Shanghai Cicadas

Ingredients:
30 newly-emerged cicadas
2 tbps anise seeds
1 tsp salt
2 cups sherry
1tbsp soy sauce
additional water and sherry or rice wine
10 cloves mashed garlic
celery to garnish
turnip greens to garnish

Directions:
1. Boil the cicadas and anise in salted sherry for five minutes, then remove the cicadas.
2. Saute the mashed garlic and soy sauce, adding enough of equal parts water and sherry to make a thick paste.
3. Deep-fry the cicadas, then skewer them with bamboo picks. Arrange them on a plate with the turnip greens, celery, and garlic paste to look like cicadas climbing out of a mud pie into green foliage.

Yield:
4 appetizer-sized servings