Tarantulas -- Deep Fried
I think I've always known that tarantulas made wonderful pets.
It was just never a conscious realization until I attended the 19th Annual Bug Fair at the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park on a bright Los Angeles Sunday morning with my eight year-old daughter.
What is a "bug fair," you ask? Well, in the case of Sunday's event, some 60 exhbits, spread out in the Natural History Museum's Grand Foyer and adjacent spaces. Bugs and butterflies -- pinned, spread, encased in glass and framed -- were far and away the most numerous items on display and for sale, but live critters (various insects and arachnids, including millipedes and tarantulas) were also there for the asking.
My daughter, far braver than I, actually held a live tarantula in the palm of her hand. "Itchy," was all she said.
I worked hard to conceal my relief when she didn't ask to bring it home.
Apparently, tarantulas make good eats, as well as good pets. One highlight of the fair was a very good-humored lecture by David George Gordon, Seattle-based book author and self-proclaimed "Insect Chef." His demonstration included tarantulas coated in a cornmeal batter and deep-fried. He had volunteers come up to the stage to taste his cuisine. I failed to raise my hand (so, thankfully, did my daughter), so I can't report on the taste.
But I expect the texture was, um...crunchy.
It was just never a conscious realization until I attended the 19th Annual Bug Fair at the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park on a bright Los Angeles Sunday morning with my eight year-old daughter.
What is a "bug fair," you ask? Well, in the case of Sunday's event, some 60 exhbits, spread out in the Natural History Museum's Grand Foyer and adjacent spaces. Bugs and butterflies -- pinned, spread, encased in glass and framed -- were far and away the most numerous items on display and for sale, but live critters (various insects and arachnids, including millipedes and tarantulas) were also there for the asking.
My daughter, far braver than I, actually held a live tarantula in the palm of her hand. "Itchy," was all she said.
I worked hard to conceal my relief when she didn't ask to bring it home.
Apparently, tarantulas make good eats, as well as good pets. One highlight of the fair was a very good-humored lecture by David George Gordon, Seattle-based book author and self-proclaimed "Insect Chef." His demonstration included tarantulas coated in a cornmeal batter and deep-fried. He had volunteers come up to the stage to taste his cuisine. I failed to raise my hand (so, thankfully, did my daughter), so I can't report on the taste.
But I expect the texture was, um...crunchy.
posted by Tim McGarry at 12:52 PM
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