Japan insect enthusiast puts cricket ramen on the menu

In a steamy Tokyo kitchen, a roasted scent wafts through the air as Yuto Shinohara prepares soup stock for ramen, derived not from meat or chicken, but crickets.

"In this pan, we have 10,000 crickets, making stock for 100 bowls," Shinohara explained, as he stirred a large silver pot. | Yuta Shinohara prepares to cook dried crickets.

The bowls of ramen produced by Shinohara and his team look and smell like those at restaurants across Japan: fine white noodles sit in a savoury soup, topped with a juicy slice of meat and fat pieces of pickled bamboo shoots.

There's little to give away the fact that 26-year-old Shinohara uses crickets in the broth, oil, soy sauce and even noodles. | A box containing crickets to be used as ingredients in cricket ramen home-cooking kits at a kitchen in Tokyo.

Except, that is, for the deep-fried insect perched next to a mitsuba leaf garnish on the soup's surface. | A pot containing dried crickets.

Shinohara isn't a professional chef, in fact his preferred description of himself is "earth boy." | Yuta Shinohara fries crickets.

And it's his love of all things nature-related that led to him insect-based food.

"I want to introduce the joy of insect eating, so that insects will be respected equally to animals and plants," he told AFP.

Shinohara's love affair with insects began as a child, when he spent most of his time in fields and bushes, catching grasshoppers and cicadas. | Shota Shiratori fries crickets to be used as a topping for home-cooking packages of cricket ramen.

He was so fascinated by creepy-crawlies that he eventually even tasted them - but only secretly. | Kento Sekine blends dried crickets as part of cricket ramen home-cooking kits.

"I couldn't tell anyone that I love insects or I eat insects until I was about 20 years old," he says shyly. | Dried crickets (top), cocoons (L) and grashoppers in pots to be used as ingredients as part of cricket ramen home-cooking kits.

"I was afraid of becoming the odd one out or being bullied for it." | A pot of crickets in boiling water.

Shinohara and his team had planned to open an insect cuisine restaurant named Antcicada in downtown Tokyo in April, but were forced to put it on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic. | Hiromi Toyonaga (L) and Shota Shiratori (R) prepare cardboard boxes for delivery of their cricket ramen home-cooking kits.