CHALLENGES
CHOCOLATE-COATED CRICKETS
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION!
Going into this challenge, I had high hopes for the crickets. Those hopes were burnt to a crisp when the crickets came out of the oven nicely burnt to a crisp. I tried all three chocolate sauces with the crickets and can safely report that the dark chocolate was the shiniest of turds.
I have to be honest, I was not very excited for this challenge. I think you'd be slightly odd if you were. I was particularly unlucky with my choice of cricket. The poor little hopper exploded in my mouth and I felt his crispy limbs wrapped around my teeth for hours after. Truly horrifying!
No amount of chocolate could get rid of the sickly dust that stuck around in my mouth for the rest of the day. Any optimism going into this challenge disappeared as soon as that can was opened up and the smell hit my nostrils. Talk about opening up a can of worms, opening up a can of crickets is much worse.
I've eaten a fertilised duck egg (balut) before so I genuinely thought that this challenge would be a breeze. I was so wrong. It was horrible. The smell, the crunch, everything about it was awful and I can safely say that I will never try crickets, even ones covered in chocolate, ever again.
This was not something I'd ever think about repeating. The stench of crickets was a memory that will stick with me for a long time for all the wrong reasons. The finished taste wasn't really an improvement, although this could be down to the fact that we bought crickets for animal consumption only.
