Delicious, ready-to-eat giant water bugs, frozen fresh to seal in the flavor

A redditor of Vietnamese descent discovered these giant water bugs in her/his mother's freezer, put there "to scare me."

My Vietnamese mom had these in the freezer to scare me. It worked. (i.imgur.com) (via Neatorama)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Delightful Creatures • Food • Funny • insects • not food • reddit • Weird

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Snig

They’re famous for a very painful bite. In the bug bites man way, not the man bites bug way.
huskerdont

How could she resist? They were only 2.99!
GawainLavers

Yet other aquatic arthropods are considered normal food. Still, I have to say the difference between crustaceans and insects is a pretty major variance in the ratio of chitin to meat.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/jEmXh60oca5VyQGncyKF7tMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

I thought the guys on the bottom right were cockroaches, now I think they probably are water beetles. Nonetheless! I can’t kill cockroaches that size (of which there are plenty in Thailand) with a shoe, not sure how I’m suppose to bite through any insect that big.
SumAnon

Ate water bug in Cambodia. It was suprisingly tasty. Don’t mock it ’til you try it.
- http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael
  
  That’s not mocking laughter, that’s the sound of violent retching.
  - SumAnon
    
    om nom nom nom giant bugs nom nom
- retepslluerb
  
  You , sir, are a weasel.
marilove

Oh god no no no no no no.
voiceinthedistance

Not a bad price for them at all, unless you calculate the price per pound.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jon-Sanders/212333 Jon Sanders

These are actually a lot closer to eating lobster than you’d think — you can pop open the carapace and excavate the tasty little flight muscles, like tiny chicken nuggets. As SumAnon says, surprisingly tasty — a little pungent, with hints of pear.

Not bad for crazed alien underwater killing machines.
- http://twitter.com/cjporkchop cjporkchop
  
  Thanks for this! I was wondering what they would taste like, and now I have some idea.
  
  I might actually try one if I ever get the chance…
- Hanglyman
  
  Good to know. I’ve never been able to understand people eating bugs outside of survival situations, not because “ew, bugs”, but because I don’t get why anyone would eat something that’s mostly indigestible exoskeleton. It’s like eating crab or shrimp without shelling it first, or eating the rind and stem of a pineapple. Your anecdote makes these seem a lot more edible.
charming.quark

Unicorn chaser, please.

Please.
- http://twitter.com/DukeTrout Jay Pasquantonio
  
  No, Unicorn is more of an appetizer…
niktemadur

Normally I don’t go for all-out profanity at Boing Boing, but I speak from the heart and probably for many others here when I say: Fuck That Shit!
http://lectiblog.blogspot.com/ lecti

Them’s eat’n-size!
Slowermo

I know it may only be a result of my upbringing that I find eating that gross but, man, my upbringing did a really good job.
munchabout

I had these last time I was in Thailand. Once I worked up the nerve to try them, they’re actually not bad at all. I was pleasantly surprised.
snowmentality

N.B. “Giant water bug” is a totally different species (actually, a different order) of insect from the cockroaches commonly called “water bugs” in some parts of the U.S.

I had to look that up just now, in order to not flail and shriek at the idea of enormous cockroaches all packaged up for eating. This is not that. Thank God.

I have eaten crickets in jambalaya — very crunchy, didn’t taste like much. Once I got over the “ZOMG I’m eating BUGS” mental hurdle, it was pretty anticlimactic. I could not bring myself to eat mealworms, although I suspect they taste just as non-terrifying as crickets.

I think I could eat giant water bugs if I pretended very very hard they were crabs.
- Cobwebs
  
  I prepared and ate mealworms as part of a project back in college. They taste remarkably like Doritos. That…always worried me a little.
  - Snig
    
    I would be reassured, I imagine mealworms are likely healthier than the professed contents of Doritos.
Sapa

That’s a bit extreme mom.
Preston Sturges

I’ve seen them in a Thai grocery. They were packaged like that and sold frozen. I always assumed you fry them up tempura style.
Shai_Hulud

Ca Cuong! Train your tastebuds, expand your mind! Baron Ambrosia explains… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB1uTuADH9c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7UYOq-rHSk&feature=related
- Donald Petersen
  
  My mind can expand only so far before it splits its casing, molts my skull, and scuttles under the tool shed.
http://greggman.com greggman

Of course you know you can go to any Korean grocery store in America, go to the tuna section and find cans of these right next them
http://www.oneinchpunch.net/2007/10/22/korean-snacks-silkworm-pupae/

I tried them. Weren’t my cup of tea by my Korean GF promised me they’re pretty universally popular in Korea
Beanolini

Lots of people have water bugs in their own freezer. I certainly do.