Insect Cuisine: The Taste of Scorpion

I am Buncho, a tour guide.
Insect cuisine has become a hot topic as a way to help solve environmental problems. I tried some during a tour!

You can choose your favorite bug from the vending machine in the photo. Crickets, giant water bugs, cicadas, scorpions, bamboo worms, and black soldier flies.

I was intimidated by the names of the lined-up insects and the realistic pictures on the packaging. I wanted to just take a photo and leave the area quickly, but...

My guest today is an American who has visited Japan many times, has eaten high-end cuisine, is a huge foodie, and is extremely curious. He declared, "I want to try it!"

Oh, well, that might be an option. "Hmm, so what will you have?" I said, helping him choose from the menu while explaining the insects.

I have eaten locusts simmered in soy sauce a little bit before, so I was hoping he would settle for something like a cricket, but he actually said, "I'll go with the scorpion!"

First, the price is 1,200 yen. That's enough to buy a lunch. I slid the bill into the vending machine, followed by the coins. I pressed the button for the "scorpion" package. My heart was pounding a little.

Since it didn't have the weight of a plastic bottle, there was a light clatter, and a transparent plastic tube fell into the retrieval slot below.

Inside the tube was an even smaller plastic bag. I wondered what on earth was inside. I watched silently as my guest opened the package.

My, it was a cute size, but it looked almost perfect, like a specimen for an insect collection. This was a high hurdle for me.

But when he asked if I wanted to try it, I instinctively said, "Then I'll try a small piece of that," and my Japanese spirit also showed only a small piece.

I ate it first. The crunchy, light texture felt like a Kappa Ebisen snack. It wasn't bad. In fact, it was delicious. It was a tiny amount, but it had no smell, and I thought I could eat it without any resistance.

The guest's impression after eating the "main body" was exactly the same. "It's crunchy and delicious."

In addition to the insects themselves, giant cricket cookies and giant water bug cider are also sold in the same vending machine.

According to the vending machine's description, the cookies not only have powder kneaded into the dough, but a whole giant cricket is placed right on top. The giant water bug cider is apparently fruity.

Considering that it's smaller than half a piece of sushi, it's a more expensive ingredient than the nigiri at a super famous sushi restaurant in Tokyo. At least for now!