News roundups

August 31, 2011

Etc.: Campus news & notes

EAT A BUG: Fancy a four-course meal featuring grasshopper kabobs, a cricket-and-pasta salad, bug juice and other exotic treats? Then head over to Café Racer on Sept. 7, where David Gordon, Washington Sea Grants science writer, will be hosting a Bug Banquet.

Gordon is the author of The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook, and has spent the past decade giving cooking demos featuring what he calls “the food of the future.”

The banquet was Gordons idea, timed to celebrate the Feast of St. Gratus, patron saint of entomophobia (insect fear). “Among his many miracles, Saint Gratus is said to have thwarted a plague of grasshoppers and, in 1450, was invoked against a swarm of crop-devastating insects in France,” Gordon said.

In addition to its special bug-based menu, Café Racer will feature an insect-themed art exhibit and the mounted insect collection of entomologist Don Ehlen, proprietor of The Insect Safari, an independent education program based in Seattle.  Music will be provided by Drew Keriakides, leader of Gods Favorite Beefcake, Café Racers unofficial house band.

Tickets for the event are $20 and can be purchased online or at Café Racer, 5828 Roosevelt Way.

Gordon says hes currently negotiating with his books publisher to produce a revised and updated edition, which would come out in 2013.