“Hizdahr had stocked their box with flagons of chilled wine and sweetwater, with figs, dates, melons, and pomegranates, with pecans and peppers and a big bowl of honeyed locusts. Strong Belwas bellowed, “Locusts!” as he seized the bowl and began to crunch them by the handful.” (Dance with Dragons)
Our Thoughts:
The things we do for food…
As soon as we read the description of honey-spiced locusts in Dance, we knew we had to rise to the challenge.
This Volantene recipe results in a sweet & spicy, super crunchy snack that is surprisingly good. It takes a bit of psychological adjustment to get over the idea of eating bugs, but the novelty and brag-factor makes it well worth the effort. Underlying the more familiar tastes of honey and spice is the real flavor of the crickets- a sort of smoky nuttiness that takes several bites to savor.
We dared to try it. Do you?
Honey-spiced Locusts
- 1/4 cup butter
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup cleaned insects (we used freeze dried crickets from Amazon)
- 2 Tbs. honey
- 1 tsp. Aleppo pepper, mixed in with the honey