Where's the Beef?

Bon appetit!!


Eat a Roach and Be the First in Line

GURNEE, Ill. - Why wait in line when you can just eat a cockroach? That's the question Six Flags Great America is asking its thrill seekers during its Halloween-themed FrightFest.

The amusement park is daring customers to eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach in exchange for unlimited line-jumping privileges.

The promotion, which has Lake County Health Department officials shaking their heads, starts Oct. 7.

Anyone who chows down the entire 2- to 3-inch horned cockroach gets a pass for four people to cut to the front of ride lines through Oct. 29.

Park officials insist it's safe to eat the crunchy critters, but health officials are cautioning participants.

Consuming live roaches might increase risks of gastrointestinal illness and allergies, according to Bill Mays, Lake County Health Department's community health director.

Cockroach eaters will have to sign waivers and still pay admission fees, said Six Flags spokesman James Taylor.

The bug buffet continues with a cooked roach eating contest Oct. 13 - Friday, Oct. 13.

Taylor says he's hoping someone can beat the 2001 Guinness Book of World Records feat in which a British man downed 36 cockroaches.

"I've heard people say, 'Wow,' 'Ew,' a lot of one-worders," Taylor said. "A lot have said that they wouldn't eat a cockroach, but they sure would like to see someone else do it."


The television show Fear Factor made this possible.

Then again a pass for four people to cut to the front of ride lines would indeed be tempting!!

No, not for me, I'm a meat and potato kinda guy. But they do have long lines at Six Flags, so maybe!!!









Here I come to save the day:

PETA Upset at Six Flags Roach Contest

GURNEE, Ill. - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants Six Flags Great America to scrap its Halloween-themed cockroach-eating promotion.

A spokeswoman for the animal rights organization says the contest at the amusement park's FrightFest is "gratuitously cruel."

The park in Gurnee, Ill., is joining other Six Flags parks in offering unlimited line-jumping privileges to anyone who eats a live Madagascar hissing cockroach. The bugs are up to three inches long.

The contest begins next month.

Amusement park officials are defending their menu choice. Great America spokesman Jim Taylor says the bugs are nutritious, high in protein and fat free.

Yeah, here we go, PETA and cockroaches.

One wonders what a true blue PETA person does when their house is invaded by cockroaches or ants.

Do you suppose they just politely ask them to leave?

I also wonder if PETA people drive a car? Bugs on the windshield you know!!!










You know there are those who pay dearly for a delicacy.

Crickets Are Popular Bar Food in Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY - Would you like your crickets deep fried and crispy? Peppered and presented in a neat circle on a bed of green leaves?

Breeders of crickets say the insects have become "finger food for beer drinkers" in an age of increasing prosperity in Vietnam compared with the recent past when they might have been food for the hungry or for wartime soldiers surviving in the jungle.

Businessman Le Thanh Tung raises hundreds of thousands of the flying insects in barrels and sells them to restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City, the Southeast Asian country's largest urban area, or to other breeders in neighboring provinces.

"The taste is very particular, very special and it smells good and tastes delicious but it is very difficult to compare cricket to other meat," said Tung, 28, suggesting that crickets are an acquired taste.

At his small farm and restaurant about 25 km (16 miles) west of the city center, a plastic-covered menu with photographs of cricket dishes offers "young crickets deep fried," "cricket salad," "breaded cricket," "cricket noodle" and "peppered cricket."

One customer rode 340 km on a motorbike from his home near the border with Cambodia to buy two boxes full of twitching, chirping crickets to breed and serve at his restaurant.

"There is a demand because people like to eat better," said the customer, Nguyen Chinh Anh.

Crunchy Crickets

Back in the hot kitchen of the farm's brick-faced building covered by a tin roof, Tung's sister-in-law, Huynh Thi Oanh Kieu, scoops up a colander of crickets from a plastic basin and gently releases them into boiling oil. They sizzle and smoke for five to 10 minutes and she pulls them out.

Crunchy crickets are ready.

Tung gives his guests six dishes of crickets of various sizes, shapes and colors nestled on long yellow noodles, or battered, or stood on their legs atop a dark-green salad.

Vietnamese crickets usually grow to 2.5 cm (0.9 inch) long and the largest can grow up to 4 cm, according to Tung.

"Tasty," said driver Nguyen Trong Thanh, after gingerly picking up a deep fried cricket with his chopsticks, dipping it in spicy fish sauce and then into his mouth. "This is the first time I've eaten it and I'm surprised it's that good."

Mmmm good. I bet they get a lot of requests for their recipe.

I wonder how you know what is rare, medium and well done?

I bet my exterminator is making a little money on the side from the bugs he is supposed to be killing at my house!!!

Hey, the United States couldn't win in Vietnam. Maybe PETA ought to give it a try and protect the crickets.










Who's got egg on their face?

Prince Charles Aide Denies Picky Egg Story

In an unusual move, aides to Britain's Prince Charles denied a report on Saturday that the heir-to-the-throne's staff have to cook him seven boiled eggs to allow him to choose one with the perfect consistency.

According to BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman's new book "On Royalty," Charles enjoys a boiled egg after a day's hunting but he is fussy about how long it is cooked.

"If the Prince felt that number five was too runny, he could knock the top off number six or seven," Paxman told Saturday's Guardian newspaper, which is to serialize the book next week.

"The story is not true," said a spokesman for Britain's Prince Charles, despite Paxman saying the story's source is one of the royal heir's friends.

I don't hear any outrage from PETA here!! I mean what are eggs really? PETA should be outraged!!!








Well, that's it for Tuesday I'm off to plow up some worms for dinner.
















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