Silkworm sashimi, cricket curry on offer as bugs make stunning comeback in Japanese food

Twenty-six-year-old Takumi Yamamoto opted for a special lunch of cricket curry and silkworm sashimi, washed down with a water bug cider, on a recent vacation to the Japanese capital of Tokyo.

The young worker, from the western prefecture of Hyogo, is one of scores of consumers across the world who have taken an interest in Entomophagy, or eating insects, as bugs slowly make their way into exotic food.

As a child, Yamamoto said he sometimes snacked on soy-sauce basted grasshoppers. In Tokyo, he indulged in insect cuisine at Take-Noko café, which embraces all things buggy.

“It’s fun to select from a wider variety of dishes,” Yamamoto said seated at the cosy second-floor café, surrounded by insect art and terrariums of skittering beetles, ants and cockroaches. “Everything was tasty. In particular, the water bug cider was quite refreshing and delicious, like a green apple,” he narrated.

Entomophagy started to be taken seriously globally after the United Nations deemed bugs a sustainable source of protein to feed a global population estimated to swell to 9.7 billion by 2050.

The impact of the livestock industry on climate change, coupled with global food security issues due to extreme weather and conflicts, have also increased the interest in the high-quality, economical nutrition that bugs provide. Though some consumers think eating insects is just gross, Japan has a rich culinary history of insects as a source of food.

Grasshoppers, silkworms, and wasps were traditionally eaten in land-locked regions where meat and fish are scarce, a practice that picked up amid food shortages during and after World War II, said Take-Noko manager Michiko Miura.

“Recently, there have been advances in rearing things like crickets and mealworms for food, so the possibility of using insects as ingredients is really growing,” she added.

Several companies, including national bakery brand Pasco, have sold cakes and snacks made from cricket flour, and processed food maker Nichirei and telecom Nippon Telegraph and Telephone have invested in bug ventures in the past year.

Consumer interest has also extended to Take-Noko, which manager Miura says is often fully booked on weekends. Its curry is studded of crickets in meatball form and dried garnish. The delicate ‘sashimi’ is the left-over casing of silkworms, and the cider is infused with water bug extract and topped with a whole insect, said to taste like shrimp.