Dished Up Delicacy – Insect Sushi. A Japanese man has created a sushi recipe book with a twist and claims to have solved the world’s food shortage problem along the way. MiNDFOOD reports.
A Japanese man has created a sushi recipe book with a twist and claims to have solved the world’s food shortage problem along the way.
The West’s love affair with sushi continues as countless food outlets around the world offer a vast array of delectable morsels, featuring raw fish, tofu and fish roe, to sate our appetite for this Japanese delicacy.
But a recently published recipe book Tanoshii Konchu Ryori (Enjoyable Bug-eating Recipes) may prove a little to much for even the most adventurous sushi lovers.
The 256-page book features sushi recipes not for teriyaki chicken or salmon and avocado but bugs – cockroaches, hornet larvae, spiders and caterpillars.
Author Shoichi Uchiyama, who lives in Tokyo, insists most insects are fine to eat, it’s just our emotional aversion, nurtured by society, that prevents us from taping into what he calls a “valuable food source”.
Uchiyama told the Japan Times that despite their size, most bugs are nutritionally rich and provide greater balance to a meal than meat or fish.
He believes, that any potential food supply issues could be solved if people swapped beef and poultry for insects.
“In order to get one kilogram of beef, we have to raise cows on huge areas of land and give them many kilos of fodder before they are ready to be slaughtered,” he told the UK’s Telegraph newspaper. “Insects eat the things that humans don’t and can be kept in much smaller spaces.”
According to Uchiyama, 1,400 kinds of insects are eaten in 90 countries, mainly in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
The sixty-year-old says his favourite insect is spring cicada larvae, which he describes as having a “nutty” flavour and the texture of a “good prawn”.
