Day 188

Salt & Vinegar Crickets: As my readers know by now, it's rare that I eat something that's completely brand new to me. Even though I make the effort to discover something new every day, I find that a lot of things that I eat are variations on foods that I've already had. However, today was definitely different.

A friend of mine bought something for me that he'd been promising to give me for awhile, and he was finally able to deliver it this afternoon. Yes, it was dried salt and vinegar flavored crickets - the insect kind. I've always wanted to try insects in any form, since I've seen them included on countless food shows and such. I know eating insects probably sounds disgusting to most people, but I'm not most people. These "crick-ettes" (as the package cleverly stated) were dried, then flavored with salt and vinegar, much like potato chips. Although I doubt the Lay's company will be introducing these in their product line any time soon.

I was really excited to try these, so I eagerly opened the package and poured a few into my hand. I'm not gonna lie and say that it wasnt a bit strange to be holding dried crickets in my hand, knowing they were going straight into my mouth. Anyway, I threw caution to the wind and dove in.

My first bite immediately reminded me of a crunchy potato chip in texture - maybe an air-puffed type, like Cheetos. The taste, aside from the salt/vinegar flavoring, reminded me of peanuts, but more like the taste of the peanut shell itself. Not bad...actually, pretty tasty! Once I got past the notion of what I was eating, I enjoyed them. If you put a bowl of these out with some beers as a party snack, people would love them. Well, provided that they weren't weirded out by eating crickets.

I'm so glad that I finally got to add insects to my list of new foods - it was a long time coming. Now I'm ready to try more. Thanks again to Michael Hoffman for providing them!