Post date: May 18, 2013 3:57:24 PM
USA-Insects/Cuisine -- California restaurant brings insects on menu
China Central Television (CCTV) - A restaurant featuring Asian-style cuisines in California, the United States, brings insects into its dishes, with many customers keeping coming back to enjoy the flavor.
What is cooking at Typhoon Asian Fusion restaurant in Santa Monica, California, isn't being dished much anywhere else in Southern California or America.Dishes like stir-fried crickets, ants and fried scorpions are served here.
"The menu pretty much has most countries represented in Asia. There's Malaysia, there's Thai, there's Vietnamese, there's Burmese, Chinese, Singapore," said Brian Vidor, owner of the Typhoon restaurant.
Brian Vidor spent 15 years in Asia where he was introduced to the crawling-type of cuisine, and ever since then he's been trying to introduce it to the western palate.
"The scorpions come out of Paso Robles. We stir-fry them and we put them on shrimp toast, which is how it was served when I was in Singapore," said Brian Vidor.
While the dishes may be challenging for some customers who have never tasted food like this, some others are a bit more receptive to silk worm larvae and cricket stirfry.
"If you like little, tiny, sharp French-fries, they are great. And the crickets they got wings and eyes. I would compare them probably to fried shrimp," said Gery Moret, a customer in the restaurant.
"Insects are a great source of protein. Crab, shellfish, or lobster, well those are just swimming insects. They got in that saltwater and learned to adapt," said Steven Rosenberg, owner of Health Food Store.
Perhaps something western cultures can do when it comes to eating such nutritious, abundant and green food source.
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