In Japan, Silkworms, Crickets, Bugs Are on the Table

More restaurants in Japan are offering bugs in their dishes.

日本越来越多的餐馆在菜肴中加入虫子。

On a recent vacation in Tokyo, Takumi Yamamoto ate a special lunch of cricket curry and silkworm sashimi, which is usually made with raw fish. He drank a water bug cider.

最近在东京度假时，山本拓海吃了一顿特别的午餐，包括咖喱蟋蟀和蚕生鱼片，这些午餐通常是用生鱼制成的。 他喝了一杯水虫苹果酒。

The 26-year-old office worker is one of many people around the world with a growing interest in entomophagy, or the practice of eating insects. Bugs are slowly becoming more usable as a food source.

这位 26 岁的办公室职员是世界各地对食虫现象日益感兴趣的人之一。 虫子正慢慢变得更适合作为食物来源。

Yamamoto said he sometimes ate grasshoppers dipped in soy sauce as a child. In Tokyo, he ate insect foods at Take-Noko cafe, which serves many bug dishes.

山本说，他小时候有时会吃蘸酱油的蚱蜢。 在东京，他在 Take-Noko 咖啡馆吃昆虫食品，那里供应许多昆虫菜肴。

"It's fun to select from a wider variety of dishes," Yamamoto said. "Everything was tasty. In particular, the water bug cider was quite refreshing … like a green apple."

“从更多种类的菜肴中进行选择很有趣，”山本说。 “一切都很美味。特别是水蝽苹果酒非常清爽……就像青苹果一样。”

Entomophagy started to be taken seriously after the United Nations declared bugs a good source of protein to feed a growing world population. With livestock farming’s effects on climate change and world hunger issues from weather and war, there has been more interest in the nutrition bugs can provide.

在联合国宣布昆虫是养活不断增长的世界人口的良好蛋白质来源之后，食虫行为开始受到认真对待。 由于畜牧业对气候变化以及天气和战争造成的世界饥饿问题的影响，人们对昆虫所能提供的营养越来越感兴趣。