On a recent vacation in Tokyo, Takumi Yamamoto opted for a special lunch of cricket curry and silkworm sashimi, washed down with a water bug cider.
The 26-year-old office worker, from the western prefecture of Hyogo, is one of scores of consumers across the world who have taken an interest in entomophagy, or eating insects, as bugs slowly become a more viable food source.
As a child, Yamamoto said he sometimes snacked on soy-sauce basted grasshoppers. In Tokyo, he indulged in insect cuisine at Take-Noko cafe, which embraces all things buggy.
"It's fun to select from a wider variety of dishes," Yamamoto said at the cozy second-floor cafe, surrounded by insect art and terrariums of skittering beetles, ants and cockroaches. "Everything was tasty. In particular, the water bug cider was quite refreshing and delicious, like a green apple."
Entomophagy started to be taken seriously globally after the United Nations deemed bugs a sustainable source of protein to feed a global population estimated to swell to 9.7 billion by 2050.
The impact of the livestock industry on climate change, coupled with global food security issues due to extreme weather and conflicts, have also increased the interest in the high-quality, economical nutrition that bugs provide.
While some consumers think eating insects is just gross, Japan has a rich culinary history of insects as food.
Grasshoppers, silkworms, and wasps were traditionally eaten in land-locked regions where meat and fish are scarce, a practice that picked up amid food shortages during and after World War II, said Take-Noko manager Michiko Miura.
"Recently, there have been advances in rearing things like crickets and mealworms for food, so the possibility of using insects as ingredients is really growing," she added.
Several companies, including national bakery brand Pasco, have sold made cakes and snacks from cricket flour, and processed food maker Nichirei and telecom Nippon Telegraph and Telephone have invested in bug ventures in the past year.
The term "crickets" also started to trend in Japanese media recently after reports the powdered insects were being used in school lunches and snacks.
Consumer interest has also extended to Take-Noko, which manager Miura says is often fully booked on weekends.
Its curry is studded crickets in meatball form and dried garnish. The delicate "sashimi" is the left-over casing of silkworms, and the cider is infused with water bug extract and topped with a whole insect, said to taste like shrimp.
The restaurant is the brainchild of Takeo Saito who founded his namesake company Takeo Inc nine years ago and has grown it to include packaged food business offering more than 60 types of arthropod treats, from scorpions to tarantulas.
"Our aim is not for insects to be something separate, but to be enjoyed at the same table as vegetables, fish, and meat," said Saito.
© Thomson Reuters 2023.
25 Comments
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餓死鬼
Very intriguing.
https://takeo.tokyo/note/shop-info/
Sure, put me down for the cricket and tomato salad, Madagascar hissing roach soup curry and a bee lemon soda.
Rodney
Why these places are only in big cities? I would love to eat. Around my area only nimono crickets.
Kaowaiinekochanknaw
Lolz
1glenn
There is a Mexican restaurant near us that has crickets on the menu. Haven't tried them yet.
Charlie Sommers
I order Mexican chapulines (grasshoppers) online and find them to be quite tasty.
tora
Right but some are legitimately concerned about the ethical issues regarding the suffering and consciousness of insects and the breeding and subsequent slaughter of the trillions that would be required for human consumption. One would need to consumer around 1,000 grasshoppers to get the equivalent protein contained in a 12oz steak, for example.
https://reducing-suffering.org/why-i-dont-support-eating-insects/
wallace
Insect protein powder.
餓死鬼
Okay fine, I'll eat the steak then.
ClippetyClop
Fair point, there is no no-lose solution. It takes around 10,000 litres of water to make that steak and a third of the world's cultivated land to make animal feed. Animal greenhouse emissions are higher than those by the entire transport sector.
Insect protein takes far less resources, but it is still very expensive to mass produce.
Some people will try to say that we are trying ban steaks / farting cows completely, but they aren't smart enough to undertand that we can do something called 'eating less red meat' to reduce the CO2 emissions by several percent.
Doing Less does not mean Not Doing It At All.
餓死鬼
Okay fine, I’ll eat pine cones then.
Strangerland
Something wrong with veggies?
餓死鬼
There is absolutely nothing wrong with veggies.
nosuke
Hell no! that is just discussing and please pass be the barf buket so i can empty out my stomach.
As a Human I will never ever eat your bugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
nosuke
Stop promoting bugs humans were not design to eat bugs dating back to caveman.....
sf2k
have a sweet potato , you can just eat your vegetables not bugs!
sf2k
Meat companies will do anything to keep you eating meat, even bugs, and never acknowledge the existence of vegetables
Strangerland
Too bad vegans and vegetarians are so silent on the matter...
Aly Rustom
To each their own. If people want to eat that more power to them. Not my cup of tea.
Aly Rustom
I think you meant disgusting. Otherwise, I agree with your post.
餓死鬼
I wonder if people balking at the thought of eating the critters above enjoy more popular arthropods like crabs, lobsters and prawns. I mean, have you seen the legs, face and feelers on a prawn?
wallace
Last night I made a crayfish gumbo. The crayfish is hardwork to crack open and eat, and don't have much flesh. They look like bugs just a little bigger.
Norm
That sounds good. I’ve never had any kind of gumbo, but crayfish, to me, are just tiny lobsters. How was it?
wallace
Crayfish are not a good buy. Better something else.
gcFd1
Crayfish are not a good buy. Better something else.
A good cook can do wonders with crawfish.
Peter14
No bugs or insects for me.
Meat, seafood, vegetables and fruit will do me quite nicely thank you.