{"id":101619,"date":"2015-03-20T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/?p=101619"},"modified":"2015-03-18T13:08:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T18:08:35","slug":"the-bug-banquet-serving-sustainability-in-a-cricket-pesto-flatbread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/03\/the-bug-banquet-serving-sustainability-in-a-cricket-pesto-flatbread\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bug Banquet: Serving Sustainability in a Cricket Pesto Flatbread"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><a title=\"eating crickets\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/03\/the-bug-banquet-serving-sustainability-in-a-cricket-pesto-flatbread\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-101620\" alt=\"eat-crickets\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/eat-crickets.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/eat-crickets.jpg 600w, https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/eat-crickets-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" id=\"docs-internal-guid-a1f4f7a3-2d87-87ef-b009-228b659476cd\">&#8220;You&#8217;re invited to the Bug Banquet,&#8221; the email read. <em>Ewwww! Must I go?<\/em> I am psychologically averse to insects, but as a good sport, I&#8217;ll try.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebugbanquet.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Bug Banquet<\/a><\/strong> is a culinary exploration of entomophagy, the practice of eating insects. It was created as an &#8220;experience&#8221; to help guests enjoy insects as food. Founders Chlo\u00e9 Bulpin, a senior at at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and Alex Gandarillas and Matt Kominsky, two Johnson &amp; Wales University culinary students, believe in the power of visual imagery to educate.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The intriguing menu was served cocktail style and the presentation was gorgeous.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pesto Flatbread: cricket pesto, mozzarella and artichokes<\/li>\n<li>Tempura Skewers: crickets, silkworms and scallions with a spicy sriracha sauce<\/li>\n<li>Watermelon and Waterbugs: compressed watermelon, apple and waterbug<\/li>\n<li>Spicy Silkworm: Korean-style marinated silkworms with hummus and roasted cauliflower<\/li>\n<li>Dark Chocolate-Coated Crickets<\/li>\n<li>Sundae Shooters: waterbug ice cream, caramel, and banana<\/li>\n<li>Several different cookies and tarts made with cricket flour<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">How did the creations taste? The comment most often overheard was, &#8220;I would never have known.&#8221; Ground crickets in pesto tasted &#8220;like escargot.&#8221; Waterbugs had a &#8220;floral extract that is not off-putting.&#8221; Roasted crickets tasted &#8220;like roasted fava beans with a <strong><a title=\"texture eating\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/04\/something-to-chew-on-food-texture-can-make-you-overeat\/\">crunchy outside and a mushy middle<\/a><\/strong>.&#8221; Dark Chocolate-Coated Crickets were &#8220;reminiscent of a Ferrero Rocher candy.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As it turns out, insect-fortified foods are a hot new food category. Cricket flour, which is some combination of pulverized crickets, cassava flour, rice flour, coconut, and xanthan gum, is a great source of protein. It is also high in essential fatty acids, and minerals like iron, calcium, potassium, and zinc. Crickets contain fiber in the form of chitin, the main component of the insects&#8217; exoskeleton. Because of the chitin, cricket flour carries an allergy warning: people who are allergic to shellfish may also be allergic to insects.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Entomophagy devotees remind us that sustainability is <strong><a title=\"eating bugs\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/01\/bugs-are-a-better-source-of-protein\/\">the best reason to eat dried bugs<\/a><\/strong>. Compared to traditional livestock, insects can be farmed on far less land and emit fewer greenhouse gasses. Crickets are 65 percent edible protein while cows and chickens are around 30 percent protein. Plus, crickets produce 80 times less methane than cattle!<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It takes about 2,000 gallons of water to produce a single pound of edible beef, but only one gallon of water to make one pound of edible cricket protein.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a title=\"water for beef\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/03\/the-bug-banquet-serving-sustainability-in-a-cricket-pesto-flatbread\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-101626\" alt=\"water-for-beef-crickets\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/water-for-beef-crickets.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"823\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/water-for-beef-crickets.jpg 600w, https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/water-for-beef-crickets-218x300.jpg 218w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Sustainability aside, eighty percent of the world eats insects and traditionalists want to make sure that the practice does not disappear as food regimens westernize. Eating insects is popular Africa, Oceania, Asia, and Latin America. With the <strong><a title=\"food trends 2015\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/12\/the-big-food-trends-you-can-expect-to-devour-in-2015\/\">culinary expansion of Americans<\/a><\/strong>, why shouldn&#8217;t it be popular here, too?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Also Read:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong><a title=\"edible flowers\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/02\/treat-yourself-to-edible-flowers-on-valentines-day\/\">Treat Yourself to Edible Flowers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong><a title=\"learn to like vegetables\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/04\/learn-to-like-vegetables-one-at-a-time\/\">Learn to Like Vegetables One at a Time<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong><a title=\"foreign workouts\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/10\/try-workouts-from-around-the-world-with-these-international-fitness-trends\/\">Workouts from Around the World: Try These International Fitness Trends<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re invited to the Bug Banquet,&#8221; the email read. Ewwww! Must I go? I am psychologically averse to insects, but as a good sport, I&#8217;ll try. The Bug Banquet is a culinary exploration of entomophagy, the practice of eating insects. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/03\/the-bug-banquet-serving-sustainability-in-a-cricket-pesto-flatbread\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3695,16],"tags":[10814,1613,8440,162,3626],"class_list":["post-101619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diet-and-nutrition","category-recipes","tag-cricket-protein","tag-green-living","tag-homepage","tag-protein","tag-sustainability"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101619"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101625,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101619\/revisions\/101625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietsinreview.com\/diet_column\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}