Have you ever eaten insects?
For your viewing pleasure (or horror), I'll be getting my beer-and-bug pairing on. You can too, if you're feeling adventurous...
It's pretty standard that people pair food and wine together. Over the past few years, people have been pairing food and beer together, with anything from chocolate to cheese to smoked meat to curries. And now, Hobgoblin has decided to take things a step further, with a beer and bugs pairing kit.
Yup, you heard that right, crunchy critters and beer, together in harmony. As the unofficial beer of Halloween, Hobgoblin has to go all out right?
If you're feeling brave, the Beer & Bugs snack pack contains 16 cans of Hobgoblin (four each of Ruby, Gold, IPA, King Goblin), four packets of crickets in sweet chilli & lime, smoky bbq, peri peri and salted toffee flavours, a 2/3 pint glass, beer & bug matching card and the all important eye mask.
While we still might associate eating bugs as a Halloween-only treat (well, trick...), it's likely they will feature much more heavily in our diets in the future. A third of Britons think we'll be eating insects regularly by 2029.
Insects are making it into the fine dining world as well. Renowned chef James Ramsden has been busy creating a special insect-rich menu at his restaurant Pidgin, in Hackney, London, which will be available all Halloween week.
The menu features three canapés and a sweet finale, all paired with Hobgoblin beers.
Hobgoblin IPA - Spiced raw beef ‘larb’ with spicy crispy crickets and lettuce
Hobgoblin Gold - Cricket Flour Blinis, soured cream, smoked salmon, caviar and fried crickets
Hobgoblin Ruby - Grasshopper Gougeres - cheese puffs stuffed with a grasshopper ramp’ant and finished with garlic and parsley butter
King Goblin - Buffalo Worm Truffles - chocolate and cherry truffles coated in a crispy buffalo worm and hazelnut praline
James Ramsden said, "Insects are incredibly high in protein, low in carbohydrate, low in sugar: This is not some sort of novelty experiment, because we can all learn how to appreciate the relative normality of eating bugs; after all, ultimately we are quite happy to eat things like prawns, which are really just sea bugs.”
I'm going to make a little video trying out the beer and bug pairings, and attempt to make one of James' dishes: the Cricket Flour Blinis, with soured cream, smoked salmon, caviar and fried crickets. Stay tuned. I'll try anything once...
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Comments (53)
Lot's of time on my bike. Small flies and so..
A little protein snack to help you cycle further!
🤣
I've probably eaten an insect unknowingly. But I'd definitely give it a go.
hahaha yes I did recently swallow a fly while on a walk... but this will be my first intentional insect snacking. Actually, that's a lie. I had a cocktail a few years ago with some wood ants in it which was delicious. If you crunch them you get a...
Read moreThat's sounds like a cool cocktail. I'm getting ideas now 😂😂
Yes, in fact I have. I once tried cheese flavoured dried mealworms as a bet. I think the birds prefer it more...
But as worms go, they weren’t all that bad.
They should put that quote on the packet...
Nope. No. Hellll to the nawww 😂
I tasted them back in 2001 for the first time at an exhibition in Belgium. It wasn't sp bad so during the years I've ate insects many times but they're not, and probably never will be, a part of my daily menu.
I am very intrigued... think I might need one or two of the beers before I'm feeling brave enough though!
Some sorts taste great with a beer (or two), but others are more tasty with a good wine :)