Yes. I know what I wrote.
Using insects as food is a growing trend, at least according to the very fashionable and trendy news I'm following. In the end, it might be just a small thing which will never gain big popularity.
However, in Finland we've seen already few very nice examples in crickets for food. They have been basically banned by regulations for a long time, but finally we are free to use insects as food. Until now, some people have sold dried or friend crickets not for food, but as.. other items.
I could imagine someone buying a bunch of fried crickets as decoration - and accidentally eating them! Oh no.
Well now as life has gone far easier, I will start introducing my favorite things so far!
Cricket bread
Photo from pixabay, the bread in the photo does not contain crickets
Finnish bakery Fazer has created a cricket bread. Bunch of dried crickets mixed in a bread dough and you'll have a tasty and a bit crispy bread. One bread contains 70 crickets mixed in the dough. The sad part is though that the crickets are added as a powder. Some people who have tasted the bread have felt a bit bad as they haven't found whole crickets from the bread.
What a disappointment.
However most people who have been able to taste cricket bread have been happy with both flavor and the texture of the bread. The availability of the bread is still limited to certain cities, so I have not tasted the bread yet!
However you can read some more about cricket bread in the article below:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/23/anyone-for-crickets-bread-made-insect-finnish-bakery-fazer
Or if you know how to read Finnish, read the short article below:
https://www.is.fi/ruokala/ajankohtaista/art-2000005461475.html
Cricket chocolate!
Now to the thing I'm most excited about. Today I bought cricket chocolate with a crazy price. Made of Finnish crickets and chocolate, this is like chocolate raisins but without the raisins.. and crickets instead. It is basically dried crickets covered in chocolate.
And it was really nice.
It was like a bit crispy chocolate, but it was good. The cricket gave a good flavor in it, as you could clearly see and taste the cricket too as long as you properly chewed the chocolate instead of just tossing it in your mouth and swallowing it.
It's not something I will be buying all the time in the future, but a great shocker for most people. Or to scare kids. However on the same time, it is the perfect treat to get people to understand how insect food is not a scary thing.
Low quality cropped phone photo, but package of FINNISH cricket chocolate.
Insect food in general
Insect food has been seen as a good replacement for meat as protein. Production of insects can be far more efficient than producing multiple different meats, causing less CO2 emissions and requiring far less space and water to be grown. Meat industry is one of the main causes of deforestation, as soy is grown to feed meat animals.
With increasing amount of insects as human food, we could reduce harm done to the environment. Even better than this, vegan or vegetarian options could be used more and more, as they are even better for the environment and seen as more ethical option.
However, adding crickets to foods which have been vegan or vegetarian before is not making it more ethical or sustainable. I don't remember us having regular bread with meat in it or chocolate with meat inside. These products are only been made less ethical and more harmful for the environment.
However they play an important role in making insect food as more approachable for the general public. It's more difficult to jump directly to cricket sausages or similar, if we haven't had crickets in other products before.
And now we all see that crickets are not scary as food. They are quite easy and tasty.
Image from Pixabay
Noone would steal my chocolate if it had crickets in it thats for sure.....
That's right. I could imagine you would be able to intimidate some children too if they knew you were eating crickets.
... until the first time when an insect flies inside and someone tells you to get rid of it "Eat it or something?"
I scare the kids with tripe....what could be more horendeous then that? :3 Ugh...just gave myself the chills.
My great-grandmother loved chocolate covered ants. She died when I was a kid but I can remember going to visit her in the nursing home. Someone (my mom? my grandfather who was her son?) always brought along chocolate covered ants.
Chocolate covered ants.. until now, I would have thought of them as disgusting but I assume they can be great too! It would be great to taste those and see which is better, crickets or ants.
First I thought its about cricket (a game.)
I use google transalate to know the meaning....
Crickets..... Ewwww
If it carries any bacteria?
I think we guys met before...... @apsu its bapin from steem chat
can you remember?
I don't assume it carries any special bacteria, as they are somehow prepared somehow before putting it into food :)
They are grown for food and handled properly, so they should be great for food!
And yes, I do remember you @bapin :)
Thank you @apsu for recognize me.
And thanks for the information. Its different type of crickets that I never hard before.
I like eating meat chocolate and bread though...
Hi @apsu!! I was like eww why does he want to eat bugs for, until I remembered that I've also had fried crickets lol they are crunchy, but I would still prefer chips. I like that you noted that eating them for protein, instead of regular meats does help the environment.
I like not living in a barren wasteland! I would probably like the chocolates more than the bread, because I agree, it's not as fun when you can't bite into pieces of insect being too finely ground :c
Enjoy your bug foods :D
@shello
Hello shello!
Bugs seem to be fun. I would imagine fried bugs could taste great if they have good spices and I could dip them into something..
I'm turning into an insect eating madman very shortly :)
Thank you for the comment @shello :)
I'm thinking a pepper sauce or some horseradish when you say that! xDD As long as no roaches are involved, it's all good!
I may want to pick up some crickets myself <3
Nothing weird to me.
I like exotic food, and even if that makes some people to cringe, I don't really care.
That loaf looks delicious.
Interesting! I'm glad I found your blog. This is my first week on steemit and I'm learning so much. A friend of mine in Minneapolis experimented with making cricket granola. It is tasty! He also offered me a scorpion packaged as food. I willingly ate it, except for the front claws/pincers. I'm intrigued and will be following your blog. I agree crickets and other "bugs" are food sources worth developing. Say hi to a newbie if you're interested. https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@mininthecity/introduceyourself
Well welcome on Steemit and I'm happy crickets are being used as food around there :)
I'm hoping cricket food to get mass adoption and I'm happy they are having many other products to make this possible. I'm not looking forward to scorpions though, but it could be nice too!
Thanks for the comment :)
Sometime I'll find the photo of me eating the scorpion and promote #bugsasfood :)
Where can I get some?
Cricket bread can be found in hyper/supermarkets with Fazer bakery, I think usually at Citymarkets.
I bought cricket chocolate from a Prisma :)
I have to get my hands on the chocolate! I hope our Prisma stocks some. Great post!
Well I do hope the same, I assume it depends on the Prisma size, but luckily I'm sure we'll get lots of cricket products to eat in the future. And thank you!
Finger licking good!!!!
Last summer a bunch of bugs bit me... this time, I will bite bugs!
you gotta make sure you do it in front of all the other bugs... you know send a warning and all that
Don't try to steal my joke from another comment on the same post :D
hahahaha....damn i should prob scroll thru the comments first... anyways what are you doing in my head..typing my comments before i get to them... very rude sir
I wouldn't mind eating a few of the crickets that get into the house and keep me awake during the Summer nights.
Actually ground up insects sound like a good way of adding protein to otherwise carb-exclusive foods.
I would recommed preparing a show for all the crickets around your house.
Catch (or buy) some crickets, fry them in butter and then eat in sight of all crickets. This could work as a public warning for all of them and I assume they would let you live in peace.
So morbid... and yet so satisfying!
Darkness gives us power, fear keeps us in control.
Don't show your fear to crickets or you'll be doomed.