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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 further below 🙂

#1 The Pizza toppings

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.

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#2 Crickets

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!

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#3 Face to face with my meat

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.

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#4 Toppings on the Pizza

As you can see, there are lots and lots of mealwoms. No "just a hint" for me 🙂

Into the oven with it, and...

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  2. Nothing artistic there. Very basic. I’d be trying cup-cakes first, with a few cabbage-moth larvae and a couple of baby White crested snakes slit lengthwise with their entrails arranged radially. Something orange? Hmmm, centipedes? Red-backed spider abdomens, sans legs?

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#5 Bon appétit!

18 minutes later, at 200 degrees, and voila - a perfect pizza, full of yummy crunchy bits 🙂

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#6 One slice left for later

That 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 🙂

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  2. Good onya, Norman. I will mention your name as a true pioneer, when we all chomp down on insects, but I do hope you clean your teeth very thoroughly. It’d fair spoil that smile if you forgot.

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BugscricketsdarloEntomophagygrasshoppersinsectivoreinsectslocustspizzaworms

Written by Norman Darlo

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