BUGFEST: My Pizza with Mealworms and Crickets!

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For this evening’s meal I started out with a plain margherita pizza (base, tomato sauce and mozzarella). In the freezer I found a forgotten bag of mealworms and crickets, left over from an earlier episode of entomophagy (that’s the fancy term for insect-eating!). Read on Mealworms are the larval form of a kind of beetle, and have been eaten for centuries in parts of Asia. They are an ecologically sound source of protein, as they use just a tiny amount of water and space, and reproduce prolifically. Crickets are not quite as easy to eat as mealworms, as they have some sharp parts such as their legs, but their soft bodies are very tasty! Mealworms and crickets are easily available in pet shops, as live food for reptiles. The recommended humane way of dealing with them is to put them in the deep freeze. Within a short time they fall asleep, and they die in their sleep once the temperature drops much below freezing. It is then recommended to roast them in a hot oven for a short time, to ensure any parasites they might have are neutralised. During their time in the oven, the mealworms give off a delicious nutty aroma. That pizza was quite filling, so much so that I had to leave one slice for a pre-bed snack. I urge you to try eating insects if the opportunity arises. Otherwise you'll never know what a treat you're missing