• last month
There are bugs in your noodles ... and it's delicious.

Brut sat down for a meal with chef Joseph Yoon whose food features one special ingredient: insects.
Transcript
00:00Are you ready for some cicada stir-fry noodles, my friend?
00:04I'm headed to Queens, New York, to meet up with Joseph Yoon, who cooks with bugs.
00:09Prior to my start working with edible insects, I had only eaten insects when I traveled.
00:15Yoon was working as a private chef and caterer when he discovered just how nutritious, sustainable,
00:21and delicious insects could be.
00:23It's estimated that we'll be at 9.5 billion people in 2050, and at the rate that we're
00:29going, we're going to run out of those resources to feed the growing population.
00:34Did you know that over 80% of the world's nations already consume insects on a regular
00:39basis?
00:40He founded Brooklyn Bugs in 2017 to raise awareness and appreciation for edible insects.
00:45Like, if you don't know insects are edible, you might be like, oh, that's disgusting.
00:51Now Yoon travels the country, giving lectures and hosting cooking workshops to encourage
00:55others to incorporate insects into their diet.
00:58What we really try to do is to, like, normalize it by showing just how easy it is to incorporate
01:05them, how delicious it can be, and we are ready to start cooking.
01:11What we've done here is made a beautiful aromatic and veggie bed for, now, the piece de resistance
01:19brewed eggs cicadas.
01:24They don't really take a long time to cook.
01:26We're going to add the rice noodles to this dish now.
01:30Start folding everything in.
01:32Top it off with some fresh scallions.
01:35I'm going to make sure I get some cicadas in my mouth.
01:38Me too.
01:44Hmm.
01:45It's almost like a raisin.
01:46Kind of got a crunch.
01:47It's a little juicy.
01:48You can see those little eyeballs.
01:50With insects, people think that they're going to taste a certain way, but when we look through
01:56the different insects that we have, black ants, they taste zesty and citrusy.
02:02Roasted crickets taste nutty.
02:04Superworms taste cheesy.
02:06Cicadas have, like, a vegetal quality to them.
02:09Bamboo worms are a little more unctuous.
02:11Palm weevils have a coconutty flavor.
02:13We have so many different flavor profiles, and if you think about the fact that there
02:18are over 2,000 types of edible insects, we're looking at a cornucopia of culinary potential
02:25that we have yet to unlock.
02:27This certainly isn't weird tasting.
02:30It tastes very familiar.
02:31A lot of times people have fear of something they don't know.
02:34Having that kind of relationship with a diner as a chef to help them conquer their fear,
02:39what an incredible relationship to have.
02:42Not only in opening people's minds to the idea of being able to eat more sustainably,
02:47but also to, like, kind of be like, wow, I used to fear scorpions, and now I can't believe
02:52I'm eating it.
02:53Well, I didn't want to queue that up like that, but I do have some scorpions if you
02:58want to try it with the cicada stir-fry.
03:00If you're wondering, the stinger is still attached, but it's safe to eat because the
03:05venom is denatured during the curing process, and it's not, I don't know.
03:11Or so they say.
03:12Okay, cheers.
03:13All right.
03:14Bug-appetit.
03:18The sauce itself is really good.
03:20The bug is kind of the vehicle for the sauce, and it's nice and crunchy.
03:25Bowl club!
03:26Ah!
03:27You did it.