Beondegi

Beondegi is a Korean street food of boiled or steamed silkworm pupae, usually served in paper cups and eaten with a toothpick, with a nutty, shrimp like smell often compared to canned corn, and a firm, chewy texture. Although sericulture has existed in Korea for millennia, eating the pupae as a byproduct of silk production only became widespread after the Korean War, when the government promoted silk as an export industry and the resulting surplus of pupae offered an affordable source of protein before economic growth made meat more accessible; a soup version, beondegi tang, seasons the pupae with soy sauce, chili, garlic, green onion and red pepper powder and is commonly served as anju, food eaten alongside alcohol. Nutritionally the pupae are dense in protein, at roughly 55 to 60 percent of their dry weight, along with unsaturated fat, iron, zinc and B vitamins. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/