My First Mopani

This past Valentine’s Day, I finally got to partake in a local Southern African delicacy…mopani worms! I read all about mopani worms before I came to Botswana and I’d been waiting for an opportunity to try them out. Mopani worms are actually caterpillars that are the larvae of a rather large species of moth (the first time I saw one of these moths I thought it was a small bird!). They’re prepared by basically squeezing out their guts (someone showed me how to do this, but I haven’t tried it myself…yet) and then they’re dried and can be eaten as a snack (this is how I ate them in the video below), or they’re re-hydrated and cooked with vegetables, usually tomatoes and onions. When I tried them for the first time, I kind of felt like Simba in the Lion King when Timon and Pumba were encouraging him to try their daily diet of “grubs” – except my worm wasn’t raw and I had a glass of water on hand. They weren’t bad. I’m not sure it’s something I’ll ever crave, but I’m glad I gave them a try. Do I feel a little more African after the experience? Yes, absolutely.