Bob Terwilliger > wrote:

> Bubba Vic wrote:
>
> > Garlic butter fried bees
> >
> > 1/4 cup Butter or cooking oil
> > 6 cloves Garlic
> > 1 cup Cleaned bees (larvae)
> >
> > Heat the oil or butter over low heat in a frying-pan or pot. Slowly fry
> > the garlic so that in about 5 minutes it is slightly brown. Add the
> > insects and continue frying at the same temperature for another 10 to 15
> > minutes, stirring occasionally. Do not overheat or the garlic will burn.
> >
> > And here is what they look like:
> > <http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b290/hmk/IMG_1051.jpg>.
>
> It's posts like this which keep me coming back to RFC day after day!
>
> Looking at that picture, I see that the diner is using chopsticks, which
> leads me to believe that the recipe is Asian in origin. However, butter is
> not the cooking fat of choice in most Asian cuisines, so I wonder whether
> this is some kind of French-Chinese fusion recipe.

Ha! The recipe and the picture are unrelated, the former being from
<http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e19.htm>, the latter actually
from <http://www.candidhq.com/blogs/hannah/003587.html>. The latter is
indeed Chinese. There are also a couple good ones at
<http://pengsan.fotopages.com/?entry=143430>. All the pictures show
actual bees, not just larvae.

> I'm also curious about the term "cleaned" bees. Does this mean that the bee
> larvae are simply washed, or is it a reference to gutting or otherwise
> processing them?

This is explained on the Web site of the recipe...
<quote>
Since larvae defecate just before pupation, larvae and pupae should be
washed in clean water before further processing. Pupae will have clean,
empty intestines.

Another method (Schmidt and Buchmann, 1992) uses a small jet of water
from a laboratory wash bottle to remove individual larvae from their
cells. The author had reasonable success flooding one side of an
uncapped comb. All the cells were filled with clean water, and then the
larvae and pupae were shaken out [...]
</quote>

Bubba Vic