I recently relocated to Shanghai, China, where I’ve been looking keenly for any type of edible insect. I finally found some at Southern Barbarian, a Yunnanese restaurant hidden in a food mall. It’s so hidden, you have to walk through another restaurant to find it. Here is one of the dishes I tried:
Deep fried wood bugs
Their flavour is very mild and the texture is crispy and airy.
As part of Tenebrio Molitor, the most recent edition of the Future of Food series of talks, I auctioned one of my mealworm colonies. One lucky winner was The Stop, who will be using the mealworms in their educational programs. Visit The Stop to see the mealworms in action!
Are mealworms the food of the future? I think so. Come to a unique event featuring cava, canapés and cooking demos on Monday, December 12, 2011 at 6:30 pm at the Centre for Social Innovation at 720 Bathurst St in Toronto. For your $15 you get admission to the talk, a drink, an opera performance, and tasty mealworm and non-mealworm snacks. Visit Alimentary Initiatives for more information or email aruna@philosopheroffood.com to be included in the guest list. All guests must either have an advance ticket or be on the guest list, please.
I was recently invited to eat a mealworm dinner with Corey Mintz, as fodder for his Toronto Star column Fed. The experience was unexpected and very interesting. I love tasting other people’s mealworm recipes.
You can find the column on the Toronto Star website.
Are mealworms ‘food’ or ‘not food’? The debate was played out at the Treehouse Talks on December 3, 2010. See the debate for yourself!
Which side do you sympathize with? Why?
On December 3 mealworms became the subject of a debate at the MaRS Centre in downtown Toronto. As part of the interactive part of the talk, the audience came up with reasons for considering mealworms either ‘food’ or ‘not food’:
Why mealworms are FOOD
Why mealworms are NOT FOOD
The audience also invented some ingenious recipe ideas involving mealworms. Watch the recipe section of this site for the results of this brainstorm.
The mealworms will be on display at Harbourfront Centre yet again! Come see Life with Bugs, a display of people’s reactions to touching and eating mealworms.
Details
November 13, 2010 to January 2, 2011 : Harbourfront Centre : 235 Queen’s Quay W : Toronto ON : artandsciencefair.ca
Mealworms can be prepared and enjoyed a number of different ways. Try cooking candied mealworms using the recipe just posted. They’re crispy, sweet and a little nutty. Enjoy!
Have you been thinking about cooking mealworms but don’t know how to prepare them? Find instructions for preparing and toasting mealworms in the recipe section.
Interest in mealworms isn’t purely anecdotal. Research scientists use these critters in their studies, too. One research group analyzed the amount of protein in mealworm larvae. Read about it in the Research section!
