All God's Creatures Got a Place in the Fryer

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I almost let this culinary gem slip beneath the radar: a couple of weeks ago, everybody's favorite season started in the West Nile Region of Uganda - White Ant Season! I'm told you can find them fried, but they are often prepared as a boiled ball, called onyo (certainly not spelled right). Most Ugandans I talked to said two things about this delicacy; (1) they love it, and (2) do not, under any circumstances, eat too much of it because it causes some serious digestive stress. Sounded like an endorsement if I've ever heard one, so I gave it a try.

A generous appraisal places the flavor and texture somewhere between a roughly ground pate and a mushroom loaf, but the texture of the ant carapaces (the wings are removed) throws something else in that defies description. Small leaves? Bits of sawdust? Something like that. A less generous review might point out a powerful, lingering aftertaste that eventually, inevitably, reminds you that you just at a wad of boiled ants. I was told that it gets even better if you let it sit around for a couple of days - a curing process that I wasn't about to test.