Hello? Buzzing is back(ish)
Still eating, getting back to writing
Hello friends,
How are you all? It has been so long, I owe you an apology. Last time I wrote was in September 2022 and so much has happened since, some of it good, but a lot of it terrible.
I’ll start with the good bits: the reason I couldn’t sustain the fortnightly newsletter is that I wrote two-thirds of a book on insect protein and insect farming. It was always my ambition to chronicle the emergence of this amazing movement and industry in long form, but it took some hankering down to do it.
The other reason is that I got a new job in January 2023: after 15 years freelancing, I got an amazing opportunity to join Global Water Intelligence as their Sustainable Development Editor (it’s a publishing company specialising in the water and sanitation sector): it’s a brilliant team, whom I have known for as long as I have freelanced, and a topic that is increasingly relevant with the climate crisis.
I didn’t have the headspace to work on my book in those initial few months and the second half of 2023 was marred by terrible personal losses. Suffice to say there will be a before and after 2023.
I therefore look to 2024 with just one resolve: to cherish all those I have and embrace every moment. There is so much for live for.
So here is to 2024 and finishing that book. I feel slightly out of the loop but it’s nothing 100+ unread, carefully put aside emails can’t solve 😅. If you have any thoughts on how the sector has changed in the past year, or interesting developments I should bear in mind, please do get in touch.
Thank you to all of you who have been in touch in the past few months to enquire where Buzzing had gone; and hello to all my new subscribers, I can’t believe how many of you have joined despite me doing nothing!
Wishing you all good health, love and success for 2024,
Emilie x
Although I didn’t write about insects as much this year, I still ate them.
I was lucky enough to go to Mexico for work earlier this year and ate some chapulines in a wonderful cantina in Monterrey, with a side order of mariachi ballads and a stiff margarita. The hoppers were infinitely better than the ones I had previously tried in the US: I imagine they were fresher; the seasoning was delicious too. I was so busy enjoying my meal that I forgot to take a picture.
Very happily, I also went out for dinner to Yum Bug’s pop-up restaurant in early November in London. I have been following Aaron and Leo’s business for a few years now and I knew they were plotting something exciting, so as soon as I received the email announcing their pop-up, I booked two tickets. They sold out, so I did well 😊
The venue was in Shoreditch, London’s hippest neighbourhood, and the menu was worthy of its setting: just over half a dozen small plates, designed by well-known chefs (Sam Clark of Moro, Tim Molemo, head of food at Nando’s or James Nathan of MasterChef) with crickets the only meat on the menu.
The crickets came in many guises: whole roasted, or in Yum Bug’s insect-based mince, which were expertly seasoned, sprinkled on dishes, cooked in sauces, shaped into koftes or meatballs. I did not try all the dishes but my friend Catherine (one of the original adventurous gastronomes) and I gave it our best shot:
Whole roasted crickets and sunflower seeds (ingredients: “maple syrup, sriracha pepper and some chef wizardry”), so morish we took a paper bag home with the leftovers and an extra portion.
Cheesy leek croquettes with cricket chunks and tomato relish: deliciously crisp on the outside and oozing melting cheese goodness inside.
Porcini ragu, polenta chips and crispy garlic: the star of the show, incredibly flavoursome and rich. My goodness, I wish I could make this at home.
Spiced mince and polenta flatbread: we could not NOT order it once we saw a plate of this whizz past us. The flatbread was fluffy as a cloud and the combo of rich and sharp flavours of the cricket mince and pomegranate was spot on.
Incredibly, we still had space to order the brownie hazelnut tart (which contained cricket powder). I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that this is the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten (and believe me, I know what I’m talking about when it comes to chocolate cakes). It had the soft texture of a flourless chocolate cake without being overly buttery. I don’t think Catherine got more than a spoonful (soz ma belle).
Luckily, Leo and Aaron very generously gave us an extra dessert to try: spiced apple pie gelato. The crickets were folded both in the ice-cream itself in powder form and then sprinkled whole as a topping. They’d been roasted with cinnamon and had the texture of honeycomb. The whole dessert was divine and incredibly unusual: we both agreed that this was not something we would have thought to order but that we were really taken by it.
I left thinking that it had been one of the best meals I’d had in a while. And that Yum Bug was really onto something. I would defy anyone to go there and not like the food, which is exactly the point of these amazing chef collaborations. Make insects special and delicious. Make them normal.
They’re now working on a range of supermarket products and a permanent restaurant, so watch this space.