Over the years, I've deemed myself ' a student of human behavior' which is why I love doing demos. They're one of the ultimate ways of observing humans and all of their personalities and idiosyncrasies. Prime example-- I demoed our rubs at the recent Eugene Truffle Festival and decided to taste test a new potential collaboration--CRICKETS seasoned with our rubs.
During set-up I conservatively filled my tasting dishes with 'just enough' to get through the show as I just KNEW the crickets would probably not fly (omg, no pun intended! HONEST) with a whole lot of people. Glad I'm not a bettin' woman because I'd have lost my shirt on that one! WOW!! The response was off-the-chart! I refilled my dishes 6x during the show!! Young, old, male, female, foodies, wanna-be-foodies, non-foodies and everyone in between just HAD to try the crickets! There were some 'squeamers' no doubt and for some, there wasn't enough 'liquid courage' on the planet to get a cricket near their mouths! But for ALL of the others who 'stepped up to the plate' (especially the 12yrs/under) and indulged their curiosity, I say KUDOS for stepping out of your comfort zones! Many of you were surprised but pleased at your own courage to overcome the mental block that keeps so many from experiencing new and different things about which we have a mental block. I saw GROWTH at that table and what was even cooler is that once on your tongues, you wondered what the fuss was about in trying them. They taste like sunflower seeds or a mild nut or popcorn. Then when you get the flavor of our rubs on them, well hell, give you a handful--a couple of handfuls! LOADED w protein, sustainable, and cheaper to produce than a pound of meat or seafood, crickets are one of the 'it' foods on the list of foods that are good for us!
I baked a batch with each of our rub flavors and sauteed another batch with the 3 flavors. i got great feedback on the preference of not only the flavors but the textures between the two cooking methods. THANK YOU to all who had fun just trying something you've been curious about thanks to recent media attention about the quest for alternative sources of protein. I had a blast watching the enthusiasm and facial expressions of taste testers across the map. Stay tuned for more tasty developments and opportunities to taste test at demos around town! Check out some pics from the show.
