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1:45

This is But Y, a podcast for curious

1:48

kids from Vermont Public. I'm

1:50

Jane Lindholm, your host. On

1:52

this show, we take questions from kids all over

1:54

the world who want to know something, and

1:57

we help guide you all to the answers. The

2:00

end of last week's episode

2:02

about cicadas, our guest, insect

2:04

scientist and entomology professor Dan

2:06

Gruner, mentioned that cicadas

2:09

are edible. I've eaten

2:11

them raw and they have

2:13

a really nutty flavor and I've

2:15

also had them prepared various ways.

2:19

And when the right chef prepares them,

2:21

then they're actually very tasty. So

2:23

if you're in cicada country this summer, maybe you

2:25

want to try them. Today

2:28

we're going to give you a short bonus

2:30

episode to explore the idea of eating insects.

2:33

Now the idea of eating insects may sound a

2:35

little different from what some of you are used

2:38

to and some adults listening

2:40

might be thinking, eww, no way.

2:43

But others listening to this are probably

2:45

like, yeah, no problem. I already eat

2:48

insects. People eat bugs

2:50

all over the world, even in the United

2:52

States, but you don't have to take my word

2:54

for it. Hi, everyone. I'm

2:56

Joseph Yoon, Edible

2:58

Insect Ambassador at Brooklyn

3:01

Bugs. And what

3:03

we love to do is make

3:05

all sorts of delicious and

3:08

nutritious food with

3:11

insects. And

3:13

for those of you that think that that might

3:15

be a little strange, I don't

3:17

know if it would help to know

3:20

that there are billions of people around

3:22

the world that actually

3:24

eat insects. Joseph

3:26

didn't grow up with insects on his dinner

3:28

plate, but he became a chef many years

3:31

ago and when he learned about a report

3:33

from the United Nations about the benefits of

3:35

eating insects, he started cooking with them. And

3:38

then he became, as he says, an insect

3:40

ambassador. If we were just to say,

3:42

oh, eat this because it'll

3:45

make you healthy and it's good for

3:47

the planet, I don't think a

3:49

lot of people will go like, oh, yay, I

3:51

have to try that. But if

3:53

we were to say it's delicious and

3:56

it's good for the planet and

3:59

it's good for then I think

4:01

we're off onto a hopping good start. More

4:04

from Joseph in just a minute, but let's get

4:06

to your questions. Hi,

4:08

my name is Yael. I'm nine

4:10

years old. I live in Batabong,

4:12

Cambodia in Southeast Asia. And my

4:14

question is, will humans eat

4:17

insects in the future? Not

4:20

just in the future, but in the past

4:22

and the present too. In

4:24

fact, I've seen insects being served

4:26

right where you live, Yael, in

4:28

Cambodia. When I was traveling

4:30

there about 20 years ago now, there were

4:32

lots of insects in the markets. And

4:35

I know spiders are arachnids, not insects,

4:37

but they're sometimes kind of grouped together

4:39

in our minds. And on

4:41

one bus ride I was on in Cambodia, we

4:43

were offered up fried tarantulas as a snack at

4:46

one of the stops along the way. I

4:49

didn't try the tarantulas, but I do

4:51

enjoy eating roasted crickets with seasoning. They're

4:54

a tasty, crunchy little snack. Historically,

4:57

insects have been a very important part of

4:59

the diet for people in many parts of

5:01

the world. And some researchers think

5:03

they're going to be an important part of

5:06

our future diet too, as more

5:08

and more humans inhabit our planet. And we need

5:10

to find ways to feed all of them. And

5:13

we need to find sustainable ways to

5:15

grow our food that doesn't harm the

5:17

environment as much as some of our

5:19

current farming practices. Now,

5:22

of course, some people, vegetarians, don't eat

5:24

any meat from animals. And

5:26

people who are vegan don't consume

5:28

anything at all from animals like

5:30

milk, eggs, or honey. And

5:33

they may not use or wear things like

5:35

leather shoes or wool sweaters made from animal

5:37

products. You can definitely

5:39

get protein and nutrients from other food

5:41

sources. And lots of people

5:43

believe eating no meat or less meat is

5:46

going to be key to making sure our

5:48

earth has the resources it needs to stay

5:50

strong in the future. But

5:52

for people who do want to consume meat, insects

5:55

could be a good choice. They

5:58

typically take less land, less food, water

6:00

and less food to grow. And

6:03

they're a really great source of protein. Hi,

6:06

my name is Cora and I'm

6:08

six years old and I'm from

6:10

Houston, Texas. And my question

6:12

is, what is protein

6:14

and food? Protein

6:17

is one type of nutrient, along with

6:19

things like fats and carbohydrates, that your

6:21

body needs to survive. And

6:23

we get these nutrients from our food. Protein

6:26

helps you build, strengthen and repair

6:29

your muscles and organs. Certain

6:32

types of food have more protein than

6:34

others. Things like eggs,

6:36

chicken, yogurt, beans, nut butter

6:38

and tofu are good sources

6:41

of protein. And

6:43

it turns out insects are, as I

6:45

said, another really great source. But

6:48

one thing I should mention before we get to a

6:50

recipe. Insects are arthropods, meaning

6:53

they have an exoskeleton, a hard

6:55

shell on the outside of their

6:57

body instead of a skeleton inside

6:59

like we have. Shellfish

7:02

are also arthropods. So

7:04

if you know you have a shellfish allergy,

7:07

you might be allergic to insects as well and

7:09

you shouldn't eat them. It's

7:11

probably a good idea to check with an

7:13

adult before trying any new food. Now

7:17

if you think you have never eaten

7:19

an insect before and never will, not

7:23

so fast. Red food

7:25

coloring in your candy and red velvet

7:27

cake, do you know where that

7:29

comes from? That's Joseph Eunigan. It

7:32

comes from the cochineal. It's

7:35

labeled as carmine and it's actually

7:37

a crushed insect that creates a

7:39

red color. Not

7:41

all red candies have carmine, but many

7:44

candies and even lipsticks and other red

7:46

and pink makeup use the dye from

7:48

these insects to get their color. So

7:51

you may have already eaten a bug and just

7:53

not known it. Up

7:55

next, what can you make if

7:57

you're curious about eating bugs on purpose?

8:01

This is But Why. I'm Jane Lindholm,

8:04

and today we are exploring edible insects.

8:07

Not everyone chooses to eat animal protein,

8:09

but many people do, and insects are

8:11

getting another look as we think about

8:13

ways to have sustainable food that doesn't

8:15

take as much room and as many

8:17

resources to grow. One

8:19

of the people working on helping folks stomach

8:22

this idea is Joseph Yoon,

8:24

a chef who created an organization

8:26

called Brooklyn Bugs. When

8:28

I caught up with Joseph last week, he

8:30

was visiting Springfield, Illinois to see the cicadas

8:33

that have come out across many parts of

8:35

the eastern U.S., and he

8:37

had just made himself a tasty snack.

8:39

What we did is we

8:42

made an Old Bay cicada

8:44

with butter, chili peppers, scallions,

8:46

and garlic, and we're going

8:48

to use this to top

8:50

off our avocado toast. The

8:54

cicadas have this like real vegetal

8:56

flavor and nutty flavor,

8:58

and if you think about it, since

9:00

they were eating plants for 13

9:03

years, they're going to be kind

9:05

of veggie-like in flavor, and they have

9:07

like a nice little crunch to them

9:09

as well. Not super crunchy like a

9:11

nut, but a little crunchiness,

9:14

and it takes a

9:16

lot of the flavor that we cook it

9:18

in, so it also has like a nice

9:20

like garlicky, savory flavor, but this

9:23

is a very special and

9:25

very delicious dish. We don't

9:27

have any of these cicadas where I'm

9:29

based here in Vermont, but I wanted

9:31

to see if I could entice Melody

9:34

and Kiana into enjoying some bug-based delicacies

9:36

with me. So Joseph suggested

9:38

we get some crickets or grasshoppers and do

9:40

what he did with the cicadas. Fry

9:43

them up with some aromatics, and

9:45

aromatics are things like garlic,

9:48

and onions, and ginger, things

9:50

that will like really bring

9:52

out the smell and really

9:54

flavor your foods, and so

9:56

a lot of your favorite

9:58

dishes like spaghetti and meatballs

10:00

or like lasagna

10:02

or fried rice will often

10:04

have aromatics to make it

10:07

taste more yummy. Garlic

10:09

and onions are a good addition to any meal

10:11

in my book. Another

10:13

option was just to get some

10:15

after-school snacks. So I just have

10:17

some apples and yogurt here and

10:20

what I decided to do is I'm

10:23

going to put some toppings on these

10:25

little apple snacks. So

10:27

I love that these grasshoppers

10:29

have a little lemon-lime flavor

10:32

and a little chili flavor and

10:35

I love that it adds a

10:37

little extra crunch and

10:39

it's so delicious and amazing.

10:43

Bug at the teeth. Sorry you

10:45

can't join me through the computer

10:47

screen, Jade. I definitely wanted to

10:49

try out some of Joseph's suggestions. So

10:52

I bought some cricket powder high

10:54

in protein and made chocolate chip,

10:56

I mean chocolate chirp cookies. This

10:59

recipe calls for two and a

11:01

quarter cups of flour. So

11:04

I'm going to put one and

11:06

three quarters cups of regular flour and then

11:09

a half cup of cricket flour. The

11:12

cricket protein is a little darker. It kind

11:14

of looks like a beagie

11:16

brown color, like really

11:19

dry dirt or something or

11:22

a little bit lighter brown than cocoa. Okay

11:25

now that I have the dry ingredients

11:28

all mixed together I'm going to put

11:30

the wet ingredients in my mixing

11:34

bowl and blend

11:36

them up. I

11:43

blended everything together and baked the cookies.

11:46

It was really tempting to eat them but I

11:48

resisted. In addition to

11:50

the cookies I also ordered

11:52

some mixed bugs, black ants,

11:54

crickets and chapulines, grasshoppers. Some

11:57

of them were already ready to eat. For

12:00

the ants, I decided to mix half of

12:02

those with flaky sea salt. And

12:04

the other ants, I mixed with a chili

12:07

lime spice called tahine. Then

12:09

I took all of my snacks to the office and

12:11

invited my friends to have lunch with me. Hi

12:14

Kiana, hi Melody. Hello! Sounds

12:16

like it's time for lunch. Alright, what

12:18

do you want to try first? I would

12:20

suggest maybe start with a slice of apple,

12:22

a little bit of

12:24

yogurt, and then some ants

12:27

with sea salt or my favorite, the ants

12:29

with tahine. Melody, why don't you go

12:31

first? What do you want to try? I'm going to try

12:33

the apple and the yogurt and maybe a little bit of

12:35

the ants on top. Okay. Let's

12:38

give it a shot. Putting my yogurt

12:40

on, my apple. I'm

12:43

going to shake out some of these ants. Okay,

12:45

here we go. They just kind of look like

12:47

pepper flakes or like black sesame seeds. They look

12:49

like little black dots and I'm going to trust

12:51

you that these are ants. Alright,

12:53

let's give it a shot. It's

12:58

pretty good. It

13:01

basically just tastes like salt. Yeah. You

13:04

don't really even know that they're there. What do you want to try Kiana?

13:06

I think I'll go for the

13:08

toast with guacamole and

13:12

what do you suggest for me to try? I'm

13:15

no expert, but I would suggest

13:17

either the adobo grasshoppers or

13:20

the chili lime tahine ants

13:22

or both. Let's go for both. Okay.

13:28

Sounds crunchy. Yeah,

13:31

it's pretty good. Pretty

13:33

zesty from the tahine

13:35

ants. And

13:39

I will say that the bread is masking the crunchiness

13:41

of the crickets. We tried

13:43

all the different varieties on our apple snacks

13:45

and avocado toast and they were great. And

13:48

then we had the cookies for dessert, complete

13:50

with a few flakes of salty ant mix

13:52

on top. So what do you

13:54

think? Are you up for some

13:56

chocolate chirp cookies? I can tell

13:59

you that my kids... loved them, even the ones

14:01

with the ants on top. They even

14:03

took their cookies to school to impress their friends.

14:06

But it's hard to dislike anything with chocolate

14:08

chips, right? There are just so

14:10

many ways to cook with insects.

14:13

I like to think that the only thing

14:15

that stops us is our

14:17

own mind and our

14:19

imagination of what they can

14:22

look like. If you decide to give

14:24

insects a try, don't just go out into your yard

14:26

or the sidewalk and grab a bug and pop it

14:28

in your mouth. Most insects used

14:30

for food have been farmed to make sure

14:32

they're healthy and don't have pesticides or other

14:35

junk on them. So you'll want

14:37

to find a good reliable source for your bugs.

14:39

There are lots of them online. And

14:42

remember not to eat any insects if you

14:44

have a shellfish allergy. If

14:46

you decide to try one of these snacks, send us a

14:48

picture and let us know. And

14:50

if insects aren't your thing for whatever

14:52

reason, don't worry, this is our last

14:54

bug show for a while. Our

14:57

next episode is a bit of a palate

14:59

cleanser, you could say. We'll

15:01

be talking about citrus fruits and how

15:03

they grow. That's it

15:05

for this special bonus episode. Thanks

15:08

to Joseph Yoon, founder of Brooklyn Bugs,

15:10

for teaching us a little bit about

15:12

edible insects. But Y is

15:14

produced at Vermont Public and distributed by PRX.

15:17

Our team includes Kiana Haskin, Melody

15:19

Baudette, and me, Jane Lindholm. Joey

15:22

Palumbo produces our YouTube series, but

15:25

Y Bites. We'll be

15:27

back in one week with an all new

15:29

episode. Until then, stay curious.

15:33

The