Insect-only eatery aims to make bugs palatable

[Theodarzna]

Bugs have a lot of potentials -- as a food source.

The average diner may be skeptical, but that's the position of food scientist Leah Bessa and her partners.
Their South Africa-based company, Gourmet Grubb, produces ice cream made from an insect-based dairy alternative they've named EntoMilk. It's made from Hermetia illucens, the black soldier fly.

And since June, they've been operating a pop-up food concept in Cape Town called The Insect Experience, where dishes featuring insects are plated with the same care and precision as any gourmet delicacy.

"We sort of wanted to try and create a viable protein alternative that is sustainable and ethical and could really create quite a positive change going into the future," Bessa said.

There are more than 1,900 known edible insect species consumed around the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Edible insects are incredibly healthy, according to Bessa. They're high in protein, for one -- a quality protein that has the right amino acid profile for human consumption. They're also high in iron and zinc, high in fiber, and they have a healthy fat profile.

In other words, edible insects have high potential as a sustainable source of food.

"Insects are very underutilized or not really very well understood, so we really wanted to try and highlight their potential. And also their taste, as well, because you know people don't really know much about them, what they taste like, how they can be used," Bessa said.

Chef Mario Barnard is behind dishes such as mopane polenta fries -- polenta fries made with flour created with mopane worms, then sprinkled with mopane chili salt.

"We try to make it as visually pleasing for everybody to just introduce it. It helps with your mental block," Barnard told CGTN.

While an unusual ingredient in some parts of the world, eating insects is nothing new. Approximately 2 billion people globally consume insects, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. They're primarily consumed in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America and have always been included in human diets.

But broader interest in entomophagy -- the consumption of insects by humans -- is growing as the global demand for food strains resources. And chefs are incorporating them into creative dishes. So far, mostly locals have popped into the GoodFood food hall in Cape Town's hip Woodstock suburb to sample the creations at The Insect Experience, touted as South Africa's first restaurant to focus exclusively on insects. The pop-up was originally slated to close by the end of August, but Bessa and her partners now hope to keep it open through the middle of 2020, possibly springing up every few months in new locations. Most of the insects used at The Insect Experience come from South African farms, Bessa said. The only exception are the mopane worms, a southern African delicacy that are sourced from neighboring Zimbabwe.

(Source)

This article joins an entire pantheon of articles recently with the general thrust of wanting you and me to eat bugs. “To feed the world, why not eat bugs?,” “Eating insects is good for you – and the planet!,” among this one and many others. I am unsure why, but in the last couple of years there has been a lot of these articles arguing for bug eating.

My first take is this fits into the idea of politicians and elites in general wanting to secure citizens’ dignity against declining expectations, climate change will wreck the food supply. Though I doubt you will find that Bill and Melinda Gates will be sending their housekeeper to the market to pick up a basket of fresh caterpillars for dinner? Will baked beetles be on the menu at the Rothschild estate? Will Senators and CEO's children have bug salad sandwiches in their lunch boxes when they go to school? Along with articles in the MSM and presidential candidates glamourizing shipping containers as houses. Filed along with “To Confront Climate Change, the Modern Automobile Must Die,” and “Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children.”

As a bleak view of the future, will we be eating bugs out in our shipping containers with no ability to travel and families of one to none? So no families, no possessions, no means of travel and a home the size of a shipping container and a bug meal, assuming its not banned for likely being unVegan. Reminds me of the 'Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better' article from three years ago.

So? Will you be eating bugs? What portends of the future do these articles lend?

[Shadowferal]

That’s gonna be no from me.

Ditto.
Chowing down on steak as a protest...maybe grilled salmon later.

[Daedius]

Pass, thanks. I'd just go vegan instead.

[Graeham II]

Pass, thanks. I'd just go vegan instead.

I'd do the same.

[zenkai]

It's gross but it's also funny that people have eating things made from bugs and not even know it.

[Sunseeker]

Hard pass.

[Grogo]

Hard pass right now you say, but you will thankful for it when things go to shit. You'll be begging for some buggy goodness. Another term for Trump should just about do it.

[Trassk]

I'd go vegan and tofu before this.

[Afrospinach]

Could just do soldier fly farming and feed the bugs larvae - to the chickens. They can get >60% of their diet this way.

We like chicken, right?

And yes I find the sudden surge of climate related crap to be more annoying than useful.

[PC2]

climate change will wreck the food supply.

That's purely speculation, it's not based on any kind of method or evidence.

So? Will you be eating bugs?

I drink a protein shake if I want some extra protein and calories. If the current protein powders were gone I'm sure I wouldn't have any problem switching to insect-based products. Protein bars and drinks already taste shitty and I've never had a problem ignoring my taste buds.

[Twdft]

I think that's coming if you want or not, someday we will have Star Trek like replicators which produce food out of any bio mass you put into them. I don't have a problem with that, food is food.

Btw all that talk about "alternative that is sustainable and ethical". What? We will still eat animals and a whole fucking lot more of them compared to cows. A life is a life, how can eating bugs be more ethical?

[Ooid]

No. Why are there so many people pushing for insects as a food source? I agree with everyone else I’d go vegan before I’d eat insects.

[Ghostpanther]

It's gross but it's also funny that people have eating things made from bugs and not even know it.

Well, yeah. Honey would be one. And I love honey, but I am not going to eat the bee. And I think the FDA allows a certain very small percentage of some foods to contain some insect parts? Think I read that someplace. But anyway, I am not going to purposely eat any insects, unless I was starving.

[kail]

Would have to try it first before making a judgement call.

[Ayirasi]

Some of my favorite foods are basically big ocean bugs, so... maybe?

[Shadowferal]

Besides honey, I don't believe that many would willingly/knowingly eat bugs.

[Ghostpanther]

Some of my favorite foods are basically big ocean bugs, so... maybe?

That is a good point. Crabs, Lobsters, Shrimp are close relatives to the common insects. While also of a different classification. And I love eating those. lol!

[Graeham II]

One can make the argument that society only functions in its current form as a consequence of the luxuries and distractions available to it. Even then, there's a lot of fraying at the seams.

Forcing the masses to switch to a diet they find to be repulsive is going to be a very hard sell. Even if it is pushed as a 'necessity', we already know that those in power are very likely to continue consuming luxuries whilst expecting everybody else to make sacrifices.

[Deletedaccount1]

I've had cricket protein powder before and it tasted fine. It shares the same problem with vegan food though where it has a ton of unhealthy additives to make it palatable but is still marketed as "all-natural" or whatever.

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One can make the argument that society only functions in its current form as a consequence of the luxuries and distractions available to them. Even then, there's a lot of fraying at the seams.

Forcing the masses to switch to a diet they find to be repulsive is going to be a very hard sell. Even if it is pushed as a 'necessity', we already know that those in power are very likely to continue consuming luxuries whilst expecting everybody else to make sacrifices.

It's not a necessity anywhere in the developed world to eat insects because of a dwindling food supply. Anyone saying otherwise is pushing Malthusian garbage.

[Ayirasi]

That is a good point. Crabs, Lobsters, Shrimp are close relatives to the common insects. While also of a different classification. And I love eating those. lol!

I ate some beetle (water?) that had meat with a taste and texture not too far removed from crab, minus the salty, so... pass the drawn butter, please?