With a twist of lime and a dash of salt, Sydney-based chef Nowshad Alam Rasel flavors a hot pan full of crickets, tossing them over a flaming stove.
The savory snack, which would not be out of place in a Mexican bar or a Bangkok street stall, is creeping onto menus at Australian boutique eateries such as El Topo, challenging the inhibitions of diners.
“When they come for the first time, the customer very much wants to know what it is,” sous chef Rasel said, neatly plating the fried critters, topped with slices of fresh chili.
Photo: AFP
Roasted cockroach, honey-flavored ants and mealworm and chocolate-coated popcorn are now available to try and buy — and while the cuisine remains a novelty, there are signs it is growing in popularity.
Consumer attitude toward eating insects is usually split, said Skye Blackburn, owner of Australia’s largest insect supplier, the Edible Bug Shop in Sydney.
“The first kind of people are completely grossed out and they really can’t change their mind and they kind of just want to come and have a look and don’t want to try it really,” the entomologist said.
“And then we get the second kind of people that really want to learn more and some of them will try edible insects and some of them won’t, but they will go away and talk about insects and they’ll spread the word about what they have seen that day,” she added.
High in protein, cheap to produce and with a much lighter carbon footprint than meat or dairy farming, bugs are already part of the diet of more than 2 billion people worldwide, UN data showed.
Advocates of increased insect consumption have said that it would help feed a bulging global population as land becomes scarce and climate change threatens conventional food supplies such as fish.
Insects such as beetles, caterpillars, crickets and even spiders are common in diets across parts of Asia, Latin America and Africa, while Australia’s Aborigines have eaten bush food including ants, moths and larvae for thousands of years.
However, they are a difficult sell in the Western world, where people struggle to disassociate the nutritional value from the source, with most insects considered pests.
“You have to name them something else,” one El Toro patron said, when asked about overcoming fears of eating insects in Australia.
“We don’t eat cow, we tend to eat steak and sausages,” he said. “With pig we eat pork and bacon, so you have to start by naming them something else.”
Blackburn is leading the charge to change the perception of edible insects.
She runs Australia’s only commercial bug farm, supplying a growing number of restaurants across the country, breeding hundreds of kilograms of insects each week, including savory crickets, dehydrated ants and even a “special” kind of roasted cockroach “that don’t have any germs on them.”
Australia’s trendy urban farmer’s markets are also a popular spot for her produce, with inquisitive foodies sampling creations such as mealworm and chocolate-coated popcorn and green tea and honey-roasted black ants.
“I’m going to go a big gob,” 53-year-old market-goer Guy McEwan said, putting a handful of a savory mix of mealworms, ants, crickets and popcorn into his mouth.
“It’s great. I love em, I love bugs,” he added, likening the texture and flavor to chips.
Others at the crowded Saturday market in the hip Sydney suburb of Redfern were drawn to the novelty.
“Sometimes when you move the packet it looks like they’re alive,” 42-year-old Danny Stagnitta said, giving his snack box a shake.
Back at El Topo, while the bugs remain a hot item among Sydney’s experimental diners, it might be some time before it becomes a staple in Australian homes.
Nine-year-old diner Alexandria winces as she samples the fried crickets, saying: “It feels awkward and weird that you’re eating an insect. You would normally eat meat.”
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