(As a modern Australian woman) you know you’re in a cross-cultural relationship when…

You shake a large flying bug from your hair and say to your partner, “Oh it’s just one of those bugs you used to eat as a child…”

The differences don’t get much starker than that. True. I was cooking dinner when that happened.

After heavy rains we wake up to what appears to be a cult suicide—hundreds of inch-long, flying ant carcasses dead, everywhere. Silvery wings scattered like confetti take weeks to decompose in the garden.

Godwin explained some weeks ago, after the first heavy rains, that as childrenthey ate these bugs! It was an event to look forward to every rainy season. They caught them by placing buckets of water near any light sources. Once the bugs amassed around the light, they switched the lights off which forced the bugs to drop into the buckets of water. They then turned the lights on and “de-winged” the bugs. All done, they fried them over a hot pan, no oil, and ate them like hot chips.

The bugs are fatty and nutritious.

I asked what they taste like and he said, “Somehow like that thing we ate at Coconut Grove that looked scary.”

“Lobster?”

“Yes. Lobster. They are a delicacy,” he said.

“So are lobsters,” I replied, thinking about the difference in the concept of delicacy between cultures.

“They really taste like lobster?” I asked.

“Yes, somehow,” he said.

“But you didn’t like lobster,” I said.

“Because it looks scary.”

“But the bugs don’t look scary?” I asked.

“No.”

“OK.”

Like I said, it’s in the Ds:

Disgusting or Delicious, our Delicacies are Different. Decline or Dine: the Decision is yours.

Incidentally, I declined; I have my limits.

You can read a little more about my weird eating habits here where I tell my story in “The Book”: To Journey in Africa. Post #10 will talk about eating puffer fish in Japan, crocodile in Australia, and raw prawn sushi!