How About Grasshopper Sauce to Tune Up Your Steak?

Those of you who have heard about Entomophagy it's nothing new, but for those who can't think of eating insects, it might be too hard to bear. But, then, for the sake of health and curiosity just read this through.

It's a story of grasshoppers or more correctly "locusts". The Ancient Egyptians carved them on their tombs and the insects are mentioned in the Bible and the Quran. Well, that's not the point. It's a story of how locusts have come to enter the world of Japanese cuisine. More precisely, how they have come to play a role in producing seasoning.

A certain Mr. Hiroto Tanaka of Kinokawashi , Wakayama has developed a sauce from locusts that tastes like soy-sauce and even better, according to a famed TV cooking master. The Japanese call locusts "Inago", so the sauce is named Inago-Sauce. 

Mr. Tanaka, formerly a drugs salesman, decided three years ago to try revitalizing his hometown. He built a small brewery at home and began fermenting locusts with malted rice and salt. The brownish paste in the barrel is fragrant indeed. A Thai seasoning "nam pla" gave him the idea: why not locusts instead of fish?

"Inago-Sauce is kind to your tongue and definitely milder than soy-sauce", says Tanaka. Last year Tanaka brewed 2 litres of Inago-Sauce and tested the product in tasting events in Tokyo and Osaka. Reactions were favorable. Rokusaburo Michiba, 84, a master cook who made himself famous on TV, phoned Tanaka assuring him the sauce is "fragrant and tasteful".

Tanaka has the edible locusts sent from Nagano and plans to produce 60 litres of Inago-Sauce this year by the end of October. The cost of raw material being high and the volume of production still limited, his Inago-Sauce will have to be priced a bit high: 2,000 yen for 100ml.