I’m a relatively adventurous foodie, and I’m interested in reducing my carbon footprint. I also have some health issues that seem to be easier to manage when I have a diet that includes animal protein. So I have been tempted to explore the culinary world of eating insects – but I’m not brave enough to jump in whole hog, so to speak. I can’t bring myself to eat recognizable bugs yet.
I have been experimenting with ‘cricket flour.’ It’s from farmed crickets that are roasted and ground into a powder. I’ve added it to protein shakes, and some sauces, and I once added to pancake batter. It’s pretty tasty! Kind of a nutty flavor. Last night, I whipped together a pasta sauce with tomatoes, mushrooms, cricket powder, and pine nuts, and it was pretty yummy!
I’m curious to know what kind of adventures you all have had in the realm of bug eating. Please inspire (or terrify) me with your stories!
Went to an insect museum near here (run by an exterminator), and they gave us fried insects of some sort though I can’t really remember what they were. They were sold in what looked like a potato chip bag. So small they were pretty much just flavorless crunch.
I only have the most minor experience. During a family trip to Mexico as a child, I had a couple of fried, chili flavored crickets, and they tasted fine, kind of nutty as you mention, but mostly the spices. The texture was kind of like a Cheeto puffed snack. The flavor was fine, but bits of carapace in the teeth was worse than getting bits of popcorn hull in your teeth!
Otherwise, I’ve had a few candied/chocolate covered crickets and the like, but those are pretty much the equivalent of a single rice-krispie sized bug in a pile of candy.
Your cricket flour seems like it would mitigate the worst of the problem from the first category, so good luck with that!
I pan-fried some mealworms and ate them. Crunchy, toasted flavor, nothing particularly good or bad to report, though my kids were horrified. I’ve had seasoned crickets before as well.
I’ve tried a few different things - mealworms and crickets including a few that were presented as seasoned snacks (like ‘green curry crickets’ or some such).
Bamboo worms were a bit like cheesy puffs and I thought they were good. Fried silkworm pupae were just dry and not very interesting.
Those were all pre-packaged ‘bug snack’ novelties though - I’ve caught and cooked grasshoppers a few times and they are much better when cooked and eaten fresh like that - sort of buttery/nutty flavour.
I also tried a can of ‘red tree ant eggs’ (actually ant pupae) that were in brine in the can - just sort of rubbery and flavourless.
Beer helps - or it did for me - takes the edge off the moment and also crispy insects make pretty decent beer snacks.
I am still not sure I could eat an insect that was big enough that it took two bites - popping a whole crispy cricket in there and crunching it up is OK. Biting off half a big bug - especially if it’s not a crispy bug - might be beyond my limit.
Of course that’s ridiculous, because I have no qualms about eating juicy multiple-bite bugs, when the bugs in question are lobsters or prawns.
Yes I have. Pictures because it’s true:
Those were a present. Crickets covered in gold foil on top of chocolate. They were really good! Decadent and crunchy.
Those were served in a restaurant in Korea. They were not so crunchy and a bit mealy in the inside. Were OK, but not overwhelming.
And if bugs include crustaceans, I’ve had lots! And those are really great!
Thank you for replying, your username definitely checks out!
Yes, it’s funny how eating bugs seems weird to me but eating crustaceans seems fine. I guess it goes to show how deep cultural conditioning matters when it comes to food preferences.
Crustaceans are sort of different I suppose in that we usually take off the carapace and the part we eat is reasonably ‘meaty’ (exceptions for things like soft shell crabs etc).
One difference is that you peel crustaceans but eat the chitin from the insects, they are impossible to peel. At least the ones I tried. And crustaceans tend to become red when cooked, very nice, while insects are mostly brownish. Rather dull.
ETA: Aha, ninja’d.
Like a lot of things, it’s probably exposure. We’re exposed to a lot more crustaceans in the context of food - very rarely bugs.
My attitude is more different still - I see crickets, mealworms, hissing roaches, hornworms and the like and go “Those look fresh, I should get some for the lizards!” These days I’m down to just a bunch of snakes and the cats, but when we had 3-4 lizards at a time in the house, those bugs were weekly groceries from my POV.
Lovely! Seriously!
ETA: But you write in your link that they are a clean food, without pesticides and additives. But I remember that you left snails sit for a long time before you ate them because they are resistant to many poisons in plants that can do serious harm to humans, thus you wait until the content of their intestines is cleared the natural way. I guess the same could apply to grasshoppers. Just a thought, no critique.
Thanks for sharing the pictures! You know what’s funny? The gold foil on those crickets seems less appetizing than the crickets themselves. Like, at least bugs are nourishing, but gold is just shiny – why eat? (Rhetorical question)
