Crickets usually live under rocks and logs in meadows, in pastures or along the roadside. Known for their chirping, male crickets produce their signature songs by rubbing together their forewings, which have a modified vein that contains 50 to 300 ridges. Each song leads to one thing: mating. Crickets are eaten in some African and Asian cultures, where they are considered a delicacy. In Cambodia, crickets are captured by the pounds to be fried with spices and sold in street markets. Demand for crickets worldwide has skyrocketed lately as crickets are an inexpensive source of protein. Most of the time, crickets are deep fried before eaten. Put the crickets in hot oil, cook them until they’re crisp and sprinkle them over anything or eat them by themselves

I had always tried to imagine what crickets would taste like. Would they taste of grass and dirt, or, as I fatefully learned in Biology a few weeks earlier, would I be able to taste uric acid and hemolymph? After I unwrapped the gold foil, I unwittingly found myself staring at the abdomen of a cricket, its solitary leg sticking straight up. It turns out the chocolate cube containing the much-anticipated cricket tasted like any other low-quality, overly sweetened chocolate I had ever eaten. Only the extreme brittleness of the cricket distinguished it; it was exactly like eating a mouthful of sand. After all the hype about finally being able to eat an insect, the experience was somewhat of a letdown. However, I gained two things from this experience. The first, bragging rights. The second, a fantastic gaudy purple “I Ate A Bug Club” pin that came with the cricket.