We told you about our friend, Laura D’Asaro, co-founder of Chirps Chips, and her 31 day bug-eating odyssey here. We will be interviewing Laura for the podcast just after she finishes her 31 day journey.
She has documented the first 10 days in two blog posts so far, here are some highlights:
A woman in Australia did a week of bugs earlier this year and called the experience “awful.” Well of course it was awful! She ate mostly dried bugs in bags, and if you ate plain freeze dried anything for 7 days you too would spend most of the week sobbing. That article is one of the reasons I am doing this. I want to show people how many different ways there are to eat bugs. Some ways of cooking insects are not going to be good, just like any ingredient, but some are honestly amazing, like the grasshopper tacos I have on Day 8.
Day 1: On most days, for lunch I typically grab something from a store or restaurant nearby and shovel it mindlessly into my face, over my laptop, and spill half of it onto my keyboard to the chagrin of those around me. Today, lunch was a store bought salad with a hearty heaping of Aketta’s BBQ crickets on top. For the second time today I have put in little effort and reaped the benefits. These little guys hold their own similarly to sunflower seeds in a salad and I think even newcomers to entomophagy might find this meal inoffensive.
I’m now three days in and aside from a few minor setbacks, things are going really well and I feel great! I know it’s cliche, but I have really noticed the difference in my energy and fullness levels now that I am eating so much protein. People are genuinely curious about eating bugs and way more open than I expected. The number of friends who have reached out and offered to cook with me has been fantastic! And if you are wondering if this is enough food to fuel someone as tall and energetic as myself, it’s not. I’ve also been eating lots buggy snacks like cricket popcorn and milkshakes.
Day 9: I know I have been raving about how good everything is but I can’t help it! I’m excited to see how many fantastic insect products there are now and all the dishes you can incorporate bugs into. And this morning was no different, I had yogurt with mango with Seek granola and it was one of the best cricket products I’ve ever had. This granola is seriously gourmet
Click here to listen to Laura chat with the Cricket Man about Chirps on the Ento Nation podcast.
