A big fat, juicy worm that’s said to be full of meat. Although traditionally dried or smoked to preserve, they are usually re-hydrated and cooked with tomato or chilli sauce to flavour. According to an American couple who tried the dish on the Food Network, it tastes like honey barbequed chicken. One to give a go, I’d say.
Some people may shudder at the thought of eating a worm or caterpillar, but others would say that a well-cooked mopane worm is a treat for the taste buds. From expensive restaurants to local village eateries, the worms are considered a delicacy in Zimbabwe. They are available in most supermarkets and are more costly than most other foods
Popularly known as ‘amancimbi’ in Ndebele or ‘madora’ in Shona, mopane worms have been a good source of protein for generations across Southern Africa. The worm is really a large caterpillar belonging to the Gonimbrasia belina species, more commonly known as the Emperor moth. It is named ‘mopane’ because it feeds on the leaves of mopane trees after it hatches in summer, and can only be found in southern African countries.
History of the dish
There is no documented history of the mopane worm dish in Zimbabwe. However, a stone-age pit discovered at Pomongwe Cave in Zimbabwe showed a deposit of dried mopane worms that are believed to be almost 6,000 years old.
European explorers and early settlers to southern Africa in the 19th century documented the collection and consumption of the caterpillars, many adding that they found it a “filthy” practice.
According to Food and Agriculture Association (FAO) the mopane caterpillar is one of the best-known and most economically-important forestry resource products of the mopane woodlands in southern Zimbabwe, Botswana and northern South Africa.
It has been estimated that annually 9.5 billion mopane larvae are harvested in Southern Africa’s 20,000km2 of mopane forest worth US$85 million, of which approximately 40 per cent goes to producers who are primarily women from poorer, rural areas.
Research has found that mopane worms are not only good for eating from a nutritional standpoint, but they also may be key to maintaining the ecological balance of the dry bush they inhabit.
How to cook mopane worms
The worms are harvested during the rainy season, after which they are cleaned, sun-dried for preservation, and made available for consumption throughout the year.
The tasty worms can be eaten dry and crispy as a snack, or can be drenched in sauce, or added to porridge made from maize – a staple food in Zimbabwe. Most people prefer to fry the worms with a combination of tomatoes, garlic, peanuts, chillies, and onions. Some of the recipes to cook the caterpillar can be found online.
Mopane worms can also be added to a stew, boiled to soften them up, or simply eaten raw and fresh off a tree. When they are fresh, they are less chewy and their distinctive and unique flavour is undiluted by other ingredients.
For the majority of the people in the western world, eating insects or eating bugs is welcomed with feelings of aversion and disgust. Yet for a lot of other people, entomophagy or the consumption of edible insects and edible bugs is part of their staple diet.
In 2013, the FAO (Food & Agriculture Organisation of the UN) published a study about the consumption of insects and recommends it as a nutritious and ecologically friendly source of food. This means that even in the western world, the role of edible insects in a healthy diet could slowly increase in importance.
Considered a true delicacy, the mopane worm is widely consumed in rural areas of southern Africa. Being highly nutritious makes it an important source of protein for a lot of households in these areas. Scientifically known as the Gonimbrasia Belina, the mopane worm is in fact the brightly coloured spiky caterpillar of the Emperor moth. They are one of the larger caterpillars, nearly as long as a finger and as thick as a cigar.
The mopane worm is an edible caterpillar or one of the edible worms and it feeds mainly on the leafs of the mopane tree, hence its name. During harvest time which takes place a few weeks into the rainy season, hundreds of families hand pick them from the trees. The innards of the caterpillar worm are carefully squeezed out after which they are dried in the sun, smoked or boiled for preservation. In certain cases they are also preserved in cans. The dried mopane worms, also called mopani worm, can be stored for usage throughout the year and are mostly sold at local markets in rural areas or in supermarkets in the bigger cities.
For most of these families, it is an easily obtainable and cheap source of protein. The mopane worms contain three times as much protein as beef, giving it a lot of benefits of eating mopane worms. On the other hand, it is also considered to be a million dollar industry in southern Africa where the worms are exported to some european countries. Mopani worms are eaten in among others Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and certain regions of South Africa.
The mopane worm can either be eaten dried as a crispy snack, or fried to perfection with a pinch of salt. Another cooking method for this traditional Africa food is to cook the mopane worms in a delicious stew with either tomato, onion and chilli or a peanut sauce. The eye is literally the eye catcher and will be eaten as well, except in parts of Botswana were the eye is removed before consumption.
The Boma restaurant, part of the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge in Victoria Falls serves many mouth watering local dishes and fried worms is one of them. For the brave ones that try at least one, they will receive a special certificate.
I tried my first mopane worm in this restaurant, so I got the certificate. The worm was grilled and looked very well done. It tasted like burned steak. Not bad, but I didn’t try a second one, at the time. The Boma restaurant is located by the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge.
A few years later I visited a rural village in Zimbabwe with some tourists and we were invited to join them for a lovely traditional meal. We got served sadza (maize porridge) with lot’s of mopane worms bought at a local market. The whole village was very eager to see if we would like this dish and were standing around to watch us taking our first bite. I still remembered the worms not tasting too bad in the Boma restaurant, so I didn’t mind eating them again. But we each got at least 15 of these creepy crawlies on a plate which was maybe a bit much for my taste buds, especially when the one big black eye was looking at me and it still seemed to be alive, fried or not. I think I managed to eat about 5 worms, and then invited the rest of the village children to join me. Full of joy they attacked the plate and were very happy for this delicious meal…and so was I.
For the ones wanting to try a true local African dish, treat yourself to a delicious meal of mopane worms, cooked to your liking. Mopane worms are definitely one of the bugs you can eat.
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