When imagining extreme food, what kind of food comes to mind? Could it be crickets, crickets, worms or other more extreme types? Are you interested in tasting it?
An Insect museum in New Orleans, Louisiana offers a menu of interesting foods made from insects, including tonggeret. You could say that Cicada or tonggeret insects look like Little Monsters, with their very annoying noise.
However, as some states in the United States prepare for the appearance of trillions of these noisy crickets, insect experts say that these little creatures can also be a delicious snack. The University of Maryland in the state of Maryland, for example, published a cookbook with a menu of crickets in 2004.
Now, the Insect museum, Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans, Louisiana plans to demonstrate how to cook a tonggeret at a snack bar. It is located in a building that also serves dishes such as Southwest Waxworms (waxworms with chili powder) and Crispy Cajun Crickets (crispy crickets with cajun seasoning).
Zack Lemann, curator of animal collections at the Audubon Insectarium, told The Associated Press that each culture has a variety of things they like. Be it to be done, worn even eaten and things that are taboo or that make others frown when they see it.
However, according to Zack, there is no reason not to do such a thing with insects. Regarding the tonggeret menu at Audubon Insectarium, Zack Lemann hopes they can get seasonal tonggeret.
Usually they will come out in the tens of millions in the coming weeks, so the chef can serve them as a special menu. Zack added that usually the tonggeret is not on the menu, because most of the tonggerets in the world do not take 13 or 17 years to develop and appear in millions at once.
The common Tonggeret is everywhere and very easy to find. The flavors offered at Audubon Insectarium also vary, some are salty and some are sweet.