美国国家公共电台 NPR So What Does A Deep-Fried Grasshopper Taste Like?

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MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

This may not be your usual breakfast, but care for some chili¹-fried grasshopper²? Why, yes, it's a crunchy popular snack in parts of northeastern Nigeria, as NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports.

OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE⁴: This is going to be a first for me. Grasshoppers⁵ are a delicacy⁶ in this part of Nigeria, in Maiduguri. And they look pretty good, so I'm going to give it a try. Madam, what's your name, please?

MARGARET JOSEPH: My name is Margaret Joseph.

QUIST-ARCTON: Margaret Joseph.

JOSEPH: Yeah.

QUIST-ARCTON: Margaret, tell me about grasshoppers. Tell me more.

JOSEPH: Grasshopper is good in body.

QUIST-ARCTON: How does it taste?

JOSEPH: Like meat (laughter).

QUIST-ARCTON: It tastes like meat.

JOSEPH: Yes.

QUIST-ARCTON: So may I taste one please? So you're dipping the fried grasshopper into pepper...

JOSEPH: Yes.

QUIST-ARCTON: ...A chili powder.

JOSEPH: Yes.

QUIST-ARCTON: And then?

JOSEPH: And then you eat it.

QUIST-ARCTON: All right. Do I put it all into my mouth?

JOSEPH: Yes.

QUIST-ARCTON: Are you going to eat one with me? You grab one...

JOSEPH: OK (laughter).

QUIST-ARCTON: ...Too. Ready? One, two, three.

(LAUGHTER)

QUIST-ARCTON: Very crunchy, a bit as if you were eating a prawn⁷ - but the entire prawn, including the shell. I could get a taste for grasshoppers.

And that's the way I got to eat my first-ever grasshopper. Market hopper seller Margaret Joseph, her mother Regina and some friends are chatting in a Maiduguri market in front of a large, metal tray now half-full of deep-fried grasshoppers. Joseph says she buys and fries, and consumers have been chomping⁹ on the hopper snacks all day.

ADO GARBA: Of course, I eat.

QUIST-ARCTON: So Mr. Ado Garba has selected his grasshopper. He sort of whipped off the legs, and he's into munch¹⁰ mode, crunch³ mode.

GARBA: I've been eating this grasshopper for almost 20 years. It's one of my favorite foods.

QUIST-ARCTON: But there's more to it than simply a snack. Hopper - and especially locust¹¹ catchers - are seen as a blessing¹² by the local communities. They hunt the locusts¹³ that could otherwise become a nuisance, even a menace, gobbling up farmers' crops. Margaret Joseph sells Garba a plastic bowl-full of fried grasshoppers at the equivalent of about $2. She says she makes about a 30-percent profit on a good day.

JOSEPH: It's sweet.

QUIST-ARCTON: It's sweet.

JOSEPH: Yeah, it's really sweet.

QUIST-ARCTON: It is sweet. So what's your advice to people who've never tasted grasshopper? What do you think?

JOSEPH: The people who never eat grasshopper, if you're hungry, eat it. Then I'll give you - let you taste it.

QUIST-ARCTON: So that's an open invitation from Margaret Joseph.

JOSEPH: Yes.

QUIST-ARCTON: Come to Maiduguri. Come to her grasshopper stall. And come and chomp⁸ on fried grasshopper and chili. You're most welcome. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, at a grasshopper snack joint¹⁴, Maiduguri.

(SOUNDBITE OF IKEBE SHAKEDOWN'S "PEPPER")