The cicada hunter surnamed Li and his wife catch cicadas at night.
In summer, fried cicadas are a popular dish in Lishui, Zhejiang Province. (Photos: Yang Hui/GT)
Catching and cooking Lishui's fave summertime menu item: the cicada
Summertime means cicadas chirping throughout day and night. For some people, it can be annoying. However, for others, especially in Lishui, Zhejiang Province, the cicada is a popular snack and meal.
Lishui restaurants take more orders for cicadas than the usual seasonal favorite, crawfish. And the bug must similarly be stripped down: to eat a cicada, its head, tail and legs should be removed first, leaving only the abdomen.
Jiang Yongchun has been in the cicada wholesale business for years and says the rural areas of Lishui have long favored eating the insect.
"By the end of the 1980s, restaurants started to serve cicadas as dishes," Jiang said. Meals and snacks can be found on local menus from June to late September.
Jiang is among seven or eight wholesalers in Lishui. He said they sell roughly 6,000 kilograms to 7,500 kilograms per day, with about 200 cicadas in a kilogram. It's estimated that in some 80 summer days, Lishui citizens consume over 100 million cicadas.
Cicada hunters often catch their prey after 7 pm, usually on phoenix trees, where they rest. The Global Times followed one such hunter, surnamed Li, catching them.
The primary piece of kit is a big hammer. Hit the trunk with the hammer, and lots of cicadas fall to the ground.
During peak season, several thousand cicadas can be caught every night. However, Li didn't harvest much this time. He told the Global Times that he thinks the season for cicadas is almost over.
With the growth in consumption and popularity of cicadas, some of the menu offerings in Lishui are now imported from Quzhou, in Zhejiang Province and even from Jiangxi Province.
The bugs also fetch a good price at the table, at around 0.8 yuan ($0.12) each. However, the high cost isn't stopping fanatical cicada lovers.
