A Feast of Cicadas

[Carrot Top]

On Thursday May 31 the midwest US be in the middle of the cicada invasion which happens only once every seventeen years.

It's also the night of a Blue Moon.

I'm not enough of either a mathematician or astronomer to figure out how often that might occur in a lifetime. Blue Moons can occur on an average of every thirty-two months.

But it sure does seems like a great opportunity to crank up the grill and choose an appropriate beer for marinated roast cicada. Yum.

NPR offers some recipes for Soft Shell Cicadas, EL Chirper Tacos, and Cicada-Rhubarb Pie.

This site offers more recipes, Cicada-Portobello Quiche and Cicada Wontons among them.

Actually, eating a diet of cicada while it is now available might save enough money from the food budget (if properly invested, of course) to provide for an escape from the noise they make the next time they emerge, seventeen years from now.

[Magictofu]

You can have them squewered on a stick in China... Those I tried were a bit dry and fibrous and the taste was on the bland side (the scorpions, in front and on the right, were quite good though).

[Carrot Top]

Hmm. It begs the question, if cicadas only come out from the ground "here" once every seventeen years for this potential feast, is it the same all over the world? Are they a only-once-every-seventeen-years treat?

I wonder if the ones you ate were dry and fibrous either due to the (desired) nature of the recipe used or due to the skill of the cook. One of the things I found interesting about the description of how they could taste was a sentence that said they were "crunchy on the outside yet meltingly tender within" or something like that. Sounded good to me.

[Magictofu]

There is a great diversity of species. Only a few of them come out of the ground on such intervals.

But you are right, the cook might have badly treated these weird bugs.

[AzianBrewer]

Hmm...I am wondering if these noisemakers taste like soft shelf crabs...

[SheenaGreena]

I think those things are normal year round bugs in korea and japan. I remember every summer in korea those things were noisy as hell and you could find their leftover skin/carcasses still clinging to tree trunks.

I bet those skins would be good deep fried and sprinkled with some chile flakes and salt

[AzianBrewer]

I think those things are normal year round bugs in korea and japan.  I remember every summer in korea those things were noisy as hell and you could find their leftover skin/carcasses still clinging to tree trunks.

I bet those skins would be good deep fried and sprinkled with some chile flakes and salt

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Sounds like beer nuts to me!

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

The "el chirper" tacos have me dying laughing.

[onedaylingers]

Hmm... I did enjoy the stewed butterfly chrysalis that street hawkers sold from steaming vats in Korea... you get them by the dixie-cupful, and spear-your-own with toothpicks....despite the stewed-nature of the chrysalis, I remember them being crispy-ish on the outside with softer insides... vaguely reminiscent in taste and fragrance of Chinese dried shrimp.

[Domestic Goddess]

Hmm... I did enjoy the stewed butterfly chrysalis that street hawkers sold from steaming vats in Korea... you get them by the dixie-cupful, and spear-your-own with toothpicks....despite the stewed-nature of the chrysalis, I remember them being crispy-ish on the outside with softer insides... vaguely reminiscent in taste and fragrance of Chinese dried shrimp.

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I think this is called boondegi (silkworm larvae). It smelled so bad (for me) and I can tell a pot is cooking about 2 meters away. There are two things I can't bring myself to eat - silkworm larvae (which looks like young Philippine cockroaches -ours grow up to 2 inches in length) and raw crabs in soy sauce or gochujang sauce.

[Magictofu]

I tried the canned silkworm larvae and they were truly disgusting... like most canned meat I guess. My guess is that fresh is always better.

[emilyr]

OK, we're in the midst of the 13-year Periodic Southern Swarm in Missouri right now. One of my station's morning shows has been talking about them for the last few days. One of the host's house/trees is covered. We've been grossing her out talking about cooking them, and have found a few recipes. My question is, before you use them, several of these recipes call for them being blanched; do you need to de-wing/leg them? What kind of prep is necessary?

[phatj]

We have not had a swarm, but far more of these things that I would like the last few summers here in SE Pennsylvania. They really freak me the hell out. I'm not sure I could deal with eating them unless they were shelled somehow.

[Mjx]

OK, we're in the midst of the 13-year Periodic Southern Swarm in Missouri right now. One of my station's morning shows has been talking about them for the last few days. One of the host's house/trees is covered. We've been grossing her out talking about cooking them, and have found a few recipes. My question is, before you use them, several of these recipes call for them being blanched; do you need to de-wing/leg them? What kind of prep is necessary?

I'm thinking a prep. similar to shrimp (I know lots of people cook all sorts of arthropods intact, but I have a squeamish boyfriend, so shrimp prep means removing head, carapace, legs, etc, so what remains is just a lump of meat, not a recognizable creature).

[emilyr]

I haven't ended up cooking any yet, but an ice cream shop in the town I work in made some ice cream. They had to stop selling it after concerns from the health department. There are no government guidelines for.how long/to what temp bugs should be cooked, so it was a little sticky, regulations wise.

Sparky's Story

[MisterKrazee]

According to Cicada Mania, the 17 year cicadas should be emerging this year in the Mid to Northern East Coast of the US. I happen to be very close to the hotspots shown in NC on their site. I was 9 the last time they came around. Then, it was just another noisy bug, but this time is totally different. In my wiser days I now know that these things are edible!

The link in the first post refers to a couple recipes from the University of Maryland. They actually have a small cookbook called Cicada-Licious and is available for free.

I'm personally quite excited about this and would love to hear more about people's experiences with this creature. I will certainly report back when I get my hands on some.