Beetle Juice

An orange light illuminated the inside of the oven, and through the oven window I could see hundreds of wriggling mealworm bodies. I tried to look away before the image got burned into my mind, but it was too late; you can’t really forget something like that, especially when you know that in a few minutes, you’ll be eating those mealworms, currently being cooked alive.

Rosanna Yau of MiniLivestock invited me to her Lower Haight apartment to help her prepare mealworm granola bars, a recipe she was testing for a class project on branding at California College of the Arts. The 27-year-old artist wanted to see how branding can be used as a tool to redefine a feared practice like entomophagy, or insect eating. For part of this project, she will provide several students with kits to rear, harvest, and eventually prepare and eat mealworms.

But she realizes that even the best branding will not convince everyone to take a bite of something creepy and crawly. For some, she’ll create kits with prepared mealworm flour, and for the most squeamish-at-heart, she’ll provide pre-made and packaged mealworm granola bars. Lucky for me, Rosanna will show me how to prepare the protein-packed granola treats from start to finish.

Before we threw them in the oven, we had to prepare the little buggers. Rosanna had me bring over a bin of mealworms that had been separated from the oats and place it into the freezer. This step is for the mealworms’ sake – it puts them out of their misery in a more humane way than just throwing them into the oven alive.

Rosanna said that although mealworms that are cooked alive tend to taste better, she feels bad about putting her livestock through unnecessary hardship or pain. Normally, 15 minutes in the freezer is sufficient to make sure the mealworms will not suffer, but unfortunately, the batch we were about to cook were an exceptionally virile batch.

When I dumped the motionless worms into the strainer over her kitchen sink, everything seemed OK, but as I started to wash them with cold water, some of the worms gradually began to revive. I was starting to feel a little queasy as I transferred them into a bowl, especially when I had to brush off a few of the stragglers that clung to the strainer. I patted the mealworms dry with a dishtowel, lined a baking sheet with foil, sprayed it with some cooking spray, and sprinkled the mealworms evenly onto it.

By this time, several more worms had woken up from their cold slumber, but we hoped that it would only be a few in the batch that would be awake for their final trip into the 200 degree oven. It wasn’t to be. Rosanna felt terrible about the suffering, but by the time we realized what was happening, there wasn’t anything we could’ve done. Fortunately, within a couple of minutes, the mad wriggling stopped.

I’m not sure why, but by the time the mealworms were finished roasting, I wasn’t so squeamish anymore. I asked Rosanna if I could try one of the freshly baked worms, and without hesitation, I picked one up and ate it. The crispy larva tasted like a whole wheat cracker, not at all squishy or meaty tasting. I popped a couple more mealworms just to see if I could detect any other distinct flavors, but for the most part, I just tasted a nutty roasted flavor. With a little salt, I could see these making a good bar snack.

Rosanna had me transfer some of the baked mealworms into a mortar and pestle. It was strangely satisfying to ground the worms into a fine dust that resembled wheat germ. I had a wicked thought that one could easily replace the contents of a wheat germ package with mealworm flour and none would be the wiser if they didn’t see you doing it.

Next, we combined the standard granola bar ingredients in a large bowl: quick oats, whole rolled oats, flax seeds, sesame seeds, sliced almonds, raisins, and cranberries. To that, we added the insect flour, water, vegetable oil, and agave nectar.

We packed the mixture into a greased pan and baked it for about 20 minutes. The finished result tasted like a regular granola bar. I couldn’t detect anything out of the ordinary, but then again, baked mealworms have a flavor profile that easily blends with all of those nuts and fruits.

Rosanna asked me if I wanted to take any of the granola bars home. I declined, knowing that this day would probably be my last foray into eating bugs, at least knowingly and willingly. But I could be wrong. If Rosanna and other entomophagists succeed at changing our views about eating bugs, one of these days, we’ll all be raving about the hot new bug joint in the city.