Green eggs ANTS and ham CHEESE

Photo credit: Michael Eisen on Flicker. Some rights reserved CC BY 2.0

Don’t worry, I am not about to start experimenting with these beauties in my kitchen (unless Australia starts exporting them to Italy) but after hearing about them on MasterChefAU, well, I couldn’t keep quiet. It was like, you know… having 🐜🐜🐜 in my pants. The Australian native green ant is the new thing in insect dining. Its tart flavor brings up descriptions of lemonade, lemongrass and kaffir lime, and so far I’ve read that it is being used as a flavoring for gin and cheese.

Remember the cricket dessert a few months back? Well after that experience I thought no way was I going to eat bird chow again, but I may change my mind next week when Prince Charles makes an appearance on MasterChef. From what I gathered in the trailer, he’ll be facing down a platter of fancy canapés and one of the items will feature these green lovelies. The anticipation is just killing me!

Photo credit: Michael Eisen on Flicker. Some rights reserved CC BY 2.0

You might be interested in the following image/articles:
Green ant cheese
World Cheese Awards
Green ant cheese in the states

A-Tisket, A-Tasket

…a tansy in my basket.

Tanaceto per frittata is what the description read when I spotted this among the herbs at the garden nursery, and as I didn’t know what tanaceto was at the time of purchase, I didn’t think 2.50€ would be a huge loss if it turned out to be an edible weed.

Good grief, was I close.

Tansy, as it turns out, can become invasive. I couldn’t find anything on the use of tanaceto/tansy in Italian cuisine but with a history that goes way back, and also as a known companion plant to roses and berries, it has a home here if it can survive our winters.