Why Auckland's latest food trend is actually thousands of years old

Crunching on black ants or stirring cricket flour through a Salsa Tarasca may sound bizarre but using insects in cooking is nothing new. In fact it's thousand's of years old.

However, it's only recently become a trend in Auckland, and it's largely thanks to talented chef Javier Carmona.

Carmona is the man behind the successful menus at Mexico and Beirut. His newest offering, Inti, at the corner of O'Connell and Chancery Streets in Auckland's CBD is a South American restaurant promoting "pre-Hispanic" cuisine.

THE INSPIRATION

Carmona's inspiration draws on cooking techniques and ingredients used in pre-Hispanic cuisine thousands of years ago, when insects were consumed as a normal part of people's diets.

"When you look at cuisine in South America, pre-Hispanic cuisine especially, insects and eating insects is quite a normal sort of practice.

"They have been doing it for thousands of years. So it made perfect sense as far as the concept is concerned to incorporate insects in some way or form into the menu."

The menu at Inti features two insect dishes: A Tostada with black ants, and a Salsa Tarasca which uses cricket flour.

Carmona explains while the insects are an important part of the menu, they don't personify the dishes.

"It's not like we are just giving you a spoonful of ants, you've got other flavour profiles that are happening there, so they just add another profile."

So, how does a dish featuring insects taste? I put my hand up to sample some of what goes into Carmona's creations. And I was pleasantly surprised.

BLACK ANTS

I tried the black ants on their own and found they were crunchy, citrusy and resembled lime zest in terms of what they would bring to a dish.

And it's for this reason that the flavour profile in the ants works well with South American food, says Carmona.

"Certainly with South American foods it works really really well, because when you are thinking about Hispanic flavours and you're talking about chilli's, hot dishes, you're talking about braised meats. So that really citrusy profile is really nice and bright and textural, so it really lends itself well to Hispanic food."

CRICKET FLOUR

The cricket flour used in Inti's Salsa Tarasca has a stronger flavour than what people may usually be accustomed to, says Carmona, but it can be easily balanced with other flours.

"The wonderful thing with the cricket flour is that you can basically tone it down by adding flour."

The cricket flour had a lovely nutty flavour and a scent which resembled cooked mushrooms.

That nutty profile is common among edible insects: "I guess with most of the insects you are going to get a little bit of nuttiness, it's one of the common themes," Carmona explains.

WHY SHOULD WE EAT INSECTS?

Cooking with insects is sustainable, high in protein and can be delicious.

Carmona believes insects could in fact be the way of the future, if only people could get over the squeamishness of putting them in their mouths.

"If you can just get over that little sort of steep hill and just give them a go, I think you'll find their easy to use, easy to eat and very versatile."