How About This Appetizer? Tempura-Battered Deep Fried Tarantula

If you've been looking for an appetizer that's really going make an impression on the guests at your next get-together try this recipe.

Deep-fried tarantula was one of many bug delights served at the third annual Bug-A-Thon at Ripley's Believe It or Not! Hollywood last week.

According to Reuters, Scorpion Scallopine and dishes containing cockroaches, grasshoppers and other insects were also served. Ripley's Hollywood manager Andrea Silverman says two-thirds of the worlds population eats insects and the goal of the event was to show the nutritional value of insects.

Chef David George Gordon, who's Tarantula recipe is featured says,

"In America we're the weird ones because we don't eat bugs. We're a nation of bug-bashers."

To add variety to a bug diet, ants, worms, termites, caterpillars, dung beetles and wasps are also quite edible.

[Reuters]