Mosquito Eyes

So I’m in a new city and I need to make friends. I was out today walking around and I got to talking to someone. Somehow, the conversation landed on eating mosquito eyes. I was explaining how I once heard from someone (clearly of questionable reliability) that in certain parts of China mosquito eyes are considered a delicacy, and in fact, represent the world’s most expensive food by weight. The process of harvesting this wonder of the culinary world goes something like this: Find a cave with bats, mine for guano, by some means of which I’m unaware extract the eyes (apparently bats can’t digest this part of the mosquito), and bring to market.

As I was walking home, I got to thinking about how desensitized I am to so-called “weird” food. When I’m on the road, I actively search for food that many might consider terrifying. 我个人对食的态度很简单 - 背脊向天我所食. Among the things I’ve eaten of which I’m willing to admit to, starfish, scorpions, lamprey and balut are on the list. As a matter of fact, balut topped Cracked.com's list of The 6 Most Terrifying Foods in the World. I’ve also managed to knock back, on more than one occasion, a cup each of snake blood and snake bile. They compliment each other so well! For the sake of my reputation - or some might say what’s left of it - I’m not listing here any of the larger animals (or animal parts) that have passed through my GI tract. One other thing I will share though is a video of me eating a live squid. Watch below:



This moment of brilliance occurred in a restaurant atop a fish market in some corner of Seoul, South Korea during the summer of 2007. I don’t recall any real taste to the little guy, but if there was, it was masked by the sensation of the tentacles’ suction cups sucking to my lips and tongue. In the video, I look quite happy, which at the time, I was. As soon as filming stopped, however, a clever defense mechanism (the squid tried to lodge itself in my throat with its suctions) was employed. Luckily, I chomped on his head enough times beforehand so that only one swig of Korean soju was enough to drown him and thus thwart any pre-meditated murder attempt.

There is a certain thrill to eating the bizarre. A certain rush you get from not knowing how you’re going to react, both while the food is in your mouth, and sometimes afterward, as you’re visiting the washroom. And just a side-note…I searched on youtube for videos of people eating live squid in Korea, and I found tons. However, I did not find a single one showing someone eating an actual whole, live squid; just cut up wiggling pieces. Did I do something wrong?