Ooh, are you really going to eat that?

June 19, 2009 11:46 am

— When Ryan Huelsbusch volunteered to taste unknown foods during a creepy food fair Thursday at Effingham Helen Matthes Library, he was not sure what to expect.
Still, he made it through the first four unusual foods unscathed.
“It was okay. I liked the kitty litter cake the best,” he said.
One competitor dropped out after the first round, and there was just one left, Jocelyn Schultz. Huelsbusch was confident he could handle the final task.
“We have something interesting to try if you dare. This next round is the hardest round you will do,” Youth Services Librarian Shirley Marshall warned the two remaining food tasters.
Then she unveiled something so gross both contestants through in the towel and refused to try it. Whatever Huelsbusch was expecting to eat, it wasn’t a barbecue dung beetle from Thailand.
“It’s a bug and it just sounds gross to eat,” he said.
After the contest ended without a winner, Tristan Kessler was quick to volunteer to be the first person to try a dung beetle.
“It tastes like a really chewy barbecue chip,” he said.
Kessler wanted to be the first to try it because no one else tried it.
Kessler’s mom Jamie was thrilled to see her children trying some different foods.
“It’s fun to see snacks the kids won’t usually eat that they ate,” she said, adding she won’t be trying a dung beetle any time soon.
“I can’t step on huge bugs because they crunch, so I couldn’t crunch on one in my mouth,” she said.
During the creepy food fair, more than 20 people learned about strange foods from other countries and tasted some strange recipes, including kitty litter cake, which was actually served in a litter box — never used, of course — with a scoop.
In actuality, the cake is just a mixture of vanilla and German chocolate cake mixes, vanilla wafers, food coloring and a few other ingredients, Marshall said.
After wandering around the small plate of dung beetles for some time, Huelsbusch triumphed by trying a dung beetle and left the food fair more open to trying food from other countries.
“I think it’s kind of neat that they eat that stuff that I never knew was edible,” Huelsbusch said.
Angie Faller can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 131 or angie.faller@effinghamdailynews.com.

Photos

Jocelyn Schultz, left, and Ryan Huelsbusch cautiously look over what they were told was curled milk during a creepy food taste test Thursday at Effingham Helen Matthes Library. Effingham Daily News