13 | Brilli-ant: Delicious and Homemade

In case you thought this blog post was a collection of recipes on how to prepare ants … you are right. 

We recently moved into a new compound. The new base is a bit bigger, offers more options for spare time activities, and — drum roll — doesn’t have ants all over the place. 

In the new place, if you look carefully, you will still spot two or three a day, but it’s nothing compared to the ant invasion we had in our previous kitchen. One thing you need to know about those ants: they are tiny — or: small-small*, as we say here. Imagine a kitchen with food for 15 people and thousands of tiny ants everywhere. Try to come up with a plan of how to get rid of them. Good luck. In short, you are going to lose. The golden rule was: You don’t have to love them, but you will have to accept them. So here are three ways of dealing with ants in your kitchen, when getting rid of them is not an option — how to best enjoy your ants:

Toasted: This method works exceptionally well with bread. Heating your ants in the toaster for a few minutes will give them the right amount of crunch. A positive side effect is, that they will most probably die. That makes them much harder to identify as ants and therefore less gross, as they won’t run across your plate. Brilliant! 

Fried: Frying your ants is an exceptionally good option for dishes with eggs. Eggs and ants provide an exceptional post-workout meal, with all the protein your body needs. If you are lucky, they are already in the pan before you start cooking, which saves you lots of tedious work of picking them up. Spice ‘em up with a bit of pepper, and you will hardly be able to tell what’s pepper and what’s an ant. Fantastic! 

Frozen: Enjoying your ants frozen is more about preparing them in a way so they don’t move around in your cereal. Especially in the morning, on an empty stomach, having as many ants and cornflakes in your bowl can be a bit of a rough start to a new day. Putting your cereal in the freezer will help with two things: It freezes the ants that already managed to get into your cornflakes, which will keep them fresh and ensure vitamins are preserved. Second, it will keep more ants from finding your favourite cereal. Pour some milk, (I recommend soy milk if you are lactose intolerant), and enjoy! 

I hope you found some of these ideas inspiring. Be creative, try new things, and please feel to share your ant cooking experiences with me — you might get featured in a future blog post. 

Enjoy, Markus