Man vs. Wild – Eating Rhino Beetle Larva

I’ve debated including videos and posts like this on The Cooking Dish for some time now, but I finally decided I’d create a special “NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH” categories for them; after all, I can’t deny my inner boyish interest in the grotesque. I love stuff like this, though I’m sure most of the world’s cooks find it less than appealing. But if you think about, as is mentioned in the video, somewhere out there, for someone, this is normal food…

I absolutely love food and I love the outdoors too. I live in the city now, but when I used to live in the country, I’d spend lots of time camping, fishing, hiking, and having fun in the wilderness. It’s been hard to find time to drive to the mountains now when they used to be at my backdoor. Every summer we’d spend a few weeks gathering wood to heat our house during the winter. I love the crackle of a warm orange-red fire in the hearth. Often in the summer while cutting and splitting the wood, we’d come across a batch of pine beetle larva, (we called them pine beetles, but the antennae were really long which makes me think they were maybe an asian beetle or male white sawyer beetles–not sure… ANYWAY, seeing the beetle larva in the summer always made me wonder if I could eat one of those things if I was lost in the wilderness… I always came to the conclusion that it’d have to be life and death.

I’ll typically try anything most things at least once though. I’ve had some pretty weird things like river snail (boiled in nothing but water), pork stomach, cow hoof soup, cow tongue, chicken heads, all sorts of bugs, etc.. but seriously, after watching this video I’ve got to draw the line at raw beetle larva… with that in mind, from my point of view, the Bear Gryllis either has some serious issues, Sasquatch nads, or an iron stomach (maybe all three). This video will either really gross you out or make you laugh out loud. I laughed because I’m twisted like that. But as a warning, it has made a number of others lose their appetite.

Bon Appetit.

And for those of you who are curious, this is what a rhino beetle looks like: