be too bad raw, without the legs.

See, if we could have 'em immobilized (without the legs) or cooked, I wouldn't even hesitate. It's the legs and the hopping that give me even a bit of pause.

It's not even all about the money for me, though I'd need an incentive to sign up for more than a few bites/bugs. I'm curious about insects as food, always have been. Wide-spectrum gatherers have apparently eaten insects for (quite literally) ages, and we have plenty of records or observations of other cultures enjoying insects.

Crickets seem like the most inoffensive locally available gateway insect for me to try, though I'm not sure a live, hopping, uncooked bunch o' crickets is really a fair introduction to insects as food.

posted by Elsa 25 June | 13:55

I've never been quite that hungry, and I hope I never am.

Plus, what kind of jerk would ask you to eat live bugs?

posted by theora55 25 June | 17:06

bearwife: I learned about mopane worms in an issue of 3-2-1 Contact when I was a kid. There was a picture of someone eating one out of a can. Can you relate the taste to anything else?

If they are comparable to anything, it would be a very mild bacon. Once you've had one, you understand why the locals eat them all the time as snack food. They are wonderfully chewy.

posted by bearwife 26 June | 14:57

In a heartbeat.

Plus, what kind of jerk would ask you to eat live bugs?
A jerk who used to have a spare $40k?

posted by dg 26 June | 18:01

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