I just don't think I could do this!

I am always in favor of trying new things and being open to new flavors and foods of other cultures. "Dishversity Day" was one of my favorite parent participation days when my daughter was in elementary school! I think it's silly to think that the limited vegetables and fruits we eat over and over and over in the U.S. are the only ones in the whole wide world that are tasty and health giving. Whenever I travel I am impressed by the variety of produce I see, things that I am not familiar with. I love shopping in ethnic food markets. And I think the more variety, the better for us.

However....this is something I am hearing about more often recently, and while it makes perfect intellectual sense, I JUST DON'T THINK I COULD DO IT! Eating insects! Apparently they are quite nutritious and lord knows there is no scarcity of them. But I just don't think I could do it. Cultural conditioning is just too strong in this case. Perhaps if they were pulverized and disguised. But even then, just knowing they were in there would probably freak me out.

Once, many moons ago when I had just moved to California from NY and I had a friend and his father stay with me for a few days, they sent me as a thank you gift a case of U-Bet Chocolate Syrup. This was my holy grail of chocolate syrups (obviously before, way before, my days of health conscious eating). And at the time it was only available in NY. And they knew I missed it so. So this was the most amazing gift they could have sent me and I was ecstatic.

Except that shortly thereafter I read an article in Consumer Reports reviewing of all things, chocolate syrups. And U-Bet was the ONLY one rated UNACCEPTABLE!  Why, you ask. Because it was found to have "insect parts and feather barbules" in it. Sadly, I never touched them again and the whole case went to waste.

So as much as I like to try new things, I'm just not sure about this one.