Grasshoppers...it's what's for dinner.

One of the best things about Thailand is its food.  Everywhere you go, things are fresh, spicy, and just down right delicious.  The curries are amazing, the seafood is cooked perfectly, the veggies are fresh from the market.  For cruisers, the grocery stores carry everything anyone could ever want….fresh local food, imported meats, a variety of cheeses, seafood, you name it.  Out of all these choices, guess what Jake wanted for dinner?  Grasshoppers.  To be fair, the freezer he was making his choice from had much grosser things – water bugs anyone?  Or perhaps you would like to split a giant toad with your partner (complete with head)?  If you’ve been reading this blog for very long, you know we indulge his inner Bear Grylls and buy these nasty things from time to time.  So that’s how we found ourselves having oysters and grasshopper po-boys for dinner tonight (I’m guessing folks in Louisiana aren’t cringing as much as the rest of you guys).

The oysters here in the Makro market come in the little round plastic tubs for 30 Baht per tub (about $1 USD) and they’re extremely fresh, so we eat them quite often.  The grasshoppers on the other hand were closer to 425 baht per kilo and of course you can’t get anything less than a kilo.  Jake has been asking for them every time we go to the store (although I’m not sure why…he had them fresh in OK and thought they were disgusting).  Since we were already going to have the oil hot tonight for the oysters, we relented and spent the $15 USD or so on the frozen grasshoppers (and I balk when Andy buys a ribbye at $15/pound). 

fried grasshoppers don't make a very pretty picture, but you get
the idea.

 When Andy opened the bag, we had to open the door to the little bungalow here to keep from gagging.  But he trudged on….into the oil they went.  So there was our table set…baguette, coleslaw, fried oysters, and big plate of fried grasshoppers, eyes and all.  Guess who didn’t like the grasshoppers?  Of course he didn’t!  He never likes these things…when will we learn?  Guess who cleaned their plate?  Yep…Andy and I…crunchy with a little bit of a smoky, burnt taste.  Not bad.  I hear that we can’t sustain our eating habits at the rate this world is procreating and we’ll all be eating bugs in a few years anyway.  We thought we would just get a leg up on everyone.  Cheers!