For dinner tonight, would you rather eat a tarantula or Cheez Whiz®?
Sunday at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Eat-A-Bug author David George Gordon chose the tarantula.
Apparently a reporter once asked him, "What is the strangest food you've ever eaten?"
"Cheez Whiz," he answered.
"What is in Cheez Whiz anyway?" He asked the audience.
I think it's a good question.
I'm not sure if the misspelling of "cheese" is an attempt to be cute or to add to consumer speculation that there is no actual cheese in the product.
Tarantulas really don't have that problem. You don't have to wonder if the hair on their legs and torsos is their native hair or if it was added at a processing plant. When they bite, they use their own teeth and everything. (Except that I imagine they don't have teeth.)
Hold the Phone
As I write, I realize that I need a Cheez Whiz® attitude adjustment.
Thanks to Google, I just found that of the first four ingredients of Cheez Whiz®, three come from the udder of a cow and the fourth is water. It makes you wonder why they need a processing facility to make it since Cheez Whiz® is apparently so close to Mother Nature's design.
David George Gordon probably needs an attitude adjustment too. Cheez Whiz® has anchovies in it after all. Those are a nutrient-rich food. Two tablespoons of Cheez Whiz® helps you get 10% of your Daily Recommended Intake of Calcium and Vitamin A (thanks to the vitamin A fortified milk). You even get 20% of your required sodium as a bonus.
It has probably never occurred to Gordon that he should dip the tarantula into the Cheez Whiz®.
With a Kraft processing plant about forty miles away, I wonder if a Kraft executive would help us with our attitudes. I bet Gordon would eat some Cheez Whiz if the Cheez Whiz brand manager or a honcho in the California Milk Advisory Board ate a tarantula.
It's just a thought.
Eat Local
With the abundance of tarantulas here in the mountains, this eating challenge could even be a new, more adventurous Eat Local Challenge.
The Cheez Whiz® is almost local itself. Besides the anchovies, sodium phosphate, Worcestershire Sauce, a couple of other ingredients, the glass jar itself, and the label, most of the contents are probably local to me.
My guess is that the Eat Local people around here have not considered Cheez Whiz®.
