Insects are served as dishes to a banquet. Newcomers must be frightened when they witness this scene.

In addition to eating common plant and animal foods, the Dai, Jingpo and De'ang ethnic groups in Dehong still retain the early human habit of eating insects as food, and some of them are also used as delicacies for entertaining distinguished guests.

Ant eggs, bamboo worms, bee pupae, flower spiders, etc. are used to make delicacies. It sounds a bit creepy, but when you eat it, it leaves a fragrance on your lips and teeth. It is definitely a good dish to go with wine.

Many of the insects it feeds on are very strange.

Take out the eggs of a large yellow ant from the ant nest, wash them with clean water and dry them. Mix them with eggs and fry them. They are delicious.

If you come to the creeks and rivers at the foothills of Ruiliba on a clear night in summer and see lights on the ditches and rivers, it is because people are waiting for the cicadas to sing in groups from the mountains and forests and fly to the waterside to drink water.

Light a torch to attract the cicadas due to their phototaxis, and then capture them into a bag. In one night, you can catch hundreds of cicadas! After returning home, remove the wings and feet of the caught cicadas, put them in a pot and bake them.

When fried in oil, it tastes crispy and is a delicious dish to go with wine.

Bamboo insects are also a delicacy that people like to eat.

Dehong is rich in bamboo, and there are also many bamboo insects. People find bamboos that are eaten by bamboo insects in the bamboo forest, and cut them open along the upper section. The bamboo pupae are among them. Often, a small bowl can be found in one bamboo section.

, chop the bamboo worm pupa into fine pieces, add fried rice noodles and seasonings, dip it in lettuce and eat it. You can also boil it in water for a while, take it out and fry it in oil. You can also fry it with eggs. It is crispy and delicious.

If dried bamboo insect pupae are used as a side dish with wine, they are a top choice for entertaining guests.

However, the most extraordinary thing is that they also eat a large flower spider with yellow and black spots on its body and a yellow web.

This spider is as big as a thumb and is a favorite for children to catch.

They roast the captured flower spiders on the fire, remove the limbs and feet, and shed a layer of skin, then put them in glutinous rice or soft rice and eat them as a dish. The taste is no less than barbecued meat.

In addition, they also dug out the pupae of a kind of "cow dung bug" called "Qike" in Jingpo language from the cave. This kind of pupa is larger, usually as thick as two or three thumbs, and will be dug out of the cave.

Wash the white pupae and put them in a pot to boil for a while, then pick them up and add seasonings to fry them with eggs. This kind of pupae is very rich in protein.

Ant eggs are a traditional folk delicacy of the Dai family.

The cold ant eggs taste delicious. Sometimes the ant eggs on the plate are as big as peas and shaped like pork kidneys. They are white and tender in appearance, with a thin film on the surface. It is pleasing to the eye and refreshing to the heart.

Gently pick up one with chopsticks, put it in your mouth and take a bite. The egg taste is so delicious that you can't help but feel your mouth full of saliva.

Although ant eggs are delicious, they are extremely rare.

Edible ant eggs are produced by large yellow ants that grow on trees.

When you climb a tree to get eggs, you don't have to suffer the pain of ant bites. Therefore, among the Dai people, there has long been a saying that "if you are not a strong person, you can never eat ant eggs."

Dai people eat ant eggs, mainly cold. Wash the ant eggs, blanch them in boiling water, then add garlic, salt, vinegar and other seasonings, and add your favorite vegetables to eat.

Both the Dai and Jingpo people love bee pupae, but it is understandable how difficult it is to obtain bee pupae.

Bee pupae are generally extremely difficult to retrieve, and you will inevitably suffer from stings when removing them.

But the delicious taste of bee pupae makes people take risks. Bee pupae are also a good dish to go with wine.