Would you ever say, “I’m a Entomo-tarian and love crickets roasted and tossed in sea salt and cayenne pepper and covered in chocolate?”
Considering bugs as grub gives way for the future of Pestaurants, cricket flour protein bars and stinkbug snacks being served in city centres across the globe.
With two other curious minds, adventurous taste buds and a love for food (with wings), we nibbled on cricket parts and chocolate-covered nosh once living in the wild. Conversations about insect anatomy, and the future of entomophagy, got me thinking on the topic of the fast frozen-once-hopping jimineys.
My love for “how to” and DIY in culinary arts has led me to simmering Mopani worms and foraging fresh sea vegetables. It’s my quest for promoting variety in our appetites, being a MacGyver in the kitchen and working with what you have and what is presented to you. But will the high in protein, beneficial fatty acids, essential vitamins and micronutrients in insects become primary ingredients in our morning porridge? I can see a future in dipping celery sticks in smoked paprika chickpea grasshopper pâté .
When will people from different hemispheres be sharing bug-eating habits? Will you eat insects from your garden instead of using insecticide?
Insects as a food source has been practiced for many generations in various parts of the world, and people are beginning to see past the gross factor.
Environmentally, insects take up less space, reproduce at a faster rate and have a better feed-to-meat ratio when compared to cattle and other alternative meat sources such as ostrich, goat, and pork. Insects for human consumption could help in solving a wide range of ecological, economic and health related issues and concerns in our world of food production and nutrition.
But will you add it to your grocery list?
Will you start farming organic crickets instead of building a chicken coop?
As we continue to urbanise but become more wise and sovereign in our food choices, this may be your answer.
And people keep asking me, “So what do crickets taste like?”
This batch was a crispy, smokey grass with a chilli-chocolate punch in your mouth. But if you’re looking to build your muscles, beetles are your super power protein source.
Stay tuned for Entomo – recipes as we expand our culinary linguistics together: A Chocolate Confectioner, Agroecologist and a Culinary Nomad. If you are chomping at the bit: Eat a Bug Cookbooks are already on the shelves at an Amazon near you.
The Culinary Linguist 