Today at work I ate 2 "hormiga culona."
These are giant queen ants, brined in saltwater and then deep-fried. The literal translation for hormiga culona is "fat ass ants." They certainly have fat asses.
These were brought back from Bogota by one of the grad students I work with. There was no way I wasn't going to try them. Each one was about 1 - 2 inches long. They tasted like salty, burnt popcorn pieces. The ant butts (abdomens) had the most acrid flavor, and the thorax/head part was pretty much just crunchy bits. These were missing their wings, which I'm assuming were burned off during cooking or fell off during transfer.
I'm pretty stoked that I got to try them, though, since they only appear once a year. And seriously, when else was I going to get a chance like this?
As for their aphrodisia -inducing properties, I can only say that my tongue and mouth went numb for a short period of time. Nothing too spectacular, other than me having bits of ant stuck between my teeth for the rest of the day. Mmmm...
More info here.
Wow…and all I’ve done so far today is sit on a couple of conference calls!
You’re awesome. All I ate today was questionable leftovers.
Bogota, New Jersey (which is 5 minutes from where I grew up) or Bogota, Colombia (which is where I was born)?
It’s an honest question because both have lots of Hispanics and bugs.