Insect Cuisine: The Next New Food Trend

Typhoon restaurant - ants. A plate of ants, served over a bed of deep fried shredded potatoes.

Taiwanese Crickets (stir-fried with raw garlic, chile peppers, Asian basil with string potatoes)

Singapore-style scorpions on a shrimp toast: a dish at the Typhoon Restaurant, Care for some scorpion on toast?

The guacamole hiding unexpected slivers of orange and flavored with chicatana (flying ants) salt, served with the thick.

The Black Ant (La Hormiga Negra), a new restaurant in the East Village from the same folks behind Ofrenda across town. The focus here is inventive dishes inspired by chef Mario Hernandez’s native Oaxaca. True to the name, there are a number of dishes with dehydrated edible insects shipped from Mexico.

Restaurant Antojeria La Popular in downtown Manhattan has debuted the "Grass-Whopper," which is exactly what it sounds like. A burger patty made from a combination of crickets and queso Chihuahua--a mild cheese made from cow's milk--is seasoned and cooked on the griddle, then topped with chipotle-mayo, onion, romaine lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, and stuffed inside of a whole-wheat mini pita bread.

This high protein energy bars contains flour made from baked and ground up crickets.