This week’s quote comes to us from none other than New York City chef Joseph Yoon. According to an AP story, Yoon spent nine days in Illinois collecting, freezing and then bagging tens of thousands of cicadas. After getting back home, he served up tempura cicada to 400 people at a Syracuse University event.
Yoon said collecting and cooking cicadas:
“Is quite painful for me because I love the cicada so much.” But he added: “At the same time I also can acknowledge and appreciate that each one of these cicadas’ lives represents a potential to transform somebody’s perception or opinion about eating insects.”
- A spokes-cicada responded to Yoon by saying:
A) “We are so honored to be treated with such reverence by Chef Yoon.”
B) “Chef Yoon should not feel pain because he’s using us as his instrument to expand the culinary horizons of New Yorkers.”
C) “We’re only around for a short time anyway and there’s billions of us, so what’s the big deal if a few hundred thousand of us end up in somebody’s salad?”
D) “That’s great, Yoon. We wait 17 long years to get this one moment in the sun and then you freeze dry thousands of us so that we can be somebody’s $250 a plate weird gourmet dinner. Yeah, this is what our whole lifecycle is about. We’re just dying to transform the perception of eating insects for people in Brooklyn.”
2. While they’re underground for up to 17 years, what are cicadas doing?
A) Sucking on tree sap.
B) Reading Tolstoy.
C) Binging on Netflix.
D) Avoiding anything having to do with Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
3. After spending 17 years underground, how much time do they get above it before they die?
A) Three days.
B) Two weeks.
C) Five weeks.
D) Ten weeks.
4. There are no less than 3,000 species of cicada. Some our annual (they emerge every year) while others are periodical (they emerge after periods of 13 to 17 years). Of those 3,000 species how many are periodical?
A) About 1,500.
B) About 300.
C) Twelve.
D) Seven.
5. Chef Yoon describes himself as:
A) An Edible Insects Ambassador.
B) A Bad Ass Bug Meister.
C) Maitre Cuisinier Des Insectes.
D) Bat-Shit Crazy.
6. An article on Yoon’s website tries to answer the question, ‘why is it so hard to get Americans to eat insects?’ The answer is:
A) Americans live culturally constricted lives in which new ways of thought and being are seen with suspicion if considered at all.
B) The massive U.S. processed foods industry is fighting this source of free, healthy protein.
C) Americans don’t have access to the right recipes.
D) Well, for starters, they’re insects.
Answers
1: D
2: A
3: D
4: D
5: A
6: D
Thanks for letting me bug you all week. You can scratch that YSDA itch again come Monday.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 