How to Prepare a Queen Termite for Eating

Although it is an African delicacy, the queen termite probably isn't a food you planned on eating in your lifetime. After you try it once, you probably won't be trying it again. There may be other recipes that include the queen termite, but in West Africa the process is simple once you acquire the queen from her mud castle--the hardest part.

Things You'll Need

• Palm oil
• Large pan
• Fire pit

Instructions

1. Find a bug-a-bug hill (as termite hills are called in West Africa). You can recognize one when you see a little rock/mud mountain in the center of the field where there wasn’t one the last time you looked.

2. Take at least 20 villagers with machetes with you--in fact, let them take you because after you do this once, you can’t imagine wanting to take down a bug-a-bug hill ever again. Be prepared for the hardest, most revolting experience of your life.

3. Hack for hours on the rock/mud, chipping away with the others and having hordes of worker termites rush at you and bite you until you bleed. They are serious about stopping you.

4. Hack and pound until you are at the center of the mound. There you will find a pulsing queen termite whose abdomen (about the size of two fists together) is throbbing with thousands of babies. Take her out with the termite army fighting you all the way.

5. Cook the queen (still pulsing) in palm oil in a large pan until it turns golden brown. Cut it into small sections and give them to each of the workers who destroyed the bug-a-bug hill.