When life gives you locusts, make kebabs. We don't say it, Nairobi does

Welcome to Nairobi. Here, craving locusts means being spoilt for choice.

Nairobi has a vivid menu -- grilled locust salad, locusts in skewers, and the good old locust kebabs.

If one is really hungry, they are free to order all the above. And there is no shortage of supply.

The swarms of flying protein are in abundance in Kenya, and the inhabitants are putting them to the best use.

To this end, Icipe researcher, Chrystanus Tanga, says, "A lot more people should engage in this practice rather than shying away and thinking that it is a primitive man's food."

In all honesty, if we see it the other way, these locusts aren't shy of devouring our farmlands. So we also must not be ashamed of putting them on our chopping board.

Here, one can crush them into meals, or deep fry the locusts and serve them with tartar sauce. Or come up with your own recipe.

This is neither pandemic lunacy nor one of the many weird things happening this year.

Locusts have been chef's favourite for a long time now. Everytime they invaded a country, people were quick to catch, chop and cook them.

In 2013, Israel was going gaga over fried locusts, the winged creatures also found themselves being served as desserts.

In 2004, when locusts devastated crops in Australia, people retaliated by eating them. The gallantry was lauded by government workers.

They are sky prawns, they said. And they are free.

Soon, a cook book was released. With not one, not two -- but 20 sky prawn recipes.

The rest, they say, is history.

In the 1970s, Thailand was so smitten by locusts that researchers felt sad while calling them pests.

And maybe this is how we corroborate the saying -- when life gives you lemon, make lemonade.

And when it gives you locusts aka sky prawns... Well, make kebabs.