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Bugs

Kevin Hoffmann October 3, 2018

Bugs

In Thailand there are sidewalk markets everywhere. When we would take an excursion to visit someplace like Nong Khai, or Ban Chiang, my wife and sister would stop and buy a bag of fried grasshoppers to munch on, the same way Americans like to eat potato chips.  Grasshoppers aren’t the only bugs available in Thai markets. They also sell and eat giant water bugs, crickets, cockroaches and different types of worms. The bugs themselves don’t have much taste, it’s more the sauces and spices they put on them. Some have a nutty taste.  My wife’s  family took us out to a restaurant once where I remember being served a plate of bugs garnished with different plants, and piled in the shape of a cone. I hav oje sometimes wondered if the grasshopper plagues that invaded Minnesota from 1873 to 1877, that destroyed the crops, would have been as devastating for Thai people, since they would probably have collected and eaten the grasshoppers.

Having driven many miles on my motorcycle, I was not unfamiliar with the taste of bugs, which would get blown into my mouth unexpectedly. Some of these were bitter or distasteful. Wasps were particularly unpleasant. I had several of them get scooped into my shirt sleeve once, where they got trapped by my elbow and angrily proceeded to sting me multiple times. It was all I could do to stop my motorcycle without crashing, in order to deal with them. My arm swelled up and became numb.

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Kevin Hoffmann

Kevin Hoffmann was fond of visiting the New Ulm Public Library during his childhood . . .

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