About the day I ate worms and insects

Posted by Paula van Dun
16
Nov 25, 2010
1347 Views
Image Some years ago I worked for a company that sells real estate property in the Czech Republic. One time I and some co workers went to an exhibition for 55+ people. It was a general one with all kinds of stands from health to vacation, property, home and garden, food and everything in between.

It was not very busy so in the morning I had time to stroll the exhibition myself. There was one stand that caught my attention because the was a crowd gathering around it so i went to check it out. To my disgust it was all about eating insects and worms; from grasshoppers to the unspeakable. You could eat them alive or dead either cooked, boiled or fried.

Gosh, I thought, I must be very, very hungry before I would consider eating that stuff.

But the day passed and it did get any more buzzy, me and my co workers had in the mean time drank the local Czech alcoholic drink for the visitors of our stand that failed to show up.

I had the chance to stroll the exhibition once more and because of the alcohol I was a bit more brave than usual. Again I encountered the stand with the Insect and worm dishes.

I think you have to try everything in live when opportunity knocks so I decided I wanted to try
it (people In the jungle eat worms and insects all the time and they did not get sick of it or die from it) . So I decided to try something that was already dead, a fried grasshopper of some kind. To my surprise it tasted good so I tasted some other (dead) dishes too.

The ultimate challenge was to eat something that was still alive, worms like in the picture above; I don't know how they are called meal wurms in English. They are often sold in pet shops to feed tropical birds. 

So i took a handful and put them in my mouth. Ok, so it crunched a little but so do potato chips! Actually they tasted quite good, they had a taste like nuts.

And than it hit me. It is all between the ears. Your perception is based on the things you know and your are familiar with. I mean cows and pigs that have just been slaughtered do not look very tasteful either. I learned from this experience never to dismiss something on forehand because I am not familiar with it.

Anyway this experience allowed me to pull a nice stunt. I went with some of my friends to a pet shop where the sold tropical birds and worms to feed them like the picture above.
I went to the shopkeeper and asked; "Do you sell worms to feed my tropical birds?" "Sure", he said, and he showed me where to find them. "OK". I said, "but I need to check if they are fresh enough". And again I grabbed a handful of wurms and ate them before his eyes. I will never forget the look on that mans face. LOL.

The hidden message of this story: step out of your comfort zone




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Comments (22)
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Cheryl Baumgartner
12

Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance

Paula if you ever make it to the US i'll introduce you to a couple of true delicacies Chitlins and Mountain Oysters! I think you might just be open minded enough to try them

Dec 8, 2010 Like it
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Paula van Dun
16

Retired

Of all people Genesis was the one who best understood the purpose of this blog: keep en open mind en try new things. I followed my own advice and installed Skype this week. I love it. It is great for online meetings or guiding somebody through a process to set something up or give personal support.

Dec 8, 2010 Like it
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Paula van Dun
16

Retired

@Saltox I have never been to the Philippines yet but I am sure they taste good. I will try some if I ever get there.

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Cheryl Baumgartner
12

Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance

Hey most Americans may not be all that keen on EATING worms but they love DRINKING them in our Tequila! lol

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Joel Lloyd Calija
8

Internet Marketer

Here in the Philippines we also eat worms and insects :)

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Paula van Dun
16

Retired

@Natham Most Americans will not agree I'm afraid

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Paula van Dun
16

Retired

Yes this was a nice creepy adventure. The point I wanted to make with it is that you must always keep an open mind.

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Catherine White
8

Entreprenuer

An entertaining read, thank you for sharing.

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Dawie Bezuidenhout
11

Systems Engineer I.T.

@Paula, Here in SA "dried mopanie worms" are quite a hit under the locals, i tried many things as well, most of them quite tasty.
This was a interesting story, glad you shared it with us.

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Gopakumar Rajan
16

YouTuber from India

@Philippe, I'm not reported it because she's new to the site. May be she did not read the TOS. I'm trying to guide her. Thanks for the message.

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Cheryl Baumgartner
12

Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance

Escorts and massages? Yes both of them reported!

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Philippe Moisan
16

Tutorial videos, sci-fi writer

@Gopakumar, I hope you reported her posts as abuse by clicking on the "report abuse" link, it takes 10 seconds to report.

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Gopakumar Rajan
16

YouTuber from India

@wangxiao- Please do not post links and HTML texts here. Do not promote your business through comments. Write a Rev page or blog instead. Hope you understand the TOS of AP Sense.

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Sofyan Effendi
6

http://mahakam24.com

An article and a good experience to be read by other members

worms, snakes or worms, is actually beneficial to health and our immune.

The problem is, we are just scared and disgusted to eat it

In Singapore, these foods have been sold in a form that has been cooked, flavored, that we forget the original form

Regards,
Mahakam24

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Cheryl Baumgartner
12

Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance

When I was in Korea I ate grubs and the were good. I eat a lot of things that make people go eeewwww! But hey what is good is good. If they turn their nose up, that's just more for me! lol

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Scott Cloran
6

Security Officer

Awesome story Good job, keep up the good work !

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Nathan Latnam
2

sounds like a good alternative thanksgiving dinner

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Enamul Huque
11

SEO Specialist

I see! I can't think of eating worms and insects.

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Nancy Yager
6

Marketer

Too funny. Enjoyed your story very much. It gives more life the the nursery rhyme, "Nobody like me, everybody hates me, why don't I eat some worms". Happy holidays.

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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Karen L.
10

Personal Development

Wow Paula, that's amazing! There is a life lesson in this story, we have to keep an open mind and allow ourselves to experience new things... we might actually enjoy it!

Don't know if I can eat worms though... I would probably have to have a few drinks in me first too! ;0)

Nov 25, 2010 Like it
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