Sariann and Chelsea are two big fans of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. They are also fans of food. They combine their interests in their unusual cooking blog, Inn at the Crossroads.

Referenced from Dance with Dragons:

Hizdahr had stocked their box with flagons of chilled wine and sweetwater, with figs, dates, melons, and pomegranates, with pecans and peppers and a big bowl of honeyed locusts. Strong Belwas bellowed, “Locusts!” as he seized the bowl and began to crunch them by the handful.

The things we do for food…

Honey-spiced Locusts

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup cleaned insects (we used freeze dried crickets from Amazon)
• 2 Tbs. honey
• 1 tsp. Aleppo pepper, mixed in with the honey

1. Melt your butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the insects and and salt and stir gently for around 10 minutes, making sure to get them completely covered in butter.
2. When the bugs are suitably crisped, drizzle the spice-honey over them and stir a bit more. Then spread them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and cook for around 10 minutes at 200 F, until the bugs are no longer quite so sticky.

As soon as we read the description of honey-spiced locusts in Dance, we knew we had to rise to the challenge.

This Volantene recipe results in a sweet & spicy, super crunchy snack that is surprisingly good. It takes a bit of psychological adjustment to get over the idea of eating bugs, but the novelty and brag-factor makes it well worth the effort. Underlying the more familiar tastes of honey and spice is the real flavor of the crickets — a sort of smoky nuttiness that takes several bites to savor.

We dared to try it. Do you?

Guest Post By: Sariann and Chelsea

We are two big fans of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. We are also fans of food. What, then, would be more natural than to combine them into one fabulous blog?