Pestaurants…yes you guessed it, restaurants that serve pests, have become increasingly popular.

Now, if the thought of choking down a six-legged insect makes your skin crawl, consider these 5 cockroach recipes for your upcoming Halloween party:

Fried Roach:

First, put the cockroach in a plastic, sealable baggie and put it in the freezer for 5 minutes (to ensure the cockroach is dead).

Wash the cockroach and dry it on a sheet or paper towel.

Heat a frying pan with some olive oil.

Fry the cockroach until it is brown and crispy.

Remove the oil, turn off the heat, and add a small amount of sugar and soy sauce.

When the sugar melts and turns into caramel, take the cockroach out of the pan and onto a plate, ready to serve.

Roach Stir-fry:

Ingredients 7-10 American Cockroaches (periplaneta Americana), or 5 hissing cockroaches 1 onion 1 green pepper 5 cups of rice 2 teaspoons of ginger powder (fresh ginger can be substituted and is actually preferred) Vegetable oil Salt (to taste)

Directions Make sure to remove the wings and legs of the roaches. These will not be needed in the recipe. Boil the rice In a wok, add about three teaspoons of vegetable oil. Heat the oil, add the vegetables and heat for three to five minutes. You will want the vegetables to be crisp. In a separate pan, heat about three more tablespoons of vegetable oil and fry the cockroaches about 30 seconds to a minute (do not over-fry them, they cook quickly). Place cockroaches into the stir-fry and serve on top of the rice. A variation to this recipe could be to dice the vegetables and make fried rice.



Roach Spread:

Simply simmer cockroaches in vinegar then boil with butter, farina flour, pepper and salt to make a paste.

Spread on buttered bread.

Roach Taco/Burrito:

Remove wings & legs from desired amount of cockroaches.

Wash cockroaches in water.

Cook roaches with beef or chicken.

Add the elements of your favorite taco/burrito recipe.

Cockroach Fondu:

Remove wings & legs from desired amount of cockroaches.

Wash cockroaches in water.

Boil for 10 minutes.

Dip cockroaches in melted chocolate.

If one or more of these recipes has tickled your fancy, you might ask the question, “Where can one buy cockroaches so I can get to cookin’?” The good news is, online cockroach farms (yes, these really do exist), sell b. lateralis colonies of cockroaches for reasonable prices. And believe me…cockroaches cooked right are ‘mmmm good!