No, that’s not a mosquito. It’s a midge — CHAOBORUS Spp. Unlike mosquitoes they don’t bite people. And believe it or not, people eat them.
I saw this on a nature program several decades ago. One line I remember quite distinctly was a local saying that it wasn’t just about having a convenient source of food. It was their way of showing dominance over this plague that caused them so much grief each year: “They may annoy us, but we eat them.”
There’s a reason I bring this up now.
Each year the midges hatch from eggs in Lake Victoria, Kenya. They swarm out of the water in such huge numbers that they look like smoke rising from the lake.
I remember thinking how absolutely mind boggling that was when I saw the footage. I just couldn’t grasp the sheer numbers. Now … I can grasp it.
That’s my garage. Midges also come out of Lake Erie every spring. I live pretty close to Lake Erie.
At night, around sunset, you can hear this angry buzzing sound overhead. Look up and there’s a cloud above the treetops. Which is odd, because each midge is so small you can’t hear the wings beating at all. But put [cue Carl Sagan voice] millions and millions of them together and it sounds like a leaf blower.
Now here’s the funny thing. I’d rather eat a midgeburger than one of these.
Midges are gross, but that … that’s just creepy.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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9 Comments
I think I would claim to be fasting if I were offered either one. euch…
I adore Daniel Craig to almost an obsessive degree, but that lolly is a little disturbing!
What? No Midge recipe? You’re lying down on the job. I’m thinking something like 500 midges + 1/2 cup melted butter would be the start of a nice protein-rich sauce.
Amy and Melissa, imagine how us guys feel.
Mojo, I think it would be more like 1 midge and five pounds of ground beef. One of the links I checked out while looking for pictures described the “cakes” they make from them as “oily patties”. Bleurgh.
Whoa–why did they go and freeze Daniel Craig? Did he make someone mad?
I'm gonna have to pass on the midges. Sorry about the infestation:(
And shouldn't it be Harrison Ford?
I thought the same thing, Drew! At least there's precedent for Frozen in Black Stuff Harrison Ford. I guess someone in marketing thought it would be cool–that Daniel Craig is so cool, he should be an Ice Pop! So now I just went and read the article. There's just something inherently wrong with women voting on who they'd like to eat. Shudder.
Wow! Brings back some really gross insect memories – we lived near a reservoir when I was a kid in the UK, and every summer there was a day when these weird green bugs swarmed. My mum used to vacuum them off the ceiling. Urgh.
That's Daniel Craig?!! Gruesome. (And we don't want to know where his hands are… there, someone had to say it!)
Yesica, we do the vacuum thing, too. You can't open the doors without letting several in, and they're absolute geniuses at finding every gap in your screens.
As for the hands, congratulations (and thanks) on being the first to go there. I was determined that it wouldn't be me.