They say love travels through the stomach. Turns out, love is not the only thing that travels through the stomach. Basically anything you eat travels through your stomach (hopefully). For most Westerners this means pasta, pizza and … (fill in the blank). Because of new knowledge we have acquired over recent years, we now also have gluten free pasta, vegetarian pizza, soy milk, and dairy products for lactose intolerant people.
This last week was “organic week” in Norway, meaning that you were able to get a lot of organic food for free all week long. Most of the food followed very strict dietary requirements, making sure that a vast majority of people could actually digest the foods presented. There were loads of events about sustainability and sustainable agriculture in all over Norway.
So on Friday I went to an event, called “climate food”. I figured there would be a bunch of presentations about how unsustainable big scale agriculture has been over the last few decades and of course a call to action. Little did I know, that the call to action also included a kohlrabi wrapper. The Hitchhiker restaurant at Mathallen in Oslo presented us with this delightful little sustainable taste and let me tell you, this was delicious.
Especially because usually I end up more like…
After the kohlrabi bite, I was about to leave but didn’t want to leave in the middle of the presentation, so I decided to wait it out. I mean, after all, how bad could be another presentation about sustainable agriculture be?
Turns out, not bad at all. I, however, thought it was fun that the presenter started talking about creepy crawlers as a main source of protein. I mean, yes, nice idea and Bear Grylls obviously has a leg up on that market, but me? Seriously? How could I ever eat bugs? They are tiny little crawlers that I barely tolerate in the woods, why would I want them on my plate? The plus side was quickly pointed out to the disgusted audience, that gasped loudly: There is an abundance of creepy crawlers all over the world, every human being on the planet (we are talking 7 billion people) would never starve again. Not a single day in their entire life. Forever. How cool is that information for fun-fact Sunday?
Five minutes later I was presented with this little gem on my plate:
Did I eat it? Hell yeah, the whole thing. Of course I did. It tasted delicious and I am not lying. I first tried the larvae by themselves and it only took about 14 minutes staring at them before I put one of these little things into my mouth. But once I got over it, closed my eyes and bit into the first crunchy bit, I was quite surprised. They tasted quite nutty. Almost like peanuts, without triggering an allergic reaction. So that’s a plus.
Another 10 minutes later I finished this bite-size treat and was quite full. Mainly because I didn’t want another piece of this. Don’t get me wrong, it was really delicious but my mind won over my hunger. I don’t think I am quite ready for the buggy step just yet. I am sure, in my lifetime, I will one day get to where bugs will be part of my regular diet, but for now, I will stick to Belgian chocolates for breakfast…
A bird loves a fish 
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