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The Insectarium and the David Suzuki Foundation wanted in on the week, which featured, among other events, the screening of a 2016 documentary on edible insects, Bugs, in which Redon appears. There was also an event aimed at local chefs and academics featuring tastings of dishes incorporating insects: grasshoppers roasted with maple syrup, then dusted with hibiscus and beetroot salt; tortillas spread with avocado and topped with toasted red maguey worms; and ant eggs sautéed with onion and the prickly pear fruit of the Nopal cactus. They were garnished with local sprouts and flowers, such as the Claytonie de Caroline over the maguey worm tacos.

The grasshoppers were crispy and sweet, the creamy avocado was a good counterpoint for the worms, which were baked and toasted until crispy, and the ant eggs tasted buttery and a bit nutty. If I hadn’t know I was eating insects, I could not have identified them as such. But I did. And that made me apprehensive. Curious — but still apprehensive.

Redon pointed out that this has a lot to do with attitude. Most of us find honey delicious and we don’t think about it as the regurgitation by bees of nectar from flowers — or bee vomit, as he put it. And before sushi became as popular as it is, many would have been squeamish about the idea of consuming raw fish.