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Summary: Review from the Newsday-Queens Ed.
Review: "Let's say you eat fish. How do you feel about being served a whole fish, head and all? Will you eat raw fish? How about lobster? How about raw lobster? Vegetarians live in a black-and-white world where all animal flesh is verboten. But for those of us who allow any meat to pass our lips, we must constantly draw the line between what's edible and what's beyond the pale. It's the gustatory frontier that Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio set out to explore in their revelatory book,"Man Eating Bugs." It records, in words and color pictures, their travels in five continents(all except Europe and Antartica) to visit communities that gather, raise, cook and eat insects. The authors are a married couple. Menzal is a noted documentary photographer and creator of the much acclaimed book "Material World: A Global Family Portrait." D'Aluisio is a former television news producer and is somewhat more squeamish than her husband who, by the end of the book, has seemingly lost all aversion to arthropods and is knocking them back with gusto. The narration alternates between their two voices, and instead of being further divided between a main text and picture captions, it wisely wends its way around the remarkable photographs, referring the reader to the appropriate images with bold-face directionals. (Credit is due to editor Charles C. Mann and designer David Griffin for this sensible organization.) What possessed these two to embark on such a voyage of culinary discovery? Menzel, it seems, had been both repulsed and fascinated by an encounter with "The Food Insects Newsletter," founded in 1988, chich he read about in The Wall Street Journal. Pursuing the subject, he got in touch with a leading entomologist, who offered to let him accompany him on a mountaintop in Mexico, Menzel describes eating his first insect--live, no less--as disgusting; nevertheless, he became hooked on the subject of entomophagy, insect eating. He writes,"Along the way, a few polite people asked,'Why are you doing this?'...'It's a way to look at culture, from a very personal angle,'I explained. That's true: When we share others' food we close the gaps between us--at least until desert. But Really I should have said,'I want to use entomophagy to encourage us Westerners to examine our own diets and our attitudes toward what we eat.'"(Newsday-Queens Ed.)
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Summary: Bugs as food in different cultures.
Review: "Life suggests... Visiting 13 countries on four continents, photographer Peter Menzel and former TV producer Faith D'Alusio document entomophagy-the eating of insects-with gleeful disregard for the squeemish. In Peru the couple slurp fried worms. They crunch into grasshoppers in Japan. In Uganda they watch locals prepare a soup of grubs. Not for the faint of heart, but fascinating in its exploration of what we and others define as food."(Life Magazine)
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Summary: Just Do It!
Review: Awesome book! Super photos & text describing the taste of the bugs and the cultures behind the cuisines. For someone who has tried just a few (live Amazonian beetle larvae - tasted like coconut oil; ants - kinda peppery) it was fascinating & just the book I was waiting for. Anyone brave enough to read it should take the next obvious step! Truly the perfect coffee table book.
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Summary: Better than sex (well, almost)
Review: Can you imagine putting Jon Krakauer, Julia Child, and the guy who wrote Men are From Mars, Women from Venus together in a blender and pouring the result into a book? I can't either, but I think if you could imagine it, it would be kind of like "Man Eating Bugs." Besides being a feast of 200+ amazing bizarro photos, the book is a convincing demonstration that some people will go to the ends of the earth to eat a tarantula the size of a dinner plate.
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Summary: Unexpectedly wonderful
Review: I got interested in entomophagy (eating insects)when I found out that cicadas are ediible during the recent "invasion". I bought this book and was entranced by the beautiful photos, as well as the "point-counterpoint" comments by the authors, one of whom was considerably more enthusiastic than the other about the whole idea. This is a great glimpse of the eating of insects in almost all cultures except our own, and we're missing something by our squeamishness, believe me!
The book is always entertaining and opens a door to a world we may never have considered. Buy it! Read it!
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Summary: I bought 50 copies
Review: I own a restaurant in Woodside, CA called Buck's. I bought 50 copies of this great book and sold them at the restaurant. The customers loved it!
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Summary: a facinating look at entomophagy around the globe!
Review: I saw this book in a nature store a couple of years ago and was immediately captivated by it's gorgeous photography and tasty subject matter. This is the ultimate "gross out" book for insect-haters and the ultimate insect-enlightenment book for bug-lovers. After reading this book, you'll see why so many other countries utilize insects as a food source and you may even wish that it was more accepted here in the US!(could entomophagy be the answer to many of our health problems?)
This book was chock-a-block full of facinating info about other cultures,customs,and cusine,as well as colorful photography and stories! I suggest it to everyone, even the insect-haters :) Maybe they'll develop a "taste" for it (haha)
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Summary: I want to try eating a bug!!!!
Review: I've watched shows on t.v. showing people eating termites fresh from the grond, grubs in mexico being fried, and scorpions eaten live... i was always apalled by the thought- yet strangely facinated... I bought this book- out of pure curiosity and partially for the gross out factor... but now I'm dying to try a bug!!!! (i won't go near those damn tequilla lollypops- if i don't like the drink- why should i suck on a pop- just to taste the bug inside- it's too torturous) i wish that the photos had been focused better. a lot of the shots looked like the camera had some sort of shutter problem. But the book is marvelous... full of photos and diary like accounts of each adventure... Now if only they had made a documentary... I should make a documentary- just so i can go and taste these dishes!!!!
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Summary: A tasty book
Review: The pictures in this book make you yearn for roasted stink bug. Need I say more?
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Summary: Eating bugs for fun and profit!
Review: This book has always been a big hit with the numerous public school classes that visit our museum. I only have to hold it up to get a reaction, usually a groan, but it sure gets their attention. It also starts discussions and questions even when other parts of the presentation have not. The photos are great and add immensely to the charm of the book.
In general Peter Menzel has written a book in "Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects" that is largely color photos. But what photos! Each present parts of a story involving the way various cultures employ insects in their cuisine. This brings up a question used by a much earlier author as a book title - "Why Not Eat Insects?" Many (but by no means all!) species of both insects and arachnids are as edible as the shrimp and crabs we Americans love to consume. We of course have to be cautious (not a good idea to eat cockroaches, despite some "reality" TV programs!), but there are a number of "safe" species that have been "taste tested" so to speak. In addition, we unwittingly consume tons of insects in various agricultural products simply because they pose no health hazard and are nearly impossible to remove.
If you have to deal with children in education or if you are just curious about what other cultures eat, this is a great book both to read and just to peruse. I would think that it would find its way to school libraries and to home schoolers lists of resources!
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