I won’t be hunting insects for a while. I got less this past summer than I had in 2007; some ants and a few interesting things in Louisiana, but not as much as I’d have liked. I spent two very intense months filming a TV program, did roughly 35 library presentations, taught a summer composition class, and had other responsibilities. I stopped posting entries partly because I felt overworked and stressed. Not that I'm complaining, really -- I like being busy.
Future entries will likely continue the different directions my company is going in. I haven’t decided whether it’s better to expand my stock of exotic edible insects or to increase supplies of the species that can be more easily cultivated. Whether to concentrate on developing the educational aspects or product generation. What about that whole ‘office space’ idea, can that possibly be smart? And then there’s the important progress toward gathering the literature and creating a community.
All of these have great potential value, and as I’ve mentioned I’m just one guy. Figuring out how best to spend my energies isn’t easy. New development frequently arise, any of which could bring great success. It could be communication with someone in China or Mexico who says he wants to export insects and is looking for sources, or a journalist writing an article [I just found a new one today], or something else. But I’m not going to include every lead when the vast majority of them end up going nowhere.
Got to get the camera back out; more pictures needed.
Showing posts with label speculative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label speculative. Show all posts
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Monday, July 23, 2007
A matter of taste
Something not addressed thus far in these posts: how do the insects taste?
One kind of answer deals with the details – dry-toasted cricket tastes like sunflower seeds; katydid like toasted avocado; palm grub like bacon soup with a chewy, sweet finish. Weaver ant pupae have practically no flavor, while the meat of the giant water bug is, astonishingly, like a salty, fruity, flowery Jolly Rancher. People are usually amazed by it.
The other kind of answer is more theoretical and conceptual: often, insects taste the way that people expect them to. After all, they’re absolutely outside the norm for us and it’s considered freakish to eat them. If insects were delicious then we’d all know it and we’d eat them, since we like delicious food. Whereas if insects are perceived [however incorrectly] as dirty, disgusting, disease-bearing vermin, the chances that they’ll be deemed delicious are pretty low.
Last March David Letterman had an exotic foods expert on the show; the occasion was a banquet at The Explorers Club. There was a long table set up with a slew of weird foods – giant hissing cockroaches were visible, but the short segment did not include that tasting. Letterman tried boiled ostrich egg, eyeballs, rattlesnake, and a bunch of other stuff. Both along the way and at the end he proclaimed them all horrible. Given that these foods were part of a lavish banquet given every year at a prestigious institution, the culinary preparations would not be in doubt. Rather, it’s likelier that Letterman (and, by extension, a lot of people) tried the food expecting it to be awful and this created its own outcome.
This is part of the challenge that I face. In my experience it’s not very often that those people who are willing to try an insect find it delicious. Three possible reasons for that occur to me: 1, that the insects are simply not good-tasting; 2, my cooking skills are not very good; or 3, the afore-mentioned culturally-based predilection toward the rejection of bugs as food.
On the other hand, the most frequent response I get from a taster at one of my events is, “Gee, that’s really not so bad.” This is actually encouraging, and part of me thinks that I should be quite satisfied with that reaction. I’m not. The goal must be to have people amazed at how truly tasty the insects are. I fault my cooking skills, or lack thereof, and I’ve resolved to partner with chefs so that I can bring my abilities to the next level, and do the insect ingredients justice, at last.
One kind of answer deals with the details – dry-toasted cricket tastes like sunflower seeds; katydid like toasted avocado; palm grub like bacon soup with a chewy, sweet finish. Weaver ant pupae have practically no flavor, while the meat of the giant water bug is, astonishingly, like a salty, fruity, flowery Jolly Rancher. People are usually amazed by it.
The other kind of answer is more theoretical and conceptual: often, insects taste the way that people expect them to. After all, they’re absolutely outside the norm for us and it’s considered freakish to eat them. If insects were delicious then we’d all know it and we’d eat them, since we like delicious food. Whereas if insects are perceived [however incorrectly] as dirty, disgusting, disease-bearing vermin, the chances that they’ll be deemed delicious are pretty low.
Last March David Letterman had an exotic foods expert on the show; the occasion was a banquet at The Explorers Club. There was a long table set up with a slew of weird foods – giant hissing cockroaches were visible, but the short segment did not include that tasting. Letterman tried boiled ostrich egg, eyeballs, rattlesnake, and a bunch of other stuff. Both along the way and at the end he proclaimed them all horrible. Given that these foods were part of a lavish banquet given every year at a prestigious institution, the culinary preparations would not be in doubt. Rather, it’s likelier that Letterman (and, by extension, a lot of people) tried the food expecting it to be awful and this created its own outcome.
This is part of the challenge that I face. In my experience it’s not very often that those people who are willing to try an insect find it delicious. Three possible reasons for that occur to me: 1, that the insects are simply not good-tasting; 2, my cooking skills are not very good; or 3, the afore-mentioned culturally-based predilection toward the rejection of bugs as food.
On the other hand, the most frequent response I get from a taster at one of my events is, “Gee, that’s really not so bad.” This is actually encouraging, and part of me thinks that I should be quite satisfied with that reaction. I’m not. The goal must be to have people amazed at how truly tasty the insects are. I fault my cooking skills, or lack thereof, and I’ve resolved to partner with chefs so that I can bring my abilities to the next level, and do the insect ingredients justice, at last.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
The Story Thus Far
I live in Providence, RI with my wonderful wife and daughter. In 2001 I realized that insects are the best food with which to feed the world, whereas cows, pigs, and other large mammals are thoroughly inefficient ways to produce food. (Granted there are other concerns, but when someone finds something that really fuels his or her life, obstacles tend to melt away, at least temporarily. I've noticed that the obstacles are still around, and are very substantial.) It’s just that insects are such an elegant solution to so many of the food issues humanity is facing these days that I couldn’t resist getting involved. Besides, it’s fun to feed people insects.
I got started slowly, learning and teaching about edible insects, and didn’t officially form my business until 2005. Sunrise Land Shrimp has been going pretty well. The website needs a lot of updating – it’s one of the reasons for the blog – but there’s still a lot of good information and images there. And contact information, but I’ll include that here too: Dave@slshrimp.com
As for the sense behind the name [this text was once at the top of my home page; I should probably restore it]:
Sunrise because I wanted to send a message that there was
something new under the sun, a new day dawning. Land Shrimp
because insects are to the land what crustaceans are to the sea.
Yet while entomologists tend to like the name quite a bit, most people just scratch their heads and look at me funny. Though I’ve been attached to the company name, the time has come to shift to something more easily identifiable. “Dave’s Gourmet Insects” comes to mind; I’m open to suggestions.
Mostly I’ve been giving educational programs about the uses of insects as food, and at the great majority of these programs I’ve served cooked insects to the attendees. I’m also very interested in obtaining processed insects from all over the world, and I’ve had some small successes in that. Though I’ll write about the bugs themselves of course – and share pictures – this will be more about trying to make the business work. In fact this is long overdue; mass communication is a good way to finally start working smart instead of just working hard.
I’ll do my best to make this entertaining. We’ll see. In the meantime I’ve got some really great T-shirts to move. Just thought I’d toss that out there.
I got started slowly, learning and teaching about edible insects, and didn’t officially form my business until 2005. Sunrise Land Shrimp has been going pretty well. The website needs a lot of updating – it’s one of the reasons for the blog – but there’s still a lot of good information and images there. And contact information, but I’ll include that here too: Dave@slshrimp.com
As for the sense behind the name [this text was once at the top of my home page; I should probably restore it]:
Sunrise because I wanted to send a message that there was
something new under the sun, a new day dawning. Land Shrimp
because insects are to the land what crustaceans are to the sea.
Yet while entomologists tend to like the name quite a bit, most people just scratch their heads and look at me funny. Though I’ve been attached to the company name, the time has come to shift to something more easily identifiable. “Dave’s Gourmet Insects” comes to mind; I’m open to suggestions.
Mostly I’ve been giving educational programs about the uses of insects as food, and at the great majority of these programs I’ve served cooked insects to the attendees. I’m also very interested in obtaining processed insects from all over the world, and I’ve had some small successes in that. Though I’ll write about the bugs themselves of course – and share pictures – this will be more about trying to make the business work. In fact this is long overdue; mass communication is a good way to finally start working smart instead of just working hard.
I’ll do my best to make this entertaining. We’ll see. In the meantime I’ve got some really great T-shirts to move. Just thought I’d toss that out there.
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