How to eat fried crickets!

There are some things about Richmond that I can't stand:
* the occasional stupid scandal (like the one a few years ago where there was a rush on free iBooks that left 17 people injured)
* irrationally conservative and ignorant "southern pride" rednecks
* the fact that the Braves had no choice but to leave town when no one would update stadium (still upset about this one...)

Despite its flaws, today I was SO proud of Richmond for putting on its first unbelievable food festival "Broad Appetite". Fifty great Richmond restaurants, ranging from prissy cupcake boutiques to messy barbeque joints to even those fancy "food with height" establishments, sold small samples of their food for a few bucks. In short, pretty much this girl's idea of heaven. There were also weird food and intricate ice sculpture demonstrations, jugglers, open art galleries to stroll through, and plenty of funny people watching.

Remember that line in the movie Clueless where Cher rattles off the list of food she ate that day that made her feel like a "heifer" ("two bowls of Special K, three slices of turkey, a handful of popcorn...")? That girl has got nothing on what Dan and I split eating today:

* Creamy shrimp and grits
* Beer and a refreshing limeade
* Fresh Thai shrimp roll
* Spicy corn crab cake on croissant
* Three marinated pork and beef brisket mini sandwiches













* Spicy ancho chile brownie with blood orange icecream
* Zucchini carrot cake cake with cream cheese icing
* Lemon zest cupcake
* And... (Cue screeching sound of record): Two deep fried crickets from food demonstration! Some big-shot chef was talking about how bugs are delicacies in other countries and was dishing up some "grub" (literally: larvae!) and, of course, crunchy crickets. He gave each member of the audience a big handful, although Dan and I only ate one each.


Here's the poor little deep fried guy in my hand. I looked at him for forever just to make sure his antenna wasn't moving still. The demonstrator kept telling people to be open-minded and nagging them "to just try it", and I felt that if I didn't take one I would be a total hypocrite, especially given the fact that I'm always trying to get Dan to be a more adventurous eater. In the end, we both crunched one down, although Dan wouldn't let me take a picture of him in his "Man vs. Wild" bug-eating moment.

Here is the picture of me venturing to chew one. It was definitely a "mind over matter" situation because the bug actually wasn't that disgusting. It was just kind of an odd crunchy texture (TMI):


And here is me directly afterwards. The lemon cupcake and limeade helped wash away any fried cricket taste!


A good day to be a Richmonder!