NPR: BPP Intern Eats Bugs and Lives to Blog About It

BPP Intern Eats Bugs and Lives to Blog About It

Filed under: Video

When I first signed on as a BPP intern, I was super excited about all the interesting people I was sure to meet. I had no idea some of those folks would be, perhaps, too "interesting" and I certainly never intended to eat any bugs.

My world--and my palette--shifted when Producer Angela asked me to help film a dinner party in the West Village. This was no ordinary dinner party. We were dealing with Gastronauts (www.Gastronauts.net), members of a club for adventurous eaters in Manhattan and London.

Gastronauts are not like you and me. They get excited about trying things like goat testicles and haggis imported from New Jersey. Currently, they are looking for a dish that involves the following: a block of tofu, eels swimming around on top, alcohol poured over it, eels burrowing into the tofu to escape the alcohol, slices of the eel tofu and "mangia!"

That night, the Gastronauts were dining on creepy crawly, antennaed and winged creatures. In fact, one of the delicacies served was a giant water bug, known as a toe-biter in certain circles. In New York we call them cockroaches. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene would have had a field day assigning violation points to this crowd. Nevertheless, I chowed down on cicadas, crickets and water bugs.

Frankly, I'm a starving student and it was the most decadent meal I ate all month.

Check out the video.

(For the record, the BPP does not make interns eat bugs.)

Elsa Butler

2:21 PM ET | 02-27-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

I am dying to see my schoolmate, Elsa, eat the bug. (As starving journalism students, we live on pretzels and the occasional free cookies so this is quite an event).

Unfortunately, the video has turned into only audio. Any chance this could be fixed?

Thank you

Sent by Sandra Larriva | 11:59 AM ET | 03-02-2008

Send a Comment

Comments are reviewed and edited by NPR prior to display. All comments will be read, but not all will be posted.

NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its Web site or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.

E-mail this Page

Recipient's e-mail address:	» Up to twelve addresses, separated by commas.
Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Personal message (optional, 600 characters max):
Your NPR member station:
Are you a member of your local NPR station?	Yes No
Would you like to receive information from your local NPR member station? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No
May we contact you with information about NPR programming and services? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No

(Information collected by NPR will be used solely for internal NPR or NPR member station purposes and only if you selected 'yes' above. See NPR's privacy policy for more information.)

Host

Alison Stewart

Welcome to 'The Bryant Park Project'

The Bryant Park Project started as a blog in the summer of 2007 and ended as a radio show and online community in July 2008. Read our frequently asked questions and discussion rules.