cricketsRecently, there's been buzz about eating bugs; a steady flutter of noise about their nutritional value, affordability, and tastiness. One woman in particular, Daniella Martin, is on a mission to re-brand little critters from something that makes us shriek when we see them crawling across the bathroom floor to something that makes us squeal with delight when we see them served on a platter.
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Eating insects has been part of Asian and Latin American cultures for centuries, so while the concept isn't a new one, its State-side acceptance might be. You know what else was popular in other countries for millennia before becoming an unstoppable trend in the U.S.? Eating raw fish. Are bugs the new sushi?
If Martin has anything to say about it, then yes. She told AOL News that she makes cupcakes using flour made up of ground crickets and wax worms in stir fry. I can only imagine what ground cricket dust tastes like and I'm thinking it's like a tangy yet musty saw dust. The only significant experience I have with the insect is from second grade when we had terrariums and kept them as pets. The classroom reeked after a week, and Matt Fern threw up on the chalkboard. Not exactly a fond memory, nor one that makes me hungry.
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Shockingly, Martin isn't the only bug-eating advocate out there. Rosanna Yau and Dianne Guilfoyle theorize on how to make bugs marketable. They won't necessarily capture the vegetarian market, but might lure in athletes with bug-powder protein supplements, and they're trying to fill in the circle of life by eating the bugs that eat or damage our crops.
I've had chocolate-covered grasshoppers during show and tell and some chili-lime crunchy bug (spider? worm? I don't remember) on a dare once, but I'm not particularly excited by exoskeletons, and unless there's a major shift in our food industry, I don't predict Bug Bistros on every street corner in New York like there are sushi places.
Are you interested in eating bugs, and do you think the trend will take off?
Written by Lindsay Mannering on CafeMom's blog, The Stir.
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