Let’s Eat: Grasshoppers
Aug 24, 2012, 9:06 AM | Updated: Oct 10, 2012, 10:51 am
Let’s Eat host and Seattle Times restaurant critic Providence Cicero has been critiquing food for years, but there’s one thing the frequent taster can’t bring herself to try: bugs.
“I think I’m going to lose my card carrying membership in the food critics association by refusing to eat bugs,” Cicero tells co-host Terry Jaymes.
But Jaymes is coming to the rescue so no Seattle food goes uncovered on the Let’s Eat show.
“You’ve done something I can’t bring myself to do,” says Cicero.
Cicero asked Jaymes to try the grasshopper dish, listed on the menu as Chapulines, at Poquitos in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Cicero says it’s a great restaurant, but she just has never been able to bring herself to the point of eating bugs, anywhere.
At first, Jaymes was planning to refuse, describing himself as not a very adventurous eater, but as a man who loves a challenge, he decided to embrace it.
He went to the restaurant knowing full well he was going to embark on this eating endeavor. The dish was $1.95 and even though he knew he was about to get after it regardless, he felt he needed more info to properly prepare.
“I asked [the wait staff], ‘Do they look grasshoppery?’ She looked at me and said, ‘Yes, they are definitely grasshoppery.’ And I wanted to know how many. It scared me when the answer I got from her was, ‘However many fit on the plate.'”
When the dish arrived, he says he didn’t want to waste any time looking at it or picking around.
“I took a big drink of beer and I ate it as fast as possible,” says Jaymes. “I did it.”
He says it was crunchy and little mealy inside. He also felt like he could smell a slight odor emitting from the toasted bugs.
At final review, Jaymes says he felt somewhat bothered after he ate the grasshoppers and the effect is lingering.
“It kind of bothers me today that I did it.”
But that doesn’t keep him from telling co-host Cicero it’s about time she tries some bug flavor.
“I’m not going to be your testing dummy over here Providence,” says Jaymes.
Let’s Eat can be heard on 97.3 KIRO FM Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at noon. Available anytime ON DEMAND at MyNorthwest.com.
