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The Take-Noko café is already recognized worldwide for its insect-based menu, including dishes with crickets, sodas with cockroaches or tofu with larvae. Now, it is introducing a new creation that is, to say the least, experimental and exotic.
The inclusion of traditional delicacies such as silkworms or crickets on restaurant menus is becoming increasingly popular in Japan. Especially after the UN declared insects a sustainable source of protein to feed an ever-growing world population, as an alternative to livestock farming and its negative impact on climate change.
All of this has increased interest in the inexpensive, high-quality nutrition provided by insects. A practice that has thus spread to Take-Noko, whose manager, Michiko Miura, tells CNN about the significance of this trend during the food shortages during and after World War II; times when grasshoppers, silkworms and wasps were traditionally eaten in landlocked regions where meat and fish were scarce.
This restaurant is just one of many venues or consumers that are exploring the world of entomophagy, or insect consumption, as bugs gradually become a more viable food source.
The heyday of insect cuisine, of which Japan has a rich culinary history, has thus led this café to continue to feature liquid concoctions such as Tagame cider, a carbonated beverage made from water bug extract, garnished with a dried version of the insect.
