I think this dish has a darker legacy, and I think it might answer your question.
Back when people were curious if Covid came from bat soup, people pointed out that Chinese quinine was partly the result of Mao's famine, and the regular famines that occurred in China afterwards (but not to the depths as the one under Mao). The Chinese people got used to eating anything, and everything. Meaning that they started cooking everything and anything.
This particular reference reminds me of something that came up in Frank Dikötter
book "Mao's Great Famine". Hunger pangs drove people into nearly total madness, so people would eat literally anything in small doses not to go crazy. They would eat strips of bark, bits of leather, and yeah: tiny stones, so that they could feel like they were full. This was basically the last step they would take before they started digging up graves and eating the dead.
You eat a rock by eating it, because if you don't, you'll go insane. You use a rock because you've literally eaten every animal, every fish, every bug, every bit of tree bark, and every shoe you can find.
There's a lot of that kind of thing in Africa, but less of famines, and more of rampant malnutrition. Most of the agricultural products of Africa are quite low in protein content. One of the reasons you see African societies cooking bugs, is because it's one of the few food sources that is relatively higher in protein that the surrounding area. Bush meat is hard to get, and already in poor quality compared to your average cash crop; and agriculture in Africa is enormously difficult with poor soils, tons of animal and insect competition, and poor rain system (meaning it's dry for long times, and then floods).
If you didn't have enough food for the summer, bugs are your easiest supplement, so long as it won't kill you.
how do you eat a rock? do you just suck on it and spit it out? why use a rock?
I think this dish has a darker legacy, and I think it might answer your question.
Back when people were curious if Covid came from bat soup, people pointed out that Chinese quinine was partly the result of Mao's famine, and the regular famines that occurred in China afterwards (but not to the depths as the one under Mao). The Chinese people got used to eating anything, and everything. Meaning that they started cooking everything and anything.
This particular reference reminds me of something that came up in Frank Dikötter book "Mao's Great Famine". Hunger pangs drove people into nearly total madness, so people would eat literally anything in small doses not to go crazy. They would eat strips of bark, bits of leather, and yeah: tiny stones, so that they could feel like they were full. This was basically the last step they would take before they started digging up graves and eating the dead.
You eat a rock by eating it, because if you don't, you'll go insane. You use a rock because you've literally eaten every animal, every fish, every bug, every bit of tree bark, and every shoe you can find.
That makes total sense. It's like how poor people in Haiti make cookies out of literal dirt.
Yup. Haiti also has suffered from severe famines.
There's a lot of that kind of thing in Africa, but less of famines, and more of rampant malnutrition. Most of the agricultural products of Africa are quite low in protein content. One of the reasons you see African societies cooking bugs, is because it's one of the few food sources that is relatively higher in protein that the surrounding area. Bush meat is hard to get, and already in poor quality compared to your average cash crop; and agriculture in Africa is enormously difficult with poor soils, tons of animal and insect competition, and poor rain system (meaning it's dry for long times, and then floods).
If you didn't have enough food for the summer, bugs are your easiest supplement, so long as it won't kill you.