[pkfrank]

I'm more excited by cricket farming for protein flour (here in the US).

There's a Brooklyn company called Exo (Exo.co) which is doing just that after a kickstarter campaign + media blitz. Cricket flour is super high in protein, and also very sustainable. Could see it becoming the next acai, chia seed, quinoa, etc.

[rob05c]

I don't know how common my sentiment is, but I'd be far more inclined to eat crickets than cockroaches. I psychologically associate roaches with disease. Crickets are just another insect.

I realize this is irrational, and that fauna which feed on garbage like rats and roaches can be farm-raised in sanitary conditions. I'm still not going to eat a roach.

[sliverstorm]

I also wonder if crickets or grasshoppers wouldn't be more efficient, being less chitinous?

[shubb]

If this takes off, it will be interesting to see what the shells are used for. Could they become a fuel, building material, or fertilizer? Food production is pretty good at avoiding waste.

[31reasons]

I don't know how common my sentiment is, but I would stay the hell away from anything related to insects for purely psychological reasons.

[Amadou]

Until maybe a decade ago, the most common source of red food dye was ground up cochineal bugs which look like ticks. Even today, if the food claims to be made from all natural ingredients, any red coloring is bugs rather than something from a lab.

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.asp

[AlisdairO]

> To prepare carmine, the powdered scale insect bodies are boiled in ammonia or a sodium carbonate solution, the insoluble matter is removed by filtering, and alum is added to the clear salt solution of carminic acid to precipitate the red aluminium salt, called "carmine lake" or "crimson lake."

Seems a stretch of the word 'natural' to me :-)

[mcguire]

Ahem: shellac.[1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac#Current

[kseistrup]

That's simply because of our culture. Some years ago I was offered fried grasshoppers and ants in Zambia and my initial reation was repulsion. Then a thought similar to the last sentence in the cockroach article went through my mind: »You will regret your whole life not trying them.« Turned out the hoppers and the ants were both delicious.

[riffraff]

I think that was the point of the comment: I would stay away from it because of my culture.

Now, technically I wouldn't, but I grew up considering, slugs, frogs, hedgehogs, rabbits and mixed small birds as great food. No bugs.

Yet, even though I tried bugs, I wouldn't want to eat them daily. If you can eat something once, the "cool story bro" mechanics kick in, but it's not the same as accepting something as integral part of your diet.

[inthewind]

Isn't it healthier/better to eat herbivores?

From my experience you can pretty much teach your pallette to like foods. I didn't like green tea, olives or whisky the first time I tried them. Now I love them.

[Ygg2]

Ughh, frogs are too bony. Never eaten a rabbit, but would stay off it for cuteness reasons.

[riffraff]

I assumed rabbit was as common a food as chicken until I moved to Ireland and realized it was basically impossible to find.

[PeterisP]

Rabbit is good food, though a bit on the expensive side. We're sometimes giving it to kids, as it's supposed to be healthier for very young kids than, say, beef with all the antibiotics and stuff.

And regarding cuteness - around here in farmers markets they are sold with the furry feet attached; It's a tradition so that people know that they're not getting cheated and getting a cat instead, but if cuteness matters then the sight might be a bit harsh :)

[kseistrup]

Sure, I was just being explicit.

[rthomas6]

But anything fried is good. Eating steamed or baked grasshoppers would be the real test.

[nodata]

powder is clever: I know lots of people who don't like eating meat if it looks like an animal.

[inthewind]

Yeah or you could always use this as animal feed.

[nodata]

Is the protein part in existing feed the reason why such crap is fed to animals?

[inthewind]

I have no idea. But animal feed in the UK used to be poorly regulated until the BSE scandal. Where it transpired that cattle offal was being fed back to cattle. I couldn't quite get why a ruminent herbivore was being fed meat in the first place. But it seems they were being fed loads of crap. I remember reading that even cement dust was being used to give them more weight. There was a recent TV program that was trying to push for waste foods like canteen waste to be fed to pigs - but the regulation was so tight it wasn't possible. Clean regulated insect feeds could help there (maybe..)

[stcredzero]

> I psychologically associate roaches with disease. Crickets are just another insect.

To my generation, not just another insect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cricket_in_Times_Square

[ekianjo]

Would you feel the same if they make "insect butter" instead of selling fried roaches ? I guess most of the psychological repulsion comes from the appearance...

[MarkTee]

For me it was the texture; I've tried chocolate covered crickets and they were like nothing I've ever ate before.

I have no problem with eating insects as long as the finished product doesn't leave insect grits in my teeth for hours after a meal.

[ekianjo]

> I've tried chocolate covered crickets and they were like nothing I've ever ate before.

Can you describe what it was like ?

By the way, I wonder if there are people who feel the same level of disgust when eating shrimps. Shrimps are not insects per se, but it's not very far from that either, and most people consider them to be a delicacy and have no problem eating them...

Related XKCD : http://xkcd.com/1268/

[MarkTee]

Sure.

This was about 10 years ago, but I still have a vivid recollection of eating them. I think I had the Hotlix brand; they came in a little box like this with 3 or 4 white chocolate-covered crickets:

http://www.candyfavorites.com/chocolate-dipped-insects

For the first one, I popped the entire thing in my mouth; the chocolate tasted terrible (like really cheap, stale, Advent calendar chocolate) and overpowered the taste of the cricket. I swallowed it after a few bites, so the texture didn't really bother me.

For the second one I wanted to see what it'd be like without the chocolate, so I sucked it all off until I was left with just the cricket itself. You can see here what it might have looked like:

http://www.chocablog.com/reviews/hotlix-chocolate-covered-in...

It was the real deal; wings, legs, the abdomen, and the head. It was fairly dried out, so it was a bit flaky, feeling like it'd turn to dust if you overhandled it. I started with the head, which was kind of weird; it sort of...popped, like a grape does when you bite into it. Chewing it broke it down into a sort of powder that got stuck in my teeth. I hated the wings, which reminded me of eating wood shavings, and the legs were pretty gritty. The abdomen was kind of soft and chewy, which wasn't so bad, but it left even more little pieces in my teeth (they weren't as bad as eating fig seeds, which in my opinion is like chewing on sand, but I didn't like the texture at all).

The taste was actually quite plain; I definitely wouldn't compare it to meat. I don't even know how to describe it, because there was barely anything there. To me, the main thing that sticks out is the texture. Maybe it had something to do with the way the product was stored, or that the chocolate coating dried it out or something; given the opportunity I think I might try something fresher.

I actually really like shrimp, crab, and lobster, but the thing about them is that they're a lot more uniform; the parts that you eat all have the same texture, and aren't broken up into a bunch of little pieces (except for crab I guess). Maybe Hotlix should take a cue from seafood, and serve crickets with melted butter?

I'm pretty open minded, so I think I'd try eating almost any insect; well, except for spiders or these cheddar cheese "Larvettes":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5VXlAiDPps

[RogerL]

Shrimp, crab, lobster: shudder. They are bugs!!!! (cue mental shrieking) I can handle eating processed crab for some reason I cannot understand. But to watch somebody breaking down and eating a lobster at the table is almost more than I can take.

Probably the thing that wigs me out with insects is the thought of eating their guts - digestive track and such. I know it is irrational, but there it is. Just the general ooze that is inside them - ughh. On the other hand, the idea of eating a tiny steak taken from the leg of a grasshopper seems perfectly fine and palatable to me. Eating a lobster claw? Not so much. I know none of that is rational.

[TeMPOraL]

RE shrimps, that's how I feel. I never ate them, and I feel a strong repulsion towards even trying.

[viraptor]

> who feel the same level of disgust when eating shrimps

Yes. I forced myself to try and they don't taste bad at all, but I will not get close to them again. They'd be quite close to spiders if I had to order potential food by how repulsive it looks.

[JoeAltmaier]

All belong to the family of 'things with way more legs than necessary' to quote Dave Barry.

[jtreminio]

Except all those are seeds, while cricket is insect.

[coldcode]

I've eaten grasshoppers in Mexico, sautéed in tomato sauce. They were OK but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat them. Shrimp are not terribly different yet people eat them all the time.

[hanley]

You should also check out Chapul Bars [1], they are the original cricket flour bar. The Chaco bar is very tasty, I haven't tried the other flavors yet. Unfortunately, Chapul doesn't seem to be on their marketing/media hype game like Exo is.

[1] http://chapul.com/