Edible Pests

Crawling, buzzing and swarming aren’t qualities most of us associate with gastronomic pleasure.  But as bed bugs and roaches continue to bite through New York City’s attractions there is a nutritional way of dealing with the cities pests.

“Most of the world already eats insects,” Professor Arnold van Huis points out in a recent Observer article. Not reserved for game show challenges or that authentic hunter-gather weekend upstate, the benefits of eating bugs is being considered by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as a serious solution to the increasing world food shortage.

Here are the best places in NYC to exterminate these pests one mouthful at a time.

Oaxacan Soft Tacos with Lemon Spiced Grasshoppers $10.95

Crepas de Huitlacoche $11.95

Huitlacoche (corn fungus a.k.a corn ‘smut’) has long been considered a pest by farmers who found the fungus destroying corn crops. Eaten as a paste, a good vegetarian alternative.

Pigeon, toasted barley, sweet potato and apple $29.50

Technically vermin, the ones on the menu here are a far superior pest.

Suppliers of food derived from insects. Party catered for 10 guests, $30 per person. Includes crickets, large ants, scorpions and cockroaches.

Individual Member’s ticket  $375, Intergalactic Table $40,000

Annual Dinner where 2009’s dishes included honey soy Tarantulas and potato soufflé filled with muscoid larvae and pupae.

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6 Responses to Edible Pests

  1. Lexie says:

    Well done…and disgusting, at the same time, which I guess is the point, so doubly well done! I can’t wait to get more of these – the posts, not the pests. -x

  2. Patrick Clark says:

    Let’s go eat some grasshoppers!

  3. Amy Stretten says:

    I definitely don’t see myself eating at any of the above restaurants in my lifetime…but I am beginning to rethink journalism as my career choice. I can’t believe how much these restaurants charge to serve bugs, slugs, fungus, and Central Park birds! I could make a killing doing the same! Too bad I don’t have the stomach for it. :-/

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