LEESBURG, Virginia (KXAN) – When billions of Brood X cicadas invade the US after 17 years underground, a cook in Virginia makes the most of the noisy flying bugs.
You may know these flying insects for their loud mating calls, but you may not know how tasty some people say they are. At least that’s the hope for head chef Tobias Padovano in Leesburg, Virginia, where he serves cicada tacos as a special menu in his Mexican restaurant Cocina on Market.
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Reuters reports that the 43-year-old chef collects the beetles in a bag and then cooks them like lobsters or crabs. Then the insects are baked, plucked (from their wings and legs) and thrown into a pan.
From here, Padovano fries the cicadas in onions and garlic before folding them into a tortilla and topping them off with serrano chilies, avocado and a mole sauce. The chef’s first Cicado Taco customer, 19-year-old Will Becker, gave the following rating: “You can definitely feel a bit of the crisis. But you start chewing, it just melts in. “
According to Padovano, several customers have compared the taste of cicadas to shrimp.
But cicadas aren’t the only insect on the restaurant menu – Reuters reports that grasshoppers are an evergreen offering. Although this is not entirely unknown. Like cicadas, grasshoppers are known to be high in protein and low in fat.
Chapulínes
Locusts are a popular meal and snack in many Mexican cities, such as Oaxaca: they are served in restaurants as often as they are at sporting events, according to the Institute of Culinary Education.
“Chapulínes” (Spanish for “grasshoppers”) were served in Mexico until the 16th century, according to the institute. During this time they were a common part of the diet of the Spanish conquerors.
Locusts on their own may not have much flavor, but they do provide protein and texture. In Oaxaca they are served in tacos, as bar meals and even on pizzas.
Locusts – and cicadas – were also regularly consumed in Greece, China, Africa, and the Middle East.
