MNN - Mother Nature Network

Some scientists think that if the world’s population continues to increase at the current pace, humans are going to have to get comfortable with eating bugs as a source of protein. In some cultures, eating bugs is common. In America, though, eating bugs is seen as extreme eating and fairly gross. So it’s surprising to know that when a Columbia, Mo., ice cream shop created a flavor made with the cicadas that have been plaguing the region, it sold out in less than a half an hour.

 

CBS News reports that Sparky’s Homemade Ice Cream has been told by public health officials not to make any more of the ice cream. There’s no food code for cooking cicadas. Employees pulled the wings off the cicadas, boiled them down, and covered them in sugar and milk chocolate before adding them to ice cream made with butter and brown sugar.

 

One Sparky’s employee is quoted on WTVY.com as saying, “You’re not biting into a whole cicada at once. You’re biting into little bits of it. Honestly, I think if someone were to try it and not know what it was, they would just imagine it was a nut.”

 

I like nutty ice cream, but I think those eating this are a bit nuts themselves. (That’s just my visceral reaction. I know eating bugs is no grosser than eating cow.)

 

How about you? Would you give this ice cream made with hyper-local ingredients a try out of curiosity? I mean, look at that bug above, does that say creamy, summertime treat to you?