Inside a Chinese Cockroach Farm

The Telegraph ^ | Malcolm Moore

[nickcarraway]

The correct way to eat a cockroach, at least in this corner of northern China, is to fry it not once but twice in a wok of smoking hot oil.

The cockroach, whose innards resemble cottage cheese, has an earthy taste, with a slight twinge of ammonia. But they have become popular in China not for their taste, but for their medicinal benefits.

"They really are a miracle drug," said Liu Yusheng, a professor at the Shandong Agricultural university and the head of Shandong province's Insect Association. "They can cure a number of ailments and they work much faster than other medicine."

For a decade, Mr Wang farmed another type of insect, Eupolyphaga Sinensis, which is also used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

But in the past two years, the demand for cockroaches has soared, and Mr Wang has switched his entire production to Periplaneta americana, or the American cockroach, a copper-coloured insect that grows to just over an inch and a half.

[5thGenTexan]

Maybe this is why the Chinese are buying up Detroit. Plentiful indigenous population to jump start new farms.

[Cowboy Bob]

I prefer “free range.” They are tastier.

[Hot Tabasco]

Note to self: “Never click on links that have cockroach in their titles while eating lunch......”

[taxcontrol]

I don’t know, sounds like a good appetite control technique to me.

[dblshot]

Approved on ACA formulary list for inclusion as a protein source in Michelle Obamas school lunch program.

[M-cubed]

to each his own..but for now....ill stick to my favorite cockroach.....The wicked good Maine Lobster!....slathered in real butter....Ahuh!

[Gadsden1st]

I grew up in New Orleans. We have roaches there that fly across the room like a small bat. One got into a jar of strawberry preserves and I spread it on my bread by accident. Looked like a lump of big strawberry. Bit it in half. I can still taste the funkiness and I am in my 70s.

As I said, I grew up in New Orleans. I have eaten a lot of “strange” things, intentionally and unintentional. I don't care how you prepare it.....roach is out!

[DonaldC]

It’s gross, but insects may be the solution to world hunger.

[bubbacluck]

"We kill them before they reach four months old, because then their wings are fully grown and they can fly," he said.

The flying part is disturbing.

[JRandomFreeper]

Getting rid of government meddling is the solution to world hunger.

/johnny

[dblshot]

I'll stick to grasshoppers and ants thank you.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

"an earthy taste, with a slight twinge of ammonia"

So have a bowl of dirt and a swig of Windex(TM)

[boycott]

Looks like Washington DC.

[Argus]

The Greens would love to eliminate beef, chicken and fish and substitute insects as the source of protein for us proles. The Inner Party would still get steak, of course.

[Utilizer]

Note to self: “Never click on links that have cockroach in their titles while eating lunch......”

You might want to re-think that. If you have ever eaten lobster, you have eaten a type of insect. Albeit a sealife form of it. Some say the same about crawdads and shrimp.

[Utilizer]

see post 16... :)

[Utilizer]

If you grew up in Nawleans and you ever et crawdads or had a shrimp or lobster po'boy...

You have technically eaten a type of insect. I gar-un-tee.

[Tucker39]

I’m with you. And if I can’t get lobster I can be satisfied with crab legs.....but pour on the butter all the same.

[Utilizer]

Clams and oysters, not to mention caviar, are pretty disgusting as well when you stop to think about it, but they are so popular that come people have started farming them (and harvesting the caviar).