( rings ) Fake drinking before speaking. Thanks for clicking through. We’re no stranger to eating weird things on this show, and that includes bugs. There’s nothing enjoyable about it, so when we heard that there was a person out there who has taken the concept of eating bugs and elevated it to a fine dining experience where bugs are paired with wine, we said, “Get that person on our show right now!” “And get us to the bug zone right now!” Welcome to the fine-dining bug zone. Mm-hm, we’re here with Aly Moore, bug blogger and entomophagist. What is an entomophagist? It is the fancy word for someone who eats insects. Oh, bug eater. Yes. We’ve eaten quite a few bugs, but we do it more for effect, but you’re doing it, like, for real, like actually pairing it with wine. Yeah, the goal is to normalize the act of eating bugs, so we can explain why it’s sustainable, nutritious, and can taste good. ‘Cause that is the future. – Hopefully. – That’s where were headed. Do we need to order? Or is it already– – I already ordered for you. – Oh. – We have some nice pairings set up. – Bring it in. – Okay, let’s do that. – Aly: Perfect. Oh, look at that We got– We got a maître d’. Oh, yeah. It’s Chase. And what do we have here? We have piles of bugs, and then we have, like, oh, fancy, fancy, fancy. Fancy little bug amuse-bouches. You got amuse-bouche, and I got amuse-bouche. Now, there’s two different bugs here. First of all, there’s tomatoes, but we’ll get into that in a second ’cause that’s gonna be a much bigger problem for Link than anything else on this plate. And what are these? So we have crickets and termites, and they’re just in their full glory. I’m a wood lover. Termites are wood lovers, so we should be on the same page. ( chuckles ) You’ll find the bugs are small enough so they actually are what they eat. – Termites will have– – It has a woodsy flavor, man. It does– It smells a lot like a piece of wood. It really does. And I’ve always wanted to eat wood, but every time I’ve tried, it’s been a problem. – Would you? – Could you? And then what do these smell like? Those might have a little bit of a soybean– – Soybeans. – Yeah, you’re right. It’s kinda got a “edamama.” And it’s very much better… – in terms of food smell. – Than the termites? It almost smells like it’s got a flavor like a soy sauce on it already. All right, let’s eat these. I see you’ve got some wine here. Does the wine make the bugs taste better, or do the bugs make the wine taste worse? Well, hopefully the former. We’ve paired up some bugs with wine to demonstrate the complex and nuanced flavors of insects. So which one are we– should we do first? Let’s do cucumber first because this is going to be a problem. Start light, go heavy. I did not know about the tomatoes. In what order? Let’s go with the crickets and then the wine. Rhett: Is that a spoon? It’s a spoon plate. Yeah? I’m having trouble with the cucumber part. – It’s actually not that bad. – It could be worse. And it’s full of protein. In fact, there’s more protein in crickets than in beef. – Really? – Yeah. Yeah, but there’s more protein in a cow than a bug, just, like, one for one. That’s a good point. – But… – So that’s a little misleading. …cows take a lot more land to raise. You’re right. I know. Hey, listen. I know. Now, when I drink this wine, what am I supposed to be thinking? So you’re just supposed to imagine– Whatever comes natural, man. He wasn’t supposed to do the whole thing, was he? I mean, we have more. I’ll tell you. The wine helps. It kind of helps with everything. Here you go, Link. Here’s a– Take that and spoon it into your mouth. So next up we have the termites. I don’t think you understand how difficult this is gonna be for him. You can go straight for the termites if you don’t like tomato. No, no, he has to do it. This is the way it was presented. You don’t wanna insult the chef. – Okay. – Let’s do it. Termite time. No! No! Go– No, eat your friggin’ tomato, man. This is not about the tomato. I don’t wanna ruin the, uh– Ugh… – Now, you will– – The experience of eating termites and cheese, which is actually, I would say, pleasant, Not bad at all. The crickets– definitely better than the termites, though. I’m sorry to insult a fellow wood lover, but I gotta say, I like the crickets better. What else have we got? So the last course is actually my favorite bug, – and– – Your favorite bug. – Yes. – We should have these in our laps, man. What are we thinking? – Yeah, we’re so– – So rude. We’re so Neanderthal. – What is this? – This is a chapulines or grasshopper. – Link: A trampoline? – Huh? – That’s much better name. – Chapulines. We need better names for bugs in general so that people feel more comfortable. These guys are full-bodied, and they’re actually seasoned up with some Tajin chili and lime, and they’re gonna have a really cool heat to them, and they’re honestly delicious. They’re all on Link’s hand. Oh, they actually don’t smell bad. They smell enticing. You don’t seem to be taking this very well. ( clears throat ) I need some wine. So these are on just a little bruschetta with some avocado and sour cream. You might like this one. – Ooh. – Rhett: The bread is nice. There’s a– There’s like a tanginess. Yeah, this pairs actually really good with the Cab Franc. It has enough tannins to stand up to the bold flavor of the grasshopper, but it’s still a little candied, so you can really bring out and balance that spiciness that’s in the grasshopper. I gotta be honest. It all kind of begins to blend together for me. – But I do think– – Let’s just try one on its own. I do– I will say that not just eating them straight, like we typically do on the show, is the way to get people to eat bugs because… ( crunching ) this is not– it’s not pleasant to just do that. I just sit and eat those. I didn’t think that was bad. You know what? We’ve learned a lot. And I think I have a renewed hope in the future, which is going to be filled with eating insects. – Fact. – Hopefully. Click through to the next part of this episode – so you can watch us eat a bug burrito. – Link: Mm. Link: Black Friday means you can get our black-on-black mythical logo tee, available at mythical.store. On sale now.