While it may take most people some time to think about eating bugs as more than a dare, a garnish, or a conversation piece, advocates for the trend — which is more of a tradition in many Asian countries — say that insects are one of the most promising future food sources for a growing world population.
Advocates are doing it for reasons far more serious than being a bit freaky. They are pushing for greater acceptance of people eating insects, since it’s a resource that is readily available and easy to produce: Farming bugs takes little room and fewer resources than larger animals, and the practice can cut down on hazardous factory farming and the harmful effects of large-scale animal grazing.
Knowing that, it’s difficult to dismiss giving bugged-out food a try just because of unfamiliarity and squeamishness. If that’s what’s holding you back from trying it for yourself, then take it from me — I’ve had it in various forms by now, and the stuff’s really not as bad as you’d think.
I had already been living in Thailand for three years before I ever ate my first bug. I’m not an adventurous eater, but I do consider myself an adventurous person — so at the time, I was pretty disappointed with myself for not yet having chowed down on any insects.
I knew my time had come when Coconuts joined a low carbon, bug-eating pop-up dinner at hip, riverside restaurant Sheepshank Public House. The one-off dinner offered beginner buggy dishes such as wild tree basil pesto, soybean and cricket pasta, and mushroom fritti with silkworm cilantro dip.
I was skittishly making my around the crowded room when I was approached with a tasting plate of cricket pesto pasta topped with a silkworm.
I was trying to come up with a not-lame, plausible reason why I couldn’t eat this when a guy with a microphone came up to me on the other side. He wanted to know if I’d be willing to taking a bite on camera, and be interviewed for Japanese TV.
Well, yes. Duh. So I took a bite. If you dangle the opportunity to appear on NHK in my face, I will take it.
The pasta, made with cricket flour, tasted like al dente whole wheat pasta. Exactly like it. The silkworm appeared as just a hollowed crunch in my mouth, with little taste at all. It did have a consistency a bit like prawn shell, but you’re supposed to swallow it all. It wasn’t great. But it wasn’t all that bad either.
Not long after that, I tried eating bugs again. This time, it was at the buzzy Bangkok restaurant Insects in The Backyard, which features insects in every course. This was much more hardcore than the dishes being served at that last pop-up. This haute bug eatery was designed for the seriously adventurous. I did feel more comfortable this time around, and took a few bites of the small dishes of silkworms that were on the table, as well as the bug chips, which just tasted like corn chips.
During the meal, I had grilled grouper with ant caviar and finished with silkworm powder tiramisu, but what was probably the most shocking was a giant water beetle-filled ravioli with tumeric saffron sauce, a dish that Chef Mai Thitiwat told us he designed because the meat of large water bugs is similar in texture to that of crab, so it mimics the feel of crab ravioli. Also, despite the large size of water bugs, the chef revealed that the meat of two to three full-sized water bugs goes into filling each ravioli.
The scariest thing about this dish was that… it was totally delicious. If I had not known this ravioli was bug-filled, I would have assumed it was crab. The chef was totally right. I felt wrong for enjoying this dish as much as I did.
Nowadays, I don’t go for bugs as soon as they’re offered, but I will try them if they’re interesting enough. At this year’s Thaifex food exhibition, I happily sampled cricket chips, as well as jellyfish crackers. They also had an experimental food tasting station called Cracking Gastronomy: 3 bits, 1 bite, tell where you take three disparate elements and make yourself one bite-sized morsel. I happily arranged a superfood ball topped with pumpkin seed butter and cricket crumble, and a cricket choux topped with sea grapes and a bamboo caterpillar.
For Massimo Reverberi, the founder of Bugsolutely, the Bangkok-based company that produces the cricket pasta mentioned above, bugs are an obvious solution to the growing environmental problems caused by raising traditional livestock. He noted that bugs contain protein, minerals, and vitamins for few breeding resources.
Think of eating bugs as something great you can do for yourself and the environment and, take it from an unadventurous eater, they don’t taste as bad as you think they will — you might even like it.
Check out our episode of Coconuts TV on iFlix where we visit a bug farm in rural Thailand, a famed bug vendor at the largest fresh market in Bangkok, and then sit down for a super civilized dinner of bug-based cuisine at Insects in the Backyard.
Grab your fried silkworms and have a watch:
All photos: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts Media
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