Has anyone here tried eating insects in earnest?

September 28, 2020 11:43 AM

By in earnest I don't mean swallowing the worm from a tequila bottle, or nibbling the end off a chocolate-covered ant. I mean eating whole insects as an hors d'oeuvre (chili-lime crickets anyone?), or as a garnish or main protein for a dish. I mean using insect flour to make bread and pancakes. I mean, most of all, managing to get over the gag factor...

Insects are eaten in about 80% of countries.

They're lower in fat than any land or marine animal we eat, yet equally packed with high-quality protein (ie, containing most or all essential amino acids).

Compared to animal husbandry, insect husbandry:

--uses no land or water, for all practical purposes

--requires no genetic modifications, antibiotics, or anabolic steroids

--produces no greenhouse gases/has no carbon footprint

--produces molehills of solid waste compared to the mountains of pig and cow shit that run into and destroy rivers and lakes

All told, in theory, the idea of eating insects instead of animals sells itself. Anyone like myself--cares about animals, worries about the environment, wants a healthy diet--has no reason not to make the switch, right away.

But in practice, well, they're insects. The thought alone of having a wing caught in my throat, or a spiny bit of leg wedged in a molar, makes me not even want to try and go there.

What have your experiences with entomophagy like?

posted by BadgerDoctor to Food & Drink (26 answers total)

This is rather chatfilter, but I'll pretend that your question was "how do I overcome this revulsion."

There's a shop round the corner that lets you try a spoonful of everything and then if you like it you can buy it. So that's how I got to try both fried crickets and fried mealworms.

I don't seem to have the same revulsion towards insects as you do - I mean, they look crunchy and interesting. (They taste boring.) But the mealworms were a different matter. I supose the secret is just mind over matter because I was screaming inside all the way down. It was the most difficult thing I've ever eaten and only the prospect of bragging rights and the incredulous determination to overcome this irrational revulsion (me unable to eat something??) made me chomp down on it.
posted by Omnomnom at 11:53 AM on September 28, 2020 [6 favorites]

I've eaten cricket-chocolate-chip cookies, and eaten a few things made with that ground-up cricket(?) flour. It was interesting! I think the first time I ate the cookies I was all in, but also carefully didn't look at what I was eating. Crickets are actually pretty delicious, so that helped, but I know the second time 'round I was a lot more squeamish. The stuff based on insect flour was fine, no squeamishness, it tasted nice and I didn't mind at all. It doesn't look like an insect, so I wasn't fussed.

I think I'd start out with eating insects in a way that doesn't look like insects -- like the flour -- and just work my way up with exposure. Eating bugs is kind of a cultural taboo in the west, and it makes sense that breaking taboos is really hard! Normalizing it and making it an everyday part of life and something enjoyable can help with that initial discomfort.
posted by kalimac at 11:56 AM on September 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

There is also an element of desensitization. I once ate my way through a whole bowl of fried crickets. It stopped being noteworthy by the fifth one. For me, the question is more hpw to make it taste more than...a greasy, nutty, crunchy thing.
posted by Omnomnom at 11:59 AM on September 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

I've eaten crickets. They don't really taste like anything. More of a texture than a flavour. They taste like the seasoning. I think if you were able to process the legs off of them people would have no trouble eating them as a snack food. It's not like popcorn has much flavour beyond the butter and seasoning either.

I've also eaten Beondegi since a Korean restaurant in my city has it on the menu. It is definitely harder to eat than crickets, not because of the flavour, but because of the way it crunches and pops with juice. Anyways, I didn't enjoy it. It was kind of fishy and sour while also being nutty? I don't like that fishy flavour so that really turned me off of it
posted by forbiddencabinet at 12:02 PM on September 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

I've had cricket party mix, mealworm cookies, and chapulines (flash fried grasshoppers, corn tortilla, chili sauce).

Most crickets are de-legged in prep.

For me, after the first experiment, I was pretty much over the squick factor. I'd be psyched if insect protein edged it's way into all cuisines.
posted by j_curiouser at 12:15 PM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've also have had chapulines, which are served in some restaurants near where I live.

I'm known for pretty much eating anything anybody human considers edible and had no qualms whatsoever.

Would I have them again? Sure. No problem.

Do I seek out insect dishes? No, but maybe I should per your question.
posted by rw at 12:23 PM on September 28, 2020

I've eaten fried crickets before, pretty satisfying for a salty/crunchy snack when tossed with a tasty seasoning. I eat crustaceans frequently, including cleaning them myself and also crunching on the legs and shells if they are soft enough to eat, so I figured insects aren't that different. Maybe think of it that way?
posted by 4rtemis at 12:24 PM on September 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

I bought the cheese-flavored chips from the company Chirps earlier this year. I was extremely enthusiastic about them, but could not overcome my involuntary reluctance to consume them.

My eight-year old son liked them, though. My husband reported that they tasted like somewhat inferior Doritos (Doritos being a perfect food).
posted by purpleclover at 12:25 PM on September 28, 2020

I've intentionally eaten ants, crickets and meal worms (aside from the various creatures accidentally eaten). I've used cricket flour... its kind of earthy, gluten free (obviously), reminded me weirdly of buckwheat or maybe teff flour (I like and use both). I've used it as an additive in baked goods. As for revulsion... like anything it is psychological and probably deeply ingrained culturally. If you want to change that, start small and work your way up. Cockroach flour could be less gross to you compared eating a whole intact insect, for instance. By the way if you have an allergy to crustaceans be aware some insects may be bad for you.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:45 PM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've eaten grasshopper tacos. It was odd and I could feel the little insect legs in my mouth. I got through it and if I ate them regularly perhaps I'd get used to it.

I've eaten cricket snacks, flavored with ranch I think (something like this). The legs were less of an issue - maybe because all the ranch dust got everything stuck together? and I enjoyed them just fine.

Insect flours are available, as are snacks (protein bars, etc) made with insects - I haven't tried these.

Short answer: Stick to things that either don't have the spiny legs or are processed in a way that makes them less difficult. Unfortunately the only way to do this is probably trial and error.
posted by bunderful at 12:53 PM on September 28, 2020

I can endorse Chirps as a gentle way to get your brain used to eating insects.

I also had the pleasure of sampling bug-themed dishes at a festival a couple years back. Honestly, the insects and worms used were so small that I could see them in each dish, but could not really taste them or feel them in my mouth. So if you're grossed out by the idea of an unfamiliar taste/texture, start small.

Finally, it may be useful to shift your thinking around the creatures that you do eat. Spending time at a poultry farm on processing day has changed the way I experience cooking meat at home. Animal consumption is inherently pretty gross, and for me this makes the prospect of eating insects and bugs a bit less alarming.
posted by toastedcheese at 1:10 PM on September 28, 2020

I ate crickets with orzo as part of a program that a library put on getting people aware of insect-based foods. They were crunchy and didn't taste like much. It is a little new trying to get used to little legs everywhere but it wasn't too tough if it's in something that is otherwise delicious.
posted by jessamyn at 1:33 PM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

i could probably look a little harder; but i'm not seeing it around portland. it being an opportunity to eat insects. i've come across bags of bug-chips and the mercado has bags of chapulines on occasion. that's it.
posted by Time To Sharpen Our Knives at 1:39 PM on September 28, 2020

I've attended insect dinners, where besides the crunchy crickets we were served ant larvae dumplings (bland), fried whole black ants (delicious peppery vinegary), fried scorpions (fingernails), and something in a soup that I can't recall (not memorable as to flavor texture or type of bug, anyway). I don't have issues trying new foods that I'm interested in, but I wouldn't describe myself as a culinary daredevil. I've no desire to sample "the worlds most disgusting foods", for instance; there's always a sort of Us vs Them cultural mentality that seems to accompany that type of demonstrative eating. But I am interested in how some things really taste, and are handled/cooked, and used within cultures.
I suspect that using insects for their protein value and overall benefits will have to be done as an additive to existing types of food, like 'added protein' food bars (hello SnowPiercer) and not as novelty snack foods that push that 'squick' factor.
posted by winesong at 1:59 PM on September 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

I've had witchetty grub soup and just found it deliciously peanut-buttery. It was pureed, though, so more like an insect flour in that processing had significantly distanced the thing from its corporeal form. Rather like the difference between a sausage and a spitted suckling pig. Agree that initially, the most likely way the US will start incorporating insects into our diet is ground-up, so that all the pokey, leggy-wingy bits are a non-issue.
posted by mumkin at 2:24 PM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have tried a couple of different things from the Edible Bug Shop here in Australia, my favourite being the chilli & garlic crickets. They were fine, is about as far as I'd go. Crunchy and kind of shellfishy, no squishy bits, good with beer. The little legs will sometimes get stuck in your throat. My partner didn't try any but a couple of people at work did and they had much the same reaction as me - not terrible, not exciting. The mealworms were, again, fine.

Oh, and I had ice cream with bugs in it at some kind of trade expo in Sydney last year (the Before Times). That was ok.

The problem, of course, is price-per-gram. AU$15 for 20g of crickets (for 12g of protein) doesn't work out on any kind of value metric other than the "value" you get from novelty. They have been that price for a while - it was five years ago I tried them - so I don't know if it's an issue of scale, labour or technology, but the cost would need to go down significantly before these became a compelling option.

Anyway, I think insect farming is, all things being equal, a Good Thing and I will happily support it, but it needs to be much more affordable, at least here in Australia. I notice this mob has some new cricket protein pastas which, hell, I will probably grab a few bags of, again for the novelty.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:00 PM on September 28, 2020

On non-preview:

"I mean, they look crunchy and interesting. (They taste boring.)"

Hard agree, Omnomnom. I would sooner eat a boiled peanut than a chilli garlic cricket, from a pure flavour and satisfaction standpoint.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:03 PM on September 28, 2020

One last thing: I grew up eating green ants (technically green tree ants) in North Queensland. I mean, it's not how I survived, but it's just a thing that kids did. You just crush their heads and bite their bum off. I don't feel great about it in retrospect as even if they aren't sentient, that's still a shit-ass thing to do to a living creature, but my point is, that early experience probably helped when it came to eating crickets etc.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:07 PM on September 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

There's a Mexican preparation for a type of stink bug called jumiles. I too wanted to eat more bugs, for reasons similar to yours.

So loosely based on that info, I sautéed up some brown marmorated stink bugs in oil with some soy sauce and chili powder. They were good, but not good enough to go through the hassle of collecting them. If they become abundant in my yard I'd probably try it again and introduce it to my kid. They are super common and invasive across much of the USA, so there's a lot of synergy there when you can harvest several hundred in a minute or two.

You can mail order energy bars made with cricket protein and also whole fried crickets, which I plan to try.

If you really want to get in to it for yourself and those reasons this year, I think your best bet is to raise crickets for yourself (very easy even in apartments and lots of info readily available), and then at least lightly process/grind them into a coarse flour. Feel
free to memail me if you want to discuss more along these lines.

Hey maybe we can start a MeEatBugs club :)
posted by SaltySalticid at 3:50 PM on September 28, 2020

For me, after the first experiment, I was pretty much over the squick factor. I'd be psyched if insect protein edged it's way into all cuisines.

This is where I've landed - I have intentionally eaten lots of bugs and inadvertently eaten many more, with a healthy dose of "meh, pretty sure that's a cockroach but it's cooked and I'm hungry." I think grillos and chapulines are great and I'm thinking people must have had really stale ones or something? My fave: pine grubs basically taste just like piñones. Sadly it's pretty hard to collect enough of them to really get down.
posted by aspersioncast at 4:22 PM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

I was in Mexico and had chapulines at least 3 times, they’re good! The first time I felt a little squicky (WHOLE bugs!) but it tasted good so after the second bite or so it wasn’t a thing. Maybe my favorite was on pizza, they had an anchovy kind of vibe. I also had escamoles (ant larva) and it felt unremarkable. I’ve had the cricket flour cookies. This IS indeed kind of chat filter but I’m a big enough chapulines fan to chime in. And I was a vegetarian for many many years and insects do kind of freak me out on a gut level sometimes, so it can be gotten over (no pun intended but I’ll let it stand).
posted by jeweled accumulation at 7:23 PM on September 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

I like chile-lime chapulines enough to seek them out. CRONCH. I'm in Tijuana so I might try to find some tomorrow!
posted by Sheydem-tants at 7:46 PM on September 28, 2020

I've eaten fried grasshoppers and fried bees, both for the same reason, I was in a restaurant, I was a foreigner, and the owner of the restaurant wanted to see if he could get the foreigner to eat the weird thing on the menu. If you live abroad, this is a not uncommon thing, and how I first ate things like raw horse, donkey, deep fried river eels that looked like curly fries, grilled slices of pork tongue, fugu, all sorts of stuff.

The bees were soft and gooey. The grasshoppers were firm and crunchy, but getting their rear legs stuck in my teeth was acutely painful. Best of luck.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:13 PM on September 28, 2020

When I lived in Peru, my favorite snack was popcorn with toasted hormigas (big ants). These ants have a large abdomen about the size of an unpopped kernel and taste like salted butter. The ants are harvested by hand from wild nests and stirred into a pot of hot sand to cook. The legs and the rest of the body sort of crumble away into teeny crispy flakes. Cheap and tasty!

Palmetto grubs were also a common snack. They are about the size of a thumb, and are usually roasted (yum!) or eaten alive (not my favorite). The main reason I dislike these grubs raw is that they are full of lipids which in a fat-poor diet is important but in practice is like drinking a large shot of olive oil that is also moving. Roasted grubs taste much better to me and I prefer the crunchy texture.

I haven't eaten crickets but I for sure would.
posted by ananci at 9:29 AM on September 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

I had chapulines at a Oaxacan place in LA, they were tangy.
posted by brujita at 1:02 PM on September 29, 2020

I recently tried the energy and protein bars from here and they were good. If I hadn't known there was cricket flour in them I never would have guessed.
posted by magicbus at 6:36 AM on September 30, 2020