i was sitting in my office, just editing away, thinking how boring today had been, relatively speaking, when i was called downstairs for lunch. oh, my! it was 45 seconds past noon! why was i still working?!
i go down to the ground floor kitchen to join the others for lunch, which is delicious and usually doesnt contain huge, reddish, winged ants as the main ingredient. today, Thursday, 28 May, they decided to mix it up a bit.
two of the women were somehow clued into the fact that this might be my first time to eat an ant dish for lunch, and they were impressed with my guess-this-is-what-we're-having-today, can-eat kind of attitude. (i AM easy to feed, after all)
honestly, im glad someone said something before i started eating, because i would have seen a whole one and reacted by alerting everyone to the fact that there was a HUGE ANT in my lunch. "glad i didnt eat that!", i wouldve said, and we all would have laughed. laughed and laughed. laughed and laughed and laughed. but, the truth is, it was all ants. well, it was ants and their sour eggs and some greens that were all stir-fried together.
it was actually really delicious!
as i was gearing up for my second portion, the translator was asking me what we called this dish in the US, and i was thinking, i have never even seen ants this big, let alone eaten them fried up all crunchy-like. i said we didnt have them and she was like, "they live in the trees." and i was like, "nope. dont have." (munch, munch, munch...) and she was out for an answer, so she was like, "the ones with the sour eggs." and i was like, "nope, sorry. never seen em, never eaten em."
but i did hit the old proverbial insect wall with about 1/4 cup of ants still on my plate. i literally had this moment when i snapped out of it and looked down and thought.... "ohhhhh, my. i have just eaten a lot of big, big stirfried ants with wings for lunch."
thats all i have to report so far for today.
except that my stomach feels a little grumbly....
I would have really liked to have seen a picture of that. You are a brave, interesting woman! I hate to admit that when you are back in the states having a glass of wine on my deck, I will not be serving you this dish.
ReplyDeleteSo, in SOME circles, the HUGE-WINGED ANTS are known as TERMITES!!!! You can be sure that, I too, will never serve you this dish to go with your glass of wine on MY deck either.
ReplyDeleteyoure right!! theyre termites. i have since posted a revision.
ReplyDeletewhen i get back, i will expect termite stirfry and wine night, Dina and Mom.
o.m.g. my stomach got upset just reading that. you are a champ - when i readt the post above that i thought this one going to be another one of your bird poop stories. (smile).
ReplyDelete