Crunchy cricket burgers have fairgoers happily chirping along at the PNE
Most eateries make every effort to ensure you won’t find bugs in their food. But at the Fair at the PNE, Gourmet Burgers has decided to go in a different direction.
Brian Jones’s cricket burger is crawling with insects, albeit not literally: the crickets stay exactly where they are, sandwiched between a beef patty, fresh tomatoes and lettuce, and slathered in chipotle mayo.
Staring at the creation, with cricket legs spilling out the side of an otherwise appetizing burger, one is left wondering why. And as to Jones’s cricket fries, a poutine, of sorts, with crickets instead of cheese curds, same question.
“Why not?” said Jones, a self-described foodie, standing in front of his Gourmet Burgers stand, which has been a staple at the PNE for the last 16 years.
“Every year I come up with something a little more unique to enhance fairgoers’ experience when they come to the fair — that’s what it’s about for me. It’s coming up with a product every year that’s fun, that people haven’t tried before.”
Safe to say most Vancouverites haven’t tried crickets. Entomophagy, the practice of eating insects, is common in Africa, Asia and Latin America. But when most Westerners think of eating bugs, they think of Fear Factor.
Jones says that’s changing, however.
“Crickets are actually the newest craze, the newest super food,” he said. “Packed with protein, minerals, fibre, calcium — they actually pack more of a punch for protein than beef, and they’re a sustainable product as well.
“Cattle use a lot of water and natural resources to grow, and crickets, they don’t.”
Jones added that his crickets, which are sourced from a farm just outside of Toronto, are free-range, and enjoy happy, 10-day lives before they’re processed for consumption.
But how do they taste? Like barbecue, it turns out. Norwood, Ont.’s Entomo Farms sells crickets in chili lime, Moroccan, honey-mustard and barbecue flavours; Jones opted for the latter.
“I wanted the barbecue to go a little bit more with the burger, and then added the chipotle mayo just to add a kick to it as well,” he said.
One wonders if the burger needed more of a “kick” after a layer of barbecue-flavoured crickets, but it’s hard to argue with a seasoned chef and his seasoned insects. And after tasting the cricket burger, Postmedia can confirm that the flavours and textures — the crickets add a crunch, like a layer of barbecue chips — work very well together. Fairgoers appear to agree. “The reception’s been good — we’ve had a busy day,” said Jones. “There’s a lot of crickets flying out of here.”