"slenon" wrote in message
m...
Wolfgang:
One of the sources I consulted claimed that the beans are inedible. But
then, I've heard the same about mesquite and some others. Mesquite beans
were most definitely eaten by at least some of the southwestern U.S.
Indians.....the Papagos, for instance, if memory serves. Then too, many
pulses (kidney beans, for example) really do carry a fairly heavy load of
toxins and must be cooked properly to render them safe. Nevertheless,
except in dire emergency, I think I'll take my chances with the veggies.

I recall, hopefully correctly, seeing "locust bean gum" in some lists of
ingredients. The SW tribes such as Papagos were often called "diggers" by
the tribes who claimed better hunting and farming land. They pretty much
ate every thing that they could scrape up to survive. Quite a lot of our
choicest foods require processing to eliminate toxins. Cashews come to
mind. And truth be, I'd have preferred other fair than the insects at the
time I found eating them necessary. Of course, local veggies weren't
much
better.


I'm still writing the TR, but when we arrived in Goma, our hostess met us at
her door and fed us lunch, Congolese-style. The first thing on the menu, and
the tastiest treat by far, was honey-fried locusts. Without their legs, they
look almost like tiny shrimp. They are so good that when they are in season
(every half dozen years or so), the locals use small baggies of them as
legal tender. We talked about John the Baptist and eating locusts, and
decided that it was a very tasty way to eat.

--riverman