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For the record, this is not a "Japanese" tradition, but something practiced in a couple of villages in Gifu prefecture. Most Japanese do not eat insects and fi

For the record, this is not a "Japanese" tradition, but something practiced in a couple of villages in Gifu prefecture. Most Japanese do not eat insects and find this just as weird as the average Westerner. The one insect-based food in Japan that is moderately common is tsukudani (a type of soy-based pickle) made from crickets (enago), but even this is kinda niche and you're unlikely to run into it unless you look for it.

indy 4y ago
It's almost as if some people are trying to push the false narrative that eating bugs is perfectly normal.
- peterpost2 4y ago
  Why is it not normal? And what makes you think they are pushing it?
  - j7ake 4y ago
    It’s not normal because insects have historically been associated with disease, pests, and pestilence.
    - peterpost2 4y ago
      as have animals, yet we still eat those.
  - indy 4y ago
    "Why is it not normal?" That is a bizarre question to ask. To answer it you'll need to examine your own reactions to the idea of eating insects, you'll have to ask older family members, you'll have to speak to the wise people in your community, you'll have to read history and note down the circumstances of when people resorted to eating insects. You'll have to act like a human being.
    - peterpost2 4y ago
      Ah, so Culture is what you are saying? I'm from a culture where historically it's normal to do so.
      - indy 4y ago
        Bon appetit
        peterpost2 4y ago
        Thanks, I will. Yet you may understand your argument wasn't very convincing.
    - Barrin92 4y ago
      >To answer it you'll need to examine your own reactions to the idea of eating insects ..which is perfectly normal for many people? When I lived in China I visited Nanning frequently and they have a night market that is famous and popular for serving deep fried insects. Most of it is pretty good. You find insect based street-food in plenty of places across LatAm, Africa or Asia.
      - amrocha 4y ago
        You will find it if you're looking for it, but you're kidding yourself if you think a majority of people in the vast majority of places willingly eat insects
    - nicolas_t 4y ago
      That's a very culturally blind comment. You're from a culture where it's not common and not accepted, that doesn't mean that it's the same for everyone. So you're taking your own assumptions from your culture and trying to apply it to everyone.
- graderjs 4y ago
  The is a cultural-blind statement that tries to lift "cultural relativism" to "objective normality". It's incorrect, without appropriate qualification. Let me help you: It's almost as if some people are trying to push the false narrative that eating bugs is perfectly normal for people in the corner of Florida where I grew up. When stated like that, it doesn't make that much sense. No one would think it was normal in a place where it's not normal to do so, so probably no one is pushing that. But I think you're right that there is some form of "food source environmental activism" related to bug-eating, but this article isn't about that, and doesn't have to be. I mean, take from it what you will, and I understand the triggered reactions to the connotations of "let's replace our menu with insect meat because environment", but I think that's an unnecessary fear-connotation in this case and is not warranted by the source material.
  - indy 4y ago
    Whenever I see these kinds of articles posted on Hacker News I'm always reminded of Paul Graham's excellent article The Submarine (http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)
    - graderjs 4y ago
      "These sorts" I guess you mean "insect eating" articles, which, hahaha, I have to say I rarely see, but OK (maybe that's my own sort of...not cultural blindness--we're from the same culture probably--but media-diet blindness? I just don't see a lot of those articles). So you are suggesting these are the work of PR firms. I mean, maybe... like a corporate PR strategy to slowly normalize the eating of insects? Like I get the "insect meat enviro activism" angle, but I think it's possible to see this article as something that exists without that, independently of that. I mean, it is kind of a culture-blind doubling-down to be so blind to the fact that other people (real people, not stock images in advertising campaigns) eat insects around the world...that you see any emanation of stories about these as part of a concerted PR strategy. Because maybe that fits your cultural-bias that "this stuff doesn't really happen so if we see it it has to be a corporate profit motive", right? I mean, why can't it just be a story about another culture and what they do? Why need to get all judgey and like "from only your perspective thou shalt speak the truth" about it? Personally I don't get the strong "immune" reactions I see here. Is it a sublimated expression of the visceral (but probably culturally relative) revulsion? Or like where is this coming from for you? Like why can't it just be a story, why does it have to be propaganda for something? I'm curious. Please relate what's there for you, if you want! :P ;) xx ;p
nivertech 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inago_no_Tsukudani https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inago_no_Tsukudani
graderjs 4y ago
Well it's Japanese in that it comes from Japan, but it's not Japanese in the sense that wasp eating is a "widespread tradition" in Japan, or only in Japan, I guess. It sort of sounds like you're embarrassed by the idea that people might think that Japanese are somehow bad (maybe "backward and poor"?) for eating insects, but I think that's an unnecessary accommodation of Western-folks' possible biased misinterpretations... I mean I understand wanting to be conscious of that, but I don't think it's "good" to be like, "Oh, it's a bad thing, let not anyone think that we all eating insects or nothing". It could even be a sort-of inter-East-Asian-racism like, "Don't let people lump us in together and think we are like those Chinese who eat insects way more than us". Maybe, I got you wrong there, but you know what I mean? :p ;) xx ;p
- elcamino44 4y ago
  I think it’s more than for some reason stories about Japan being super weird seem to be very popular in Western media.
  - graderjs 4y ago
    Ah, yeah, I know that type. I guess those stories just seem so 1990s to me. I haven't seen any in a long while. Must be because I lived in East Asia for 10 years, I'm out of that bias. :P x
  - nomel 4y ago
    If you can find an article about eating wasps, in such a well presented way, from another culture, then I would be interested. The place on the globe doesn’t interest me as much as the subject.
    - graderjs 4y ago
      Totally agree, it's not the Japan thing. It's just a fascinating and different thing.
- throwaway821909 4y ago
  (agree) > but something practiced in a couple of villages in Gifu prefecture It could say "the Gifu prefecture tradition..." and still "actually only a couple of villages do it" would be valid, and so on and so on... On the other hand the way we write headlines lends itself to misinterpretation deliberately. It could say "A few people in Japan eat wasps" but nobody would click.
david-gpu 4y ago
> made from crickets (enago) I once had grasshoppers (inago) cured with some sort of soy sauce marinate. Was that the same thing? They were pretty yummy, similar to eating little shrimps with shells and all. The other insect I have tried was the dried larvae of silk worms, which are apparently quite popular in Korea. I found the taste of that one vile and repulsive. Hard to describe. Maybe it's an acquired taste, or perhaps I did not eat it in the right way. It can't be that bad if it is popular.
- rippercushions 4y ago
  Yup, typo. Apparently inago are actually locusts, so we were both wrong about the species :) FWIW, I've also tried beondegi in Korea, and I agree with you. It was easily the least pleasant of the insects I've tried (locust, cricket, peanut worm, silkworm).
  - rnvannatta 4y ago
    Locusts are actually just various species of grasshopper. When there's abundance after a period of hard times, some some grasshopper species transform into locusts, turn from green into yellow, grow their wings and start swarming. The solitary and gregarious phase. When one locust becomes gregarious, he'll touch other locusts to turn them gregarious too.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

indy 4y ago

It's almost as if some people are trying to push the false narrative that eating bugs is perfectly normal.

peterpost2 4y ago
Why is it not normal? And what makes you think they are pushing it?
- j7ake 4y ago
  It’s not normal because insects have historically been associated with disease, pests, and pestilence.
  - peterpost2 4y ago
    as have animals, yet we still eat those.
- indy 4y ago
  "Why is it not normal?" That is a bizarre question to ask. To answer it you'll need to examine your own reactions to the idea of eating insects, you'll have to ask older family members, you'll have to speak to the wise people in your community, you'll have to read history and note down the circumstances of when people resorted to eating insects. You'll have to act like a human being.
  - peterpost2 4y ago
    Ah, so Culture is what you are saying? I'm from a culture where historically it's normal to do so.
    - indy 4y ago
      Bon appetit
      - peterpost2 4y ago
        Thanks, I will. Yet you may understand your argument wasn't very convincing.
  - Barrin92 4y ago
    >To answer it you'll need to examine your own reactions to the idea of eating insects ..which is perfectly normal for many people? When I lived in China I visited Nanning frequently and they have a night market that is famous and popular for serving deep fried insects. Most of it is pretty good. You find insect based street-food in plenty of places across LatAm, Africa or Asia.
    - amrocha 4y ago
      You will find it if you're looking for it, but you're kidding yourself if you think a majority of people in the vast majority of places willingly eat insects
  - nicolas_t 4y ago
    That's a very culturally blind comment. You're from a culture where it's not common and not accepted, that doesn't mean that it's the same for everyone. So you're taking your own assumptions from your culture and trying to apply it to everyone.
graderjs 4y ago
The is a cultural-blind statement that tries to lift "cultural relativism" to "objective normality". It's incorrect, without appropriate qualification. Let me help you: It's almost as if some people are trying to push the false narrative that eating bugs is perfectly normal for people in the corner of Florida where I grew up. When stated like that, it doesn't make that much sense. No one would think it was normal in a place where it's not normal to do so, so probably no one is pushing that. But I think you're right that there is some form of "food source environmental activism" related to bug-eating, but this article isn't about that, and doesn't have to be. I mean, take from it what you will, and I understand the triggered reactions to the connotations of "let's replace our menu with insect meat because environment", but I think that's an unnecessary fear-connotation in this case and is not warranted by the source material.
- indy 4y ago
  Whenever I see these kinds of articles posted on Hacker News I'm always reminded of Paul Graham's excellent article The Submarine (http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)
  - graderjs 4y ago
    "These sorts" I guess you mean "insect eating" articles, which, hahaha, I have to say I rarely see, but OK (maybe that's my own sort of...not cultural blindness--we're from the same culture probably--but media-diet blindness? I just don't see a lot of those articles). So you are suggesting these are the work of PR firms. I mean, maybe... like a corporate PR strategy to slowly normalize the eating of insects? Like I get the "insect meat enviro activism" angle, but I think it's possible to see this article as something that exists without that, independently of that. I mean, it is kind of a culture-blind doubling-down to be so blind to the fact that other people (real people, not stock images in advertising campaigns) eat insects around the world...that you see any emanation of stories about these as part of a concerted PR strategy. Because maybe that fits your cultural-bias that "this stuff doesn't really happen so if we see it it has to be a corporate profit motive", right? I mean, why can't it just be a story about another culture and what they do? Why need to get all judgey and like "from only your perspective thou shalt speak the truth" about it? Personally I don't get the strong "immune" reactions I see here. Is it a sublimated expression of the visceral (but probably culturally relative) revulsion? Or like where is this coming from for you? Like why can't it just be a story, why does it have to be propaganda for something? I'm curious. Please relate what's there for you, if you want! :P ;) xx ;p

nivertech 4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inago_no_Tsukudani https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inago_no_Tsukudani

graderjs 4y ago

Well it's Japanese in that it comes from Japan, but it's not Japanese in the sense that wasp eating is a "widespread tradition" in Japan, or only in Japan, I guess. It sort of sounds like you're embarrassed by the idea that people might think that Japanese are somehow bad (maybe "backward and poor"?) for eating insects, but I think that's an unnecessary accommodation of Western-folks' possible biased misinterpretations... I mean I understand wanting to be conscious of that, but I don't think it's "good" to be like, "Oh, it's a bad thing, let not anyone think that we all eating insects or nothing". It could even be a sort-of inter-East-Asian-racism like, "Don't let people lump us in together and think we are like those Chinese who eat insects way more than us". Maybe, I got you wrong there, but you know what I mean? :p ;) xx ;p

elcamino44 4y ago
I think it’s more than for some reason stories about Japan being super weird seem to be very popular in Western media.
- graderjs 4y ago
  Ah, yeah, I know that type. I guess those stories just seem so 1990s to me. I haven't seen any in a long while. Must be because I lived in East Asia for 10 years, I'm out of that bias. :P x
- nomel 4y ago
  If you can find an article about eating wasps, in such a well presented way, from another culture, then I would be interested. The place on the globe doesn’t interest me as much as the subject.
  - graderjs 4y ago
    Totally agree, it's not the Japan thing. It's just a fascinating and different thing.
throwaway821909 4y ago
(agree) > but something practiced in a couple of villages in Gifu prefecture It could say "the Gifu prefecture tradition..." and still "actually only a couple of villages do it" would be valid, and so on and so on... On the other hand the way we write headlines lends itself to misinterpretation deliberately. It could say "A few people in Japan eat wasps" but nobody would click.

david-gpu 4y ago

> made from crickets (enago) I once had grasshoppers (inago) cured with some sort of soy sauce marinate. Was that the same thing? They were pretty yummy, similar to eating little shrimps with shells and all. The other insect I have tried was the dried larvae of silk worms, which are apparently quite popular in Korea. I found the taste of that one vile and repulsive. Hard to describe. Maybe it's an acquired taste, or perhaps I did not eat it in the right way. It can't be that bad if it is popular.

rippercushions 4y ago
Yup, typo. Apparently inago are actually locusts, so we were both wrong about the species :) FWIW, I've also tried beondegi in Korea, and I agree with you. It was easily the least pleasant of the insects I've tried (locust, cricket, peanut worm, silkworm).
- rnvannatta 4y ago
  Locusts are actually just various species of grasshopper. When there's abundance after a period of hard times, some some grasshopper species transform into locusts, turn from green into yellow, grow their wings and start swarming. The solitary and gregarious phase. When one locust becomes gregarious, he'll touch other locusts to turn them gregarious too.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]