**A Delicious Journey with Mopane Worms**

It's time to try something new and exotic, and I'm excited to share my experience with mopane worms. These dried proteiny umami flavor-filled morsels are quite fascinating, and I'm eager to dive into their taste and texture.

As I take a bite of the dried version, I can tell that they have a meaty, savory flavor profile. The umami taste is prominent, which is a testament to the worms' rich protein content. However, I do notice that it's quite dry, lacking in moisture. Still, I appreciate the complexity of flavors and textures that these worms offer.

Now, let's try one with the head on, and see how it differs from its dried counterpart. Ah, interesting! The addition of the head does seem to bring out a distinct taste profile, possibly due to the presence of the worm's internal organs. I'm not sure what to make of this, but I'm intrigued by the variations in flavor.

To add some crunch and texture, I'll try frying up another batch of mopane worms. Sizzling away in a pan with some oil, they start to develop a crispy exterior that adds a satisfying element to their taste. Now, let's season them with some salt, black pepper, dried chili, and curry powder to see how these flavors interact.

Adding half of a small onion to the pan brings out a sweet, caramelized flavor that complements the worms nicely. The combination of flavors is starting to come together beautifully. As I deglaze the pan with water, I notice how the sauce starts to form, bringing all the ingredients together in harmony.

Now, let's simmer this mixture until the vegetables cook down and the flavors meld together. Ah, the anticipation is building! Finally, it's time to taste our mopane worm stew. Taking a bite, I'm struck by the transformation from dry, umami flavor to juicy, succulent texture. The addition of water has rehydrated the worms, making them more palatable and enjoyable.

As I savor each bite, I'm reminded of dried mushrooms, which share similar earthy, musky flavors. However, the drying process alone doesn't replicate the complexity of cooked mushrooms. Instead, these mopane worms offer a unique taste experience that's both familiar and exciting.

To finish our meal, let's add an onion to one of the worm dishes, and see how it enhances the flavor profile. Ah, the sweetness of the onion pairs beautifully with the spicy kick from the curry powder! It's a delightful combination that leaves me wanting more.

In conclusion, my adventure with mopane worms has been nothing short of delightful. From their dry, umami taste to their juicy, succulent texture, each experience has revealed new facets of these fascinating insects. Whether enjoyed as a snack or in a stew, mopane worms are a true culinary discovery that I'm grateful for.

**A Special Shout-out**

I want to extend my gratitude to Johanna and Sean for sending me the mopane worms and making this episode possible. Their generosity has allowed me to share this unique experience with all of you, and I appreciate their support. Don't forget to check out the auto-translating phrase "itadakimasu" which means "give thanks" in Japanese – it's a fun phrase that I've incorporated into my new shirt.

**Get Your Mopane Worm-Shaped Shirt!**

If you're interested in getting your hands on one of these unique shirts, be sure to check out the link below. They're only available for a limited time, so don't miss out on this opportunity to rep Bug Miss and show off your culinary curiosity!

**The Final Burp**

As I wrap up this episode, I couldn't help but let out a satisfied burp – it's been a delicious journey with mopane worms! If you enjoyed this article, be sure to share it with your friends and follow me on social media for more culinary adventures. Until next time, stay curious and keep exploring the world of food!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: engreetings my beautiful lovelies it's emmy welcome back today i'm going to be tasting mopane worms now these were very graciously sent to me by sean and johanna thank you guys so much for sending these to me from virginia but these mopane worms actually originated from zimbabwe mopane worms are also called madura and they go by many other names they're eaten in the southern portion of africa and they're actually the caterpillar of the emperor moth a beautiful very large caterpillar that eats mopane leaves that's why they call them mopane worms so if you've been with me for a little while you know the last few years i've done something called bugmas which is an insect bug eating countdown to christmas if you've missed those episodes i will put the links above and down below and in those videos i mentioned something called entomophagy which is the practice and tradition of eating insects so insects are a very concentrated source of protein they are sustainable and their life cycles are relatively short so you can produce a lot of them so mopane worms make a lot of sense so as i mentioned mopane worms are eaten in southern africa in countries like south africa zimbabwe zambia botswana namibia so mapane worms are harvested by hand off the trees they are de-gutted and often dry that's the way to preserve them and they're eaten as a dried snack or they can be rehydrated and cooked in stews so i'm going to be doing both versions i'm going to taste them dry and then i'm going to cook a little stew with them as well so big thanks to johanna and sean for sending these to me i can't wait to taste these now let me show you what they look like so here is my bag of worms i opened them so i could take some pictures of them and there they are here are the mopane caterpillars so their scientific name is guanobrezia bellina aren't they amazing they're huge these are dehydrated so imagine how big they are when they are fresh these are definitely the largest caterpillars or worms that i've eaten oh no i take that back i have eaten earthworm jerky before and those were quite large but they were not caterpillars so these are definitely the biggest caterpillars i will have ever eaten and they have a very strong musky smell to them kind of mushroomy earthy a little bit funky but yeah strong shawn tells me that these are ready to be eaten just as they are these have been dried and you can just have them as a snack so today i'm going to be doing two preparations i'm going to taste them as a dried snack but i'm also going to make a stew to prepare the stew version i need to rehydrate the mapani worms so in a saucepan i'm going to put in this entire bag for 200 grams of mopane worms just push those down actually smells a lot like purcha a little bit smoky toasted kind of vegetal amazing okay so there are the worms and now i'm going to boil these for about 10 minutes so while i do the crispy tasting i'm just going to let these go on the stovetop here's the head the body and this is the back end these are hand harvested and then the way their process is they're squeezed so the guts come out the bottom and then they are dried in the sun or sometimes dried over smoke in botswana they actually take off the head so i'm gonna do that i'll try another one with the head alrighty here we go eat the lucky moss not too bad crispy crunchy very very dry very dry and kind of dusty slightly gritty i feel like there's a little bit of sand in there but the flavor is quite savory it tastes quite meaty surprisingly it tastes a lot like a jerky it has that kind of meaty dried proteiny umami flavor to it it's pretty good it is quite dry though all right let's eat one with the head on hmm that one tastes a little bit different and maybe it's because of the head i don't know add a little bit more crunch to it this one tastes a little bit more smoky a little less meaty but still pretty good that part tasted a little bit different as well that tasted a little bit more like dried tea and bring the worms over alrighty so the caterpillars have been boiling for about 10 or 15 minutes and now we're ready to drain them i'm going to pour this here that water was very dark and there was lots of sediment in there so part of the boiling process is not only to soften them but also kind of clean them up a bit once the mopane worms have rehydrated they puff up a lot look at that by the way what do you think of my new shirt eat the ducky moss of course that is the auto translating of the phrase itadakimasu which in japanese means give thanks let's eat and yeah i thought it would make a fun shirt if you want to get one i'll put the link down below and you can get one they're only running for a limited time only for the next two weeks so get them while you can and look stylish in summer alrighty let's make our stew first thing we're going to do is fry up the worms a bit i'm going to add a couple tablespoons of oil great sizzle and we're going to fry those up for a few minutes so they get a little bit crispy already so the mopane ones have been sauteing here for about five minutes and now i'm going to add half of a small onion it's a little dry i'm going to add a little bit more oil now we're going to season it with some salt lots of black pepper adding some dried chili in there and a little bit of curry powder some curry powder to that ah smelling great next i'm going to add some tomato now we're going to use some water and deglaze the pan a bit that's going to help us form our sauce and then we're just going to simmer this until the vegetables cook down a bit and then we'll be ready to serve a bowl of cooked mufune worms let's give this a taste now this would be traditionally served with something called pop which is made of millet flour that's been reconstituted in water and formed into a very stiff kind of porridge and it would be eaten together with this unfortunately i couldn't find any millet so i'm going to be eating my mopane worms just as they are so i'm going to take this one right here nice fat one look how much they have rehydrated itadakimasu or eat the ducky moss hmm the texture really changes a lot it still has a crunch but it's definitely more succulent because we've rehydrated them in water and as you bite them there's a bit of an exoskeleton kind of crunch but it's still a little bit soft as well and it's much juicier of course than the dried version the flavor is less intense in terms of it kind of a musky mushroomy flavor it's still there but now we've added all these other flavors to it as well it's actually quite nice i like the curry a little bit of heat in there as well nice complement this actually reminds me a lot of dried mushrooms if you've ever reconstituted mushrooms before or smell dried mushrooms you know has that really strong kind of musky earthy smell to it that's what these smell like and the drying process does a similar thing too it concentrates the flavors and then as you add water it kind of releases it a bit but still remains very kind of intense but cooked like this it's delicious okay let's have one with onion on it that's really nice the onion adds some sweetness and the curry powder in there is excellent it gives you this perfume of curry that's really assertive and strong but goes really well with the mopane worm so there you have it my potty worms two ways one as a delicious little dried snack and second as a stewed dish both are quite delicious big thanks again to johanna and sean for sending me the mopane worms and making this episode possible thank you guys so much for watching oh be sure to go grab yourself one of these shirts because you only got two weeks to do it and yeah i hope you guys enjoyed that one i hope you guys learned something please share this video with your friends follow me on social media check out bug miss and yeah like subscribe and i shall see you in the next one toodaloo take care bye where is the burp there it isgreetings my beautiful lovelies it's emmy welcome back today i'm going to be tasting mopane worms now these were very graciously sent to me by sean and johanna thank you guys so much for sending these to me from virginia but these mopane worms actually originated from zimbabwe mopane worms are also called madura and they go by many other names they're eaten in the southern portion of africa and they're actually the caterpillar of the emperor moth a beautiful very large caterpillar that eats mopane leaves that's why they call them mopane worms so if you've been with me for a little while you know the last few years i've done something called bugmas which is an insect bug eating countdown to christmas if you've missed those episodes i will put the links above and down below and in those videos i mentioned something called entomophagy which is the practice and tradition of eating insects so insects are a very concentrated source of protein they are sustainable and their life cycles are relatively short so you can produce a lot of them so mopane worms make a lot of sense so as i mentioned mopane worms are eaten in southern africa in countries like south africa zimbabwe zambia botswana namibia so mapane worms are harvested by hand off the trees they are de-gutted and often dry that's the way to preserve them and they're eaten as a dried snack or they can be rehydrated and cooked in stews so i'm going to be doing both versions i'm going to taste them dry and then i'm going to cook a little stew with them as well so big thanks to johanna and sean for sending these to me i can't wait to taste these now let me show you what they look like so here is my bag of worms i opened them so i could take some pictures of them and there they are here are the mopane caterpillars so their scientific name is guanobrezia bellina aren't they amazing they're huge these are dehydrated so imagine how big they are when they are fresh these are definitely the largest caterpillars or worms that i've eaten oh no i take that back i have eaten earthworm jerky before and those were quite large but they were not caterpillars so these are definitely the biggest caterpillars i will have ever eaten and they have a very strong musky smell to them kind of mushroomy earthy a little bit funky but yeah strong shawn tells me that these are ready to be eaten just as they are these have been dried and you can just have them as a snack so today i'm going to be doing two preparations i'm going to taste them as a dried snack but i'm also going to make a stew to prepare the stew version i need to rehydrate the mapani worms so in a saucepan i'm going to put in this entire bag for 200 grams of mopane worms just push those down actually smells a lot like purcha a little bit smoky toasted kind of vegetal amazing okay so there are the worms and now i'm going to boil these for about 10 minutes so while i do the crispy tasting i'm just going to let these go on the stovetop here's the head the body and this is the back end these are hand harvested and then the way their process is they're squeezed so the guts come out the bottom and then they are dried in the sun or sometimes dried over smoke in botswana they actually take off the head so i'm gonna do that i'll try another one with the head alrighty here we go eat the lucky moss not too bad crispy crunchy very very dry very dry and kind of dusty slightly gritty i feel like there's a little bit of sand in there but the flavor is quite savory it tastes quite meaty surprisingly it tastes a lot like a jerky it has that kind of meaty dried proteiny umami flavor to it it's pretty good it is quite dry though all right let's eat one with the head on hmm that one tastes a little bit different and maybe it's because of the head i don't know add a little bit more crunch to it this one tastes a little bit more smoky a little less meaty but still pretty good that part tasted a little bit different as well that tasted a little bit more like dried tea and bring the worms over alrighty so the caterpillars have been boiling for about 10 or 15 minutes and now we're ready to drain them i'm going to pour this here that water was very dark and there was lots of sediment in there so part of the boiling process is not only to soften them but also kind of clean them up a bit once the mopane worms have rehydrated they puff up a lot look at that by the way what do you think of my new shirt eat the ducky moss of course that is the auto translating of the phrase itadakimasu which in japanese means give thanks let's eat and yeah i thought it would make a fun shirt if you want to get one i'll put the link down below and you can get one they're only running for a limited time only for the next two weeks so get them while you can and look stylish in summer alrighty let's make our stew first thing we're going to do is fry up the worms a bit i'm going to add a couple tablespoons of oil great sizzle and we're going to fry those up for a few minutes so they get a little bit crispy already so the mopane ones have been sauteing here for about five minutes and now i'm going to add half of a small onion it's a little dry i'm going to add a little bit more oil now we're going to season it with some salt lots of black pepper adding some dried chili in there and a little bit of curry powder some curry powder to that ah smelling great next i'm going to add some tomato now we're going to use some water and deglaze the pan a bit that's going to help us form our sauce and then we're just going to simmer this until the vegetables cook down a bit and then we'll be ready to serve a bowl of cooked mufune worms let's give this a taste now this would be traditionally served with something called pop which is made of millet flour that's been reconstituted in water and formed into a very stiff kind of porridge and it would be eaten together with this unfortunately i couldn't find any millet so i'm going to be eating my mopane worms just as they are so i'm going to take this one right here nice fat one look how much they have rehydrated itadakimasu or eat the ducky moss hmm the texture really changes a lot it still has a crunch but it's definitely more succulent because we've rehydrated them in water and as you bite them there's a bit of an exoskeleton kind of crunch but it's still a little bit soft as well and it's much juicier of course than the dried version the flavor is less intense in terms of it kind of a musky mushroomy flavor it's still there but now we've added all these other flavors to it as well it's actually quite nice i like the curry a little bit of heat in there as well nice complement this actually reminds me a lot of dried mushrooms if you've ever reconstituted mushrooms before or smell dried mushrooms you know has that really strong kind of musky earthy smell to it that's what these smell like and the drying process does a similar thing too it concentrates the flavors and then as you add water it kind of releases it a bit but still remains very kind of intense but cooked like this it's delicious okay let's have one with onion on it that's really nice the onion adds some sweetness and the curry powder in there is excellent it gives you this perfume of curry that's really assertive and strong but goes really well with the mopane worm so there you have it my potty worms two ways one as a delicious little dried snack and second as a stewed dish both are quite delicious big thanks again to johanna and sean for sending me the mopane worms and making this episode possible thank you guys so much for watching oh be sure to go grab yourself one of these shirts because you only got two weeks to do it and yeah i hope you guys enjoyed that one i hope you guys learned something please share this video with your friends follow me on social media check out bug miss and yeah like subscribe and i shall see you in the next one toodaloo take care bye where is the burp there it is\n"