Murder Hornets Are the New Buzz in Japanese Cuisine

If meat shortages thanks to the coronavirus continue, we’re all going to be looking for new sources of protein.

How about big, stingy bugs? Would you be interested in eating that?

The New York Post reports Japan is way ahead of us on this.

In more rural parts of Central Japan, giant hornets — which have infamously killed several people in recent years — have long been consumed in a variety of forms, and valued as a traditional source of cheap protein. The 2-inch long adult insects can even be found pan-fried and skewered for an on-the-go treat.

Murder hornets are one exotic food that doesn’t taste like chicken — psychotic Alabama attack chickens included (Roll Tide).

“People have compared it to a popcorn-y flavor without the butter,” Joseph Yoon, independent chef and founder of Brooklyn Bugs, told The Post. “Depending on how you prepare it, it can have different flavors.” For example, marinated larvae of these Japanese hornets will take on the flavor of the submersion liquid, he explains.

So you could have BBQ flavored murder hornets? Sweet and sour? Spicy hot sriracha? Bacon hornet bits?

Yeah, still not sold.

Yet. It depends on how bad the shortages get.

After I run out of actual meat, meat products, meat-like products, things that loosely resemble meat, beans, rice, quinoa, the plant protein powder stuff I bought at the beginning of the pandemic to be our protein of last resort…?

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Desperation does have a way of focusing and changing the mind.

Exit question: What’s the vegetarian position on eating bugs? One guy quoted in the story says he’s vegetarian and views snacking on murder hornets as within the bounds of his diet. But is it? You’re still eating a creature of some sort. How is that “vegetarian” but eating a nice, juicy steak isn’t? These bugs may be big enough to constitute a hornet filet.

Obtaining the approved daily recommended dose of protein may not be the only motive to plow through a pile of the supposedly savory scarabs.

Suzuki doesn’t eat them, adding that people have told him the ingredient “makes them potent.”

Yeah. Ok.