What's The Best Way To Eat Cicadas? A Chef's Insect-Based Recipes - WSHU

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And finally today, if you are on the East Coast, you already know. They seem to be everywhere. I'm talking about the cicadas of Brood 10, those red-eyed bugs that emerge from the ground every 17 years and whose song eventually builds into a deafening wall of sound that's impossible to ignore. Some parts of the Eastern U.S. are already experiencing that. Others have yet to get the full treatment. But what we want to talk about now is, what's the best way to eat them? Turns out, many people have been gathering cicadas and preparing them in a number of ways, from salad toppings to creature kabobs.

Who knows? This Memorial Day weekend, you're getting ready for your cookout, and you might be feeling adventurous. So we decided to hear from a chef who's been giving this some serious thought. That's why we called Xavier Deshayes. He is the executive chef at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here in Washington, D.C. And he has already prepared a number of cicada-based recipes that he is ready to share with us.

Chef, thank you so much for joining us.

XAVIER DESHAYES: Thank you, Michel, for having me. Really a pleasure to share that with you.

MARTIN: So I'm sure this isn't news to you, but I'm guessing that dining on any kind of bug is not something many of our listeners do regularly. So why would somebody want to cook with these creatures?

DESHAYES: Simple. If you cannot beat it, eat it, you know?

MARTIN: (Laughter).

DESHAYES: So they are here, and we need to do something with it, you know. I've always been using invasive species of one way or another. Then cicadas, here I am, 17 years waiting for you. And so, you know, me as a French, if we can eat snail and frog, I can try to eat cicadas, especially if I cook them.

MARTIN: Solid point. Just a point of clarification. They not an invasive species because they are actually native to this area.

DESHAYES: I do understand, but when you have trillions coming in one time, we can call that.

MARTIN: (Laughter) That is true. When you're, like, sitting on your deck, and one falls into your coffee cup, you might see it as invasive. So totally get that point. But you were telling us that there's an environmental advantage to getting your protein from insects as opposed to of meat, right?

DESHAYES: Of course.

MARTIN: Tell me a little bit more about that.

DESHAYES: Insect is going to be the protein of the future. You know, insect farming is very sustainable when you compare to cows or any other animal farming, you know - less fossil energy, less water, less space, less food, you know what I mean? So when you look at it on the end, insect farming has every way of being profitable.

MARTIN: I'm getting warmer. I'm not there yet, though (laughter).

DESHAYES: You will come. You will come. You need to eat some of the cicadas that I have prepared, you know what I mean? Maybe you will trust it even more.

MARTIN: It could be that. So let's talk about these other people who are more interested in eating these things than I am. So what's the first thing you do? Like, do you gather them at a particular stage, or how do you do it?

DESHAYES: You know, I don't eat insect. It's not something that I eat every day. So two weeks ago, I start to harvest them. And I say, OK, what you will be the good safety to eat them? So I blanched them on the boiling water for five minutes. And after that, I laid them on the sheet pan. And I roast them for 2 1/2 to three hours at 200 degrees.

MARTIN: Oh.

DESHAYES: So what I end up having is a very dry cicada. They look like a little snack.

MARTIN: Yeah.

DESHAYES: And with that, I made a powder, crushed them. And for one of the recipes that I did a couple days ago, I crust a flank steak for barbecue.

MARTIN: Oh, OK.

DESHAYES: So I grill my flank steak. And overnight, I put this crust of cicadas (unintelligible) with olive oil, with garlic powder, with parsley. And I rub my flank steak. And I leave that like that to marinate overnight before to finish it the next day. And it give a really a nice woody, nutty - it's very interesting.

MARTIN: What does it taste like on its own? Like, does it taste like chips or a nut or what does it taste like?

DESHAYES: OK. So for the dry ones, I try because after that I have a lot of people who came from work and said, chef, I would like to try. Give me the opportunity to try. So I give them the dry one, and it's like chips. It doesn't taste anything. I did this one with a nice sea salt, you know. And if you close your eyes - different type of snacks, you will not know that it's cicadas.

MARTIN: Let's say you're at a cookout this Memorial Day and somebody has taken the plunge and they've cooked up some cicada kebabs or something like that. Is there something you would recommend them to encourage people to try them? Would you say just lay it out there and put them in a bowl like some chips, or would you put it in something, or what would you do?

DESHAYES: Well, first, when you have somebody, you need to talk and to be very enthusiastic and show them. Then you eat them like a candy yourself, too, you know.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

DESHAYES: This is what I have done. You know, people who has been working with me really long time, know me, then I will not do that. But, you know, I proposed to them, and they have this kind of sort of face, oh, no, I don't want that. Look. I eat them like a candy. And you do that in front of them and say, wow OK, so what - who I am different, you know what I mean? Like, try it. And after, when they try, some of them, I said, can I have some more?

DESHAYES: And some of them are like, no, thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: OK, Chef, you've been a lot of fun. I just have to say, a lot of people are probably getting together maybe for the first time in a long time with family in some parts of the country, where people are finally getting vaccinated, and people are finally having get-togethers. I think it's going to be kind of an emotional experience for a lot of people. What else do you recommend?

DESHAYES: Of course, finally for the first time. You're exactly right, Michel. I think Memorial Day is going to be a great weekend, you know what I mean? Because you still pay attention. You protect yourself. But this is what we have been missing, you know. We've not been missing not going to work. We've been missing going to see our grandparents. We've been missing to see father and sister and mother and share this experience. And I'm sure with that, the level of relationship would be different. We're going to value more the time we spending with our families.

MARTIN: That was Xavier Deshayes. He is the executive chef at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here in Washington, D.C. And he has been guiding us through cicada cooking (laughter). Chef, thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us.

DESHAYES: No, Michel. Thank you very much. And enjoy your great weekend. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Taps Tips Expands: Opens Taps Tips Eat & Play Next Door - Patch.com

JOLIET, IL — Almost a year-and-a-half after opening the Taps Tips BBQ takeout restaurant at 3111 Theodore St., members of the Tapley family have expanded their growing Joliet restaurant business into the space next door, 3109 Theodore St.

Saturday marked the grand opening for the new Taps Tips BBQ Eat & Play. The addition of the Taps Tips Eat & Play allows customers, for the first time, to enjoy a sit down meal inside Taps Tips or hang out at the bar to enjoy an alcoholic beverage including a cocktail.

Taps Tips Eat & Play features three booths and table seating. There's a full-service bar and TVs. The owners hope to have video gaming available for patrons in another month or so.

"It's cafeteria style or just come in here and get a drink," remarked Michael Tapley during Friday's interview.

He wants people to know that Taps Tips Eat & Play "is family friendly" and he's hoping that people find it similar to "a Buffalo Wild Wings as far as atmosphere."

Until now, Taps Tips BBQ was primarily takeout, also handling catering orders. Now, customers can stay and enjoy their BBQ on the premises, order alcohol and watch sports on the large TV screens mounted on the walls.

Having the grand opening for the Taps Tips Eat & Play is a major milestone for the Tapleys.

"I'm happy to get to this point," Michael Tapley said Friday. "We've gotten good support from the neighborhood and the city of Joliet. I just need the support to stay open."

Taps Tips is open seven days a week. The tentative plan is to keep the Taps Tips Eat & Play open from about noon to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and open until around midnight on Friday and Saturday nights.

During the week, "the kitchen will still close at 8 p.m," Michael Tapley said. "Come on out and enjoy the atmosphere and the music.

"I love the location. I love the neighborhood. There's no fights, no arguments, so that's been great."

"Follow us on Facebook. We're just a small family business. We're not a franchise. If we can get more employees, we can do more," he added.

Tapley said he still has a few positions available.

"I need bartenders," he said. "I need at least three more."

The new Taps Tips Eat & Play is also available to book parties. To inquire about bookings or place a carryout food order, Taps Tips can be reached at 815- 782-7135.

The Tapley family has expanded their growing Joliet restaurant into the space next door, 3109 Theodore St. They now have Taps Tips BBQ Eat & Play. John Ferak/Patch

The Tapley family has expanded their growing Joliet restaurant into the space next door, 3109 Theodore St. They now have Taps Tips BBQ Eat & Play. John Ferak/Patch

The Tapley family has expanded their growing Joliet restaurant into the space next door, 3109 Theodore St. They now have Taps Tips BBQ Eat & Play. John Ferak/Patch

The Tapley family has expanded their growing Joliet restaurant into the space next door, 3109 Theodore St. They now have Taps Tips BBQ Eat & Play. John Ferak/Patch

The Tapley family has expanded their growing Joliet restaurant into the space next door, 3109 Theodore St. They now have Taps Tips BBQ Eat & Play. John Ferak/Patch

The Tapley family has expanded their growing Joliet restaurant into the space next door, 3109 Theodore St. They now have Taps Tips BBQ Eat & Play. John Ferak/Patch

The Tapley family has expanded their growing Joliet restaurant into the space next door, 3109 Theodore St. They now have Taps Tips BBQ Eat & Play. File/John Ferak/Patch

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Taps Tips Expands: Opens Taps Tips Eat & Play Next Door - Patch.com
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How to Stop Eating at Night - ConsumerReports.org

Whether it’s a long-standing habit or a routine picked up during the pandemic lockdowns, more than 60 percent of Americans ages 18 to 80 report snacking after 8 p.m., according to a 2021 International Food Information Council survey.

And it may be harming their health. Studies suggest that nighttime eating can lead to higher cholesterol and blood glucose levels, as well as weight gain.

One reason may be that people unconsciously gravitate toward higher calorie foods at night, such as cake or chips, says Kelly Allison, PhD, director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania. But it also may be due to our circadian rhythms, or the biological clock that tells our bodies when to be awake and when to sleep.

“Our bodies are really designed to digest and metabolize food more efficiently earlier in the day,” she explains. 

If you’re wedded to a nighttime snack, you don’t have to give it up entirely, Allison says. But there are smart steps you can take to rein in night eating, most of which call for just small tweaks—not major overhauls. Here are eight suggestions.

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Highlands and Cashiers, NC: Where to Eat, Stay, and Play - Condé Nast Traveler

Those views can attract crowds. Avoid them on a far less-traveled path at the aptly named Secret Falls, a 50-foot glittering cascade that pours over a ledge. (The deep pool below may tempt you in for a dip but be warned: The water remains teeth-chattering cold year-round.) Silver Cove Falls, in Cashiers, is a sparkling gem that’s easy to access but usually not overrun.

You’re almost guaranteed solitude in Panthertown Valley, near Cashiers. The 6,300-acre backcountry recreation area has more than 25 miles of trails that traverse a wide range of habitat: deep gorges, tranquil forest glens, and gurgling streams that tumble into wide waterfalls.

Novice and established fly-fishermen alike should flip a few casts into the rivers around Highlands and Cashiers. Most hold their fair share of fine rainbow, brook, and brown trout.

Canyon Kitchen

Susan Renfro

Where to Eat in Highlands-Cashiers

Power up for an active day with a pile of banana bread French toast drizzled with sticky praline sauce at Blue Bike Café in Highlands. Or if your mornings are more about a light bite and caffeine, pop into Buck’s Coffee in Cashiers.

Lunch is easy at On the Side, a walk-up joint attached to the Cashiers Farmers Market that delivers tender pulled pork swimming in a tangy mustard-based sauce, with standards like potato salad and coleslaw.

For dinner, Ristorante Paoletti offers some old-world atmosphere with its thoughtful interpretations of northern Italian cuisine. Opt for the simplicity of N.C. rainbow trout sautéed with lemon, butter, and white wine; or tender tortellini with sweet peas and prosciutto. At the edge of a meadow in the shadow of Laurel Knob, Canyon Kitchen easily earns the honor bestowed by OpenTable diners as one of the country’s most scenic restaurants. Bites like deviled eggs studded with Iberico ham and apple-cider brined pork chops score rave reviews.

For a casual alternative, Ugly Dog Public House (with locations in Highlands and Cashiers) offers North Carolina craft beer (if they’ve got it, go with Satulah Mountain Brewing Co.’s Sunset Saison) and bar food bites like fried mac ‘n cheese and fat, juicy burgers.

Old Edwards Inn

Colleen Kerrigan/Old Edwards Inn

Where to Stay in Highlands-Cashiers

The Old Edwards Inn, a multi-year winner in our annual Readers' Choice Awards, is a no-brainer for Highlands accommodations (rooms from $375 per night). The stalwart consistently delivers stellar service and elegant yet comfortable rooms, as do its parent company’s other spots: Half-Mile Farm (rooms from $370 per night), a few miles out of town and cozied up to a quiet lake, and casually chic 200 Main (rooms from $185 per night), which is just down the street from the Inn and provides some Old Edwards bang for a lot less buck.

For something new in something old, check into the rustic-meets-refined Highlander Mountain House (rooms from $230 per night), an 18-room hotel in an 1885 clapboard farmhouse. And in Cashiers, a landmark property just reopened after a full-scale freshen-up. The beloved historic resort, High Hampton Inn (rooms from $233 per night), was recently renovated by the team behind Tennessee’s revered Blackberry Farm.

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Eating Cicadas Is Great Until You Taste Them - The Atlantic

Can you think of a good reason not to try a cicada, other than “ew”? I’ve posed this question to numerous friends and family, even my partner’s extended relatives, now that Brood X is swarming parts of the United States. Eating cicadas just makes sense, even for someone like me, who’s been a stalwart vegetarian since basically the last time they appeared, in 2004. They’re a bountiful and easy-to-forage protein source, they very likely won’t make you sick, and they’ve made appearances on some Native American and Chinese dinner tables for centuries. (Even Aristotle ate them.) Plenty of evidence suggests that they don’t feel pain the way other creatures do, if that kind of thing is important to you. I watched Fear Factor back when Joe Rogan was cool, I’d remind everyone. “Ew” alone cannot stop me.

Except maybe it can! a tiny voice burbled in my head as I pulled into the packed driveway at Cicadafest last Saturday afternoon. The event at the Green Farmacy Garden, a medicinal-plant sanctuary and educational garden in Fulton, Maryland, promised live music, cicada-inspired art, and yes, a cicada tasting menu. Throughout the garden, I could see maybe 30 people, a mix of couples and families, milling around. Volunteers, some barefoot, were running platters of cicadas in and out of the building. Among them was Veri Tas, the garden’s events and communications manager, a vegan who swore off industrial meat and dairy a decade ago and who was inspired to host Cicadafest partly as a way to try insect protein. You could easily have mistaken the event for a neighborhood barbecue hosted by someone’s environmentalist aunt, were it not for the conspicuous collection of folding tables holding our snacks. I approached them hesitantly, trying to ignore the beady red eyes and disapproving screeches of their cousins from the nearby bushes.

And lo—the spread before me was truly something to behold. Air-fried cicadas! Cicadas covered in vegan chocolate! Skewers of grilled cicadas licked by charcoal flames! Roasted cicadas, rolling around a lasagna tray like gumballs in the world’s most quarter-starved dispenser! To the left were all the condiments you could ever ask for: Barbecue sauce, cocktail sauce, malt vinegar, ketchup, Italian dressing, spicy cashew dressing, Soyaki, and more.

Air-fried felt like a safe place to start, especially once I noticed the flurry of Old Bay seasoning being sprinkled onto each batch. I grabbed a set of two on a toothpick, declining the extra roll in even more Old Bay (I’m at work here). The cicadas, once pale, were now golden and browned, their signature eyes turned black from the heat. I popped one into my mouth.

Not bad! Certainly not buggy. The entire critter crackled in my mouth like a piece of earthy popcorn. I caught a subtle nuttiness underneath the crunch, almost reminiscent of a roasted chickpea. By the fourth or fifth chew I was almost starting to like it, until I swallowed and realized that a teeny-tiny leg was lingering on my tongue. The toothpick went into the trash, along with the other cicada.

Haley Weiss

Next up was a chocolate-covered cicada, which by comparison felt like cheating. Thanks to the thickness of the coating, I was easily able to pretend that I was eating a large chocolate-covered raisin. From there, it was all downhill. My third and fourth cicadas, which were grilled, tasted like smokier, chewier versions of the air-fried one, with a slightly meatier flavor that made it clear why cicada eaters compare them to shrimp.

Nowhere was that shellfish flavor more evident than in the oven-roasted cicada, though I was quickly distracted from that thought by the realization that the bug had exploded in my mouth like a Gusher. My tongue awash in bug guts, I reconsidered all the choices I’d made in my life that had brought me to that moment.

It turns out that cooking technique is everything. The roasted cicadas hadn’t been blasted with enough heat to properly dry up the squish. Other attendees I consulted agreed with me: the crunchier, the better. When deciding what cooking methods to highlight at Cicadafest, Tas told me, they had consulted foragers before embarking on a series of test runs. Tas and the other volunteers had learned to harvest the cicadas at dusk on the very same day that they’d emerged from their shells, ensuring that their adult exoskeletons (and massive wings) wouldn’t develop. Loading them into the freezer right away served the dual purpose of preserving them and killing them gently. When it came time to play in the kitchen, sautéed cicadas were quickly ruled out for being “too buggy,” and a shrimp-boil-inspired experiment was abandoned following disastrous results. “My brother decided to try boiling them with beer and Old Bay,” Tas explained. “He put one in his mouth and spat it right out all over the place.”

So aside from the “ew” factor, why aren’t we all eating cicadas? Part of the problem is that while pound for pound, cicadas have about as much protein as red meat, you would need to eat a lot of bugs to get anywhere close to the weight of a burger patty. But if you want to eat just a few, you’re back in snack territory, where plenty of fine non-insect options await. In 2013, my colleague James Hamblin wrote that for him, the big turnoff wasn’t cicadas’ classically buggy look, but the plain fact that they’ve spent 17 years underground. Valid. But during all that beauty sleep, cicada nymphs remain tightly nestled inside their waterproof exoskeletons. From another perspective, cicadas are a food that comes prepackaged and individually wrapped.

Other entomophagists (that’s someone who eats bugs, which I guess is what I do now) and I will tell you what you’ve no doubt heard before: There’s a lot to be gained environmentally from incorporating insects into the Western diet. It’s true—farming bugs for human and animal consumption has a much lower CO2 output than the food production it could hypothetically replace. But guess what other dietary changes can also help curb CO2 emissions? Eating beans, cooking with less gas, reducing food waste, and all sorts of other adjustments that don’t result in stray legs and liquified guts in my mouth.

I wanted to come home from Cicadafest with my head held high, sweeping bugs off trees and right into the oven for my meat-eating friends to munch on with glee. But for me, the joy within those exoskeletons is limited, no matter how much Old Bay is sprinkled on top. Cooking them would feel like a game of Russian roulette, and I can’t in good conscience risk feeding someone I love a spring-loaded soft one. I lost this round, but call me back in 17 years when we’ve perfected the recipe.​

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Eat Bananas They Are Best Fruit Source of Vitamin C, B6 and Manganese – The Challenger Community News - The Challenger Community News

Bananas are one of the best fruit sources of vitamin B6, C and Manganese. It’s good for your skin, heart, blood pressure, digestion and energy. Most important – It’s a powerful antiviral food. Bananas strengthen the core of who we are.

Health benefits of bananas

*Vitamin B6 from bananas is easily absorbed by your body and a medium-sized banana can provide about a quarter of your daily vitamin B6 needs.Vitamin B6 helps your body: produce red blood cells, metabolize carbohydrates and fats, turning them into energy, metabolize amino acids, remove unwanted chemicals from your liver and kidneys, and maintain a healthy nervous system.

*Bananas are a sources of vitamin C providing about 10% of your daily vitamin C needs. Vitamin C helps: protect your body against cell and tissue damage, your body absorb iron better, your body produce collagen – the protein which holds your skin, bones and body together, and support brain health by producing serotonin, a hormone that affects our sleep cycle, moods, and experiences of stress a​nd pain.

*Manganese in bananas is good for your skin and provides approximately 13% of your daily manganese needs. Manganese helps your body make collagen and protects your skin and other cells against free radical damage.

*Potassium in bananas is good for your heart health and blood pressure providing around 320-400 mg of potassium to your daily diet. Potassium helps your body maintain a healthy heart and blood pressure. In addition, bananas are low in sodium. The low sodium and high potassium combination helps to control high blood pressure.

*Bananas can aid digestion and help beat gastrointestinal issues providing about 10-12% of your daily fiber needs. Singapore’s Health Promotion Board recommends a daily dietary fiber intake of 20g for women and 26g for men.

*if Soluble and insoluble fibers play an important role in your health. Soluble fiber helps your body control your blood sugar level and get rid of fatty substances such as cholesterol. Insoluble fiber adds weight and softness to stools, making it easier for you to have regular bowel movements. This helps to keep your gut healthy and safe from harmful bacteria. Bananas, especially newly-ripened ones, contain starch that does not digest (resistant starch) in your small intestine and is able to pass into the large intestine. Such bananas help you manage your weight better as you stay full for longer. constipation, stomach ulcers, and heartburn

Bananas give you energy  they contain three natural sugars – sucrose, fructose and glucose – giving you a fat and cholesterol-free source of energy.

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What's The Best Way To Eat Cicadas? A Chef's Insect-Based Recipes - KRWG

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And finally today, if you are on the East Coast, you already know. They seem to be everywhere. I'm talking about the cicadas of Brood 10, those red-eyed bugs that emerge from the ground every 17 years and whose song eventually builds into a deafening wall of sound that's impossible to ignore. Some parts of the Eastern U.S. are already experiencing that. Others have yet to get the full treatment. But what we want to talk about now is, what's the best way to eat them? Turns out, many people have been gathering cicadas and preparing them in a number of ways, from salad toppings to creature kabobs.

Who knows? This Memorial Day weekend, you're getting ready for your cookout, and you might be feeling adventurous. So we decided to hear from a chef who's been giving this some serious thought. That's why we called Xavier Deshayes. He is the executive chef at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here in Washington, D.C. And he has already prepared a number of cicada-based recipes that he is ready to share with us.

Chef, thank you so much for joining us.

XAVIER DESHAYES: Thank you, Michel, for having me. Really a pleasure to share that with you.

MARTIN: So I'm sure this isn't news to you, but I'm guessing that dining on any kind of bug is not something many of our listeners do regularly. So why would somebody want to cook with these creatures?

DESHAYES: Simple. If you cannot beat it, eat it, you know?

MARTIN: (Laughter).

DESHAYES: So they are here, and we need to do something with it, you know. I've always been using invasive species of one way or another. Then cicadas, here I am, 17 years waiting for you. And so, you know, me as a French, if we can eat snail and frog, I can try to eat cicadas, especially if I cook them.

MARTIN: Solid point. Just a point of clarification. They not an invasive species because they are actually native to this area.

DESHAYES: I do understand, but when you have trillions coming in one time, we can call that.

MARTIN: (Laughter) That is true. When you're, like, sitting on your deck, and one falls into your coffee cup, you might see it as invasive. So totally get that point. But you were telling us that there's an environmental advantage to getting your protein from insects as opposed to of meat, right?

DESHAYES: Of course.

MARTIN: Tell me a little bit more about that.

DESHAYES: Insect is going to be the protein of the future. You know, insect farming is very sustainable when you compare to cows or any other animal farming, you know - less fossil energy, less water, less space, less food, you know what I mean? So when you look at it on the end, insect farming has every way of being profitable.

MARTIN: I'm getting warmer. I'm not there yet, though (laughter).

DESHAYES: You will come. You will come. You need to eat some of the cicadas that I have prepared, you know what I mean? Maybe you will trust it even more.

MARTIN: It could be that. So let's talk about these other people who are more interested in eating these things than I am. So what's the first thing you do? Like, do you gather them at a particular stage, or how do you do it?

DESHAYES: You know, I don't eat insect. It's not something that I eat every day. So two weeks ago, I start to harvest them. And I say, OK, what you will be the good safety to eat them? So I blanched them on the boiling water for five minutes. And after that, I laid them on the sheet pan. And I roast them for 2 1/2 to three hours at 200 degrees.

MARTIN: Oh.

DESHAYES: So what I end up having is a very dry cicada. They look like a little snack.

MARTIN: Yeah.

DESHAYES: And with that, I made a powder, crushed them. And for one of the recipes that I did a couple days ago, I crust a flank steak for barbecue.

MARTIN: Oh, OK.

DESHAYES: So I grill my flank steak. And overnight, I put this crust of cicadas (unintelligible) with olive oil, with garlic powder, with parsley. And I rub my flank steak. And I leave that like that to marinate overnight before to finish it the next day. And it give a really a nice woody, nutty - it's very interesting.

MARTIN: What does it taste like on its own? Like, does it taste like chips or a nut or what does it taste like?

DESHAYES: OK. So for the dry ones, I try because after that I have a lot of people who came from work and said, chef, I would like to try. Give me the opportunity to try. So I give them the dry one, and it's like chips. It doesn't taste anything. I did this one with a nice sea salt, you know. And if you close your eyes - different type of snacks, you will not know that it's cicadas.

MARTIN: Let's say you're at a cookout this Memorial Day and somebody has taken the plunge and they've cooked up some cicada kebabs or something like that. Is there something you would recommend them to encourage people to try them? Would you say just lay it out there and put them in a bowl like some chips, or would you put it in something, or what would you do?

DESHAYES: Well, first, when you have somebody, you need to talk and to be very enthusiastic and show them. Then you eat them like a candy yourself, too, you know.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

DESHAYES: This is what I have done. You know, people who has been working with me really long time, know me, then I will not do that. But, you know, I proposed to them, and they have this kind of sort of face, oh, no, I don't want that. Look. I eat them like a candy. And you do that in front of them and say, wow OK, so what - who I am different, you know what I mean? Like, try it. And after, when they try, some of them, I said, can I have some more?

DESHAYES: And some of them are like, no, thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: OK, Chef, you've been a lot of fun. I just have to say, a lot of people are probably getting together maybe for the first time in a long time with family in some parts of the country, where people are finally getting vaccinated, and people are finally having get-togethers. I think it's going to be kind of an emotional experience for a lot of people. What else do you recommend?

DESHAYES: Of course, finally for the first time. You're exactly right, Michel. I think Memorial Day is going to be a great weekend, you know what I mean? Because you still pay attention. You protect yourself. But this is what we have been missing, you know. We've not been missing not going to work. We've been missing going to see our grandparents. We've been missing to see father and sister and mother and share this experience. And I'm sure with that, the level of relationship would be different. We're going to value more the time we spending with our families.

MARTIN: That was Xavier Deshayes. He is the executive chef at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here in Washington, D.C. And he has been guiding us through cicada cooking (laughter). Chef, thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us.

DESHAYES: No, Michel. Thank you very much. And enjoy your great weekend. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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How to eat and cook with cicadas, according to an expert - Salon

The cicadas have arrived. After living underground for 17 years, billions of Brood X cicadas are emerging in parts of the eastern United States. The spectacle, in which hordes of emerging cicadas shed their exoskeletons and become winged adults, is one of North America's most awe-inspiring entomological events. For the next couple of weeks, male cicadas will sing loudly and mate with the females to produce a new generation that will live underground for another 17 years. The cicadas that mate die a few weeks after reproducing. 

Academics have been fascinated by cicadas for years. And it's not only because these critters sing their hearts out and become part of our summers every 17 years. It's because they've long been part of colonial American and Native American culture. How do we know this? In part because of published recipes that called for cicadas from the 1700s, as Gene Kritsky, the Dean of Behavioral and Natural Sciences Mount St. Joseph University and author of "Periodical Cicadas: The Plague and the Puzzle," explained to Salon in a phone interview. Indeed, a mid-20th century study published in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences noted how the Cherokee in North Carolina viewed them as a delicacy: they ate the 17-year-old locusts (cicadas) sometimes fried in "hot fat" and sometimes pickled to preserve for later. 

In North America, eating cicadas — or any insect — is often exotified in the media as something sensational and weird. Yet eating cicadas isn't as weird as one might think. There is nutritional value to insects, and cicada-cooking can be a fun way to partake in this summer's cicada mania, particularly for those that are curious about how cicadas were consumed in America in the past.

Kritsky, who admits he hasn't eaten a cicada since 1987, shared more information about how to eat cicadas safely and what to expect.

As someone who studies cicadas, what piqued your interest in consuming them too?

Well — full disclosure — I don't eat them anymore. And that's because in the 1890s the USDA suggested they may be in danger of going extinct over time. And my research from 1987 to 2000, from in the northern half of Indiana and Northwest Ohio, shows they are really in decline, so I can't eat them. I like them too much.

That being said, eating cicadas goes way back. Apparently the Iroquois would harvest cicada nymphs; the Indigenous populations were consuming them. The oldest record of Brood X actually includes the English settlers in Philadelphia eating them, way back in 1715.

That's so interesting. So considering that they are in decline, do you not advise people to eat them?

In reality, sustainable food should be here every year, not 17 years. Every 17 years is a fad. But I don't advise them to do that, and I don't advise them not to — that's their prerogative.

What was your experience like eating cicadas in 1987?

I went to the newspaper morgue for the Cincinnati Enquirer and I ran across a recipe for a cicada pie from June 6, 1902. It said: "Take 50 newly emerged white female cicadas, legs and head chopped, place in a bowl with stale bread soaked in milk. Add sugar, rhubarb flavor and cream to soften the ingredients. Put the mixture into a pie crust and place a crisscross pattern similar to that of an apple pie. Bake at 400 degrees until the crust is done; people who've enjoyed this pie claim it tasted like partridge."

Based on that recipe, a colleague of mine made a cicada pie. I've never had partridge, so I'm not sure if it tasted like partridge. We also sautéd and stir-fried them.

To me . . . they are very soft, and there's no sticky bits or sharp bits that will get you. You can digest it all pretty easily. It had to me a very green flavor, which I felt was surprising because they're sucking on the xylem tissue of roots that spring water and minerals from the roots up to the leaves. The flavor I've likened it to was whole canned asparagus — very green.

Wow, that is surprising. So how can people eat them if they're curious about trying this?

You want to get the nymphs from the ground. They climb up a vertical surface and skin cracks open at the back, and they start to pull out as an all white cicada — all white and free from the brown skin. That's what you want to collect.

There's more nutrition in the females because the females have the eggs. The male abdomen is mostly hollow. So 70 percent of the emerging adults on that first couple of nights are going to be 70 percent male, but after about six or seven nights, a majority of the nymphs will be female. They're just hanging there, so with a very light grip you can just pick them up. I'd toss them right on ice and ice water, right away, And that helps start the cleaning process. You want to stop the biochemistry process that happens as they sclerotize.

What's the best way to clean them?

You want to rinse them thoroughly. You don't want to rinse them in soapy water per se, but a rinse that would help remove any kind of surface bacteria. They're coming from the dirt. So there is a lot of stuff there, a lot of fungi, other people walking through. Cleaning thoroughly is very important as far as the preparation goes. And that should be done soon after they're collected.

What's the nutritional value?

They're high in protein and they're low in fat. They're herbivores. You have a declining amount of energy used to go up the food web. The trouble with periodical cicadas is that you get them once every 17 years, and they're localized. Harvesting cicadas would wipe them out in general.

What are other ways people can enjoy cicada season?

You can get the app Cicada Safari, go out and see where they're emerging and report the emergence of them near your house. I'm the co-creator of Cicada Safari.  There's a lot of interest this year, of course.

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Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And finally today, if you are on the East Coast, you already know. They seem to be everywhere. I'm talking about the cicadas of Brood 10, those red-eyed bugs that emerge from the ground every 17 years and whose song eventually builds into a deafening wall of sound that's impossible to ignore. Some parts of the Eastern U.S. are already experiencing that. Others have yet to get the full treatment. But what we want to talk about now is, what's the best way to eat them? Turns out, many people have been gathering cicadas and preparing them in a number of ways, from salad toppings to creature kabobs.

Who knows? This Memorial Day weekend, you're getting ready for your cookout, and you might be feeling adventurous. So we decided to hear from a chef who's been giving this some serious thought. That's why we called Xavier Deshayes. He is the executive chef at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here in Washington, D.C. And he has already prepared a number of cicada-based recipes that he is ready to share with us.

Chef, thank you so much for joining us.

XAVIER DESHAYES: Thank you, Michel, for having me. Really a pleasure to share that with you.

MARTIN: So I'm sure this isn't news to you, but I'm guessing that dining on any kind of bug is not something many of our listeners do regularly. So why would somebody want to cook with these creatures?

DESHAYES: Simple. If you cannot beat it, eat it, you know?

MARTIN: (Laughter).

DESHAYES: So they are here, and we need to do something with it, you know. I've always been using invasive species of one way or another. Then cicadas, here I am, 17 years waiting for you. And so, you know, me as a French, if we can eat snail and frog, I can try to eat cicadas, especially if I cook them.

MARTIN: Solid point. Just a point of clarification. They not an invasive species because they are actually native to this area.

DESHAYES: I do understand, but when you have trillions coming in one time, we can call that.

MARTIN: (Laughter) That is true. When you're, like, sitting on your deck, and one falls into your coffee cup, you might see it as invasive. So totally get that point. But you were telling us that there's an environmental advantage to getting your protein from insects as opposed to of meat, right?

DESHAYES: Of course.

MARTIN: Tell me a little bit more about that.

DESHAYES: Insect is going to be the protein of the future. You know, insect farming is very sustainable when you compare to cows or any other animal farming, you know - less fossil energy, less water, less space, less food, you know what I mean? So when you look at it on the end, insect farming has every way of being profitable.

MARTIN: I'm getting warmer. I'm not there yet, though (laughter).

DESHAYES: You will come. You will come. You need to eat some of the cicadas that I have prepared, you know what I mean? Maybe you will trust it even more.

MARTIN: It could be that. So let's talk about these other people who are more interested in eating these things than I am. So what's the first thing you do? Like, do you gather them at a particular stage, or how do you do it?

DESHAYES: You know, I don't eat insect. It's not something that I eat every day. So two weeks ago, I start to harvest them. And I say, OK, what you will be the good safety to eat them? So I blanched them on the boiling water for five minutes. And after that, I laid them on the sheet pan. And I roast them for 2 1/2 to three hours at 200 degrees.

MARTIN: Oh.

DESHAYES: So what I end up having is a very dry cicada. They look like a little snack.

MARTIN: Yeah.

DESHAYES: And with that, I made a powder, crushed them. And for one of the recipes that I did a couple days ago, I crust a flank steak for barbecue.

MARTIN: Oh, OK.

DESHAYES: So I grill my flank steak. And overnight, I put this crust of cicadas (unintelligible) with olive oil, with garlic powder, with parsley. And I rub my flank steak. And I leave that like that to marinate overnight before to finish it the next day. And it give a really a nice woody, nutty - it's very interesting.

MARTIN: What does it taste like on its own? Like, does it taste like chips or a nut or what does it taste like?

DESHAYES: OK. So for the dry ones, I try because after that I have a lot of people who came from work and said, chef, I would like to try. Give me the opportunity to try. So I give them the dry one, and it's like chips. It doesn't taste anything. I did this one with a nice sea salt, you know. And if you close your eyes - different type of snacks, you will not know that it's cicadas.

MARTIN: Let's say you're at a cookout this Memorial Day and somebody has taken the plunge and they've cooked up some cicada kebabs or something like that. Is there something you would recommend them to encourage people to try them? Would you say just lay it out there and put them in a bowl like some chips, or would you put it in something, or what would you do?

DESHAYES: Well, first, when you have somebody, you need to talk and to be very enthusiastic and show them. Then you eat them like a candy yourself, too, you know.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

DESHAYES: This is what I have done. You know, people who has been working with me really long time, know me, then I will not do that. But, you know, I proposed to them, and they have this kind of sort of face, oh, no, I don't want that. Look. I eat them like a candy. And you do that in front of them and say, wow OK, so what - who I am different, you know what I mean? Like, try it. And after, when they try, some of them, I said, can I have some more?

DESHAYES: And some of them are like, no, thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: OK, Chef, you've been a lot of fun. I just have to say, a lot of people are probably getting together maybe for the first time in a long time with family in some parts of the country, where people are finally getting vaccinated, and people are finally having get-togethers. I think it's going to be kind of an emotional experience for a lot of people. What else do you recommend?

DESHAYES: Of course, finally for the first time. You're exactly right, Michel. I think Memorial Day is going to be a great weekend, you know what I mean? Because you still pay attention. You protect yourself. But this is what we have been missing, you know. We've not been missing not going to work. We've been missing going to see our grandparents. We've been missing to see father and sister and mother and share this experience. And I'm sure with that, the level of relationship would be different. We're going to value more the time we spending with our families.

MARTIN: That was Xavier Deshayes. He is the executive chef at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here in Washington, D.C. And he has been guiding us through cicada cooking (laughter). Chef, thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us.

DESHAYES: No, Michel. Thank you very much. And enjoy your great weekend. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Japanese knotweed is often vilified, but among its uses? You can eat it - pressherald.com

Urban nature educator Zack Rouda asks us to put aside our prejudices against Japanese knotweed and view the invasive plant in a fresh light: As a potential meal.

“It looks like Jurassic asparagus,” Rouda says in a 3-minute online video titled “How to Eat Japanese Knotweed,” where he gets up close to the early shoots and demonstrates how to harvest the plant, which is native to East Asia but now thrives around the world. Japanese knotweed often shows up in neglected spots, and here in Maine the shoots emerge in May.

Rouda, director of Portland-based Rewild Maine, argues that the plant has some uses. He notes in the video that pollinators like honey bees and butterflies “love it,” and that it helps control erosion. Beyond those, “it’s edible,” he says on the video. “It’s high in a bunch of nutrients, including resveratrol. It’s tasty, and we can do a service to the land by picking every single shoot.”

The shoots Rouda is referring to are the tender early spring growth that emerge asparagus-like and quickly grow into thick stalks that resemble bamboo and can reach 10 feet high.

“The rule is you snap it and if it makes a popping sound and is clearly tender, it is good to eat,” Rouda said. “If it is woody and papery, you can move up to the top and snap off the tip.”

In his food foraging guide “Wild Plants of Maine,” naturalist Tom Seymour writes that “even when the shoots attain a height of several feet, they can still be used, if we pick only the tender flexible tip.” Seymour has harvested Japanese knotweed in Maine for at least 50 years. “It is among the easiest plants to harvest, no tools needed, just snap the stem,” he said in an email. “Identification is no problem and it doesn’t even require much bending, so it is easier to gather than most other wild plants.”

In late summer, the plant produces lacy, white flowers. The pleasing flowers and overall shape of the Japanese knotweed plant explain why it was imported to America in the 19th century as an ornamental. But being one of the world’s most resilient plants, it promptly escaped into the wild, where it outcompetes native plants and creates monocultures, according to many biologists.

Before picking Japanese knotweed, harvesters need to be aware of possible pollution issues. Because knotweed often grows in ditches and along roadways, plants in such spots are likely growing in soils contaminated by lead and other heavy metals, which the plant will accumulate in its stalks. Foragers should also be aware of possible pesticide contamination.

The state of Maine characterizes Japanese knotweed as “widespread” and “severely invasive.” Because it is so difficult to eradicate, the Maine Natural Areas Program recommends land owners eradicate it by applying the controversial herbicide glyphosate, sold under different brands, the best-known of which is Roundup. The World Health Organization in 2015 labeled the pesticide a probable cause of cancer in humans, and municipalities such as Portland and South Portland have banned its use.

Because Japanese knotweed spreads from its roots, or rhizomes, harvesters who dig the roots need to be meticulous in gathering all that they unearth, according to Nancy Olmstead, the invasive plant biologist at the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

“The greatest risk of spreading Japanese knotweed is when you dig up the roots,” she said. “When you are finished digging, you need to cover up any area you disturbed and bring with you all pieces of root that came out of the ground.” (Do not compost them in home composting systems.)

Olmsted advises harvesters to gain permission from landowners before harvesting and to remember that within Maine State Parks removing plant material is prohibited. However, foraging for plant-based foods is permitted without a permit on Maine Public Lands, as long as harvesters “leave enough to reseed and feed wildlife,” according to the Bureau of Parks and Lands. In every other case, foragers need to take only a portion of any stand of a particular plant. But as Rouda indicated, harvesters can pick every Japanese knotweed shoot they see, since most landowners want to get rid of it.

Japanese knotweed, which also has medicinal uses (the plant brims with the powerful antioxidant resveratrol and has become a standard herbal treatment for Lyme disease), can be eaten sweetened, like rhubarb, or as a vegetable, like asparagus. Like rhubarb, it’s tart with a somewhat lemony taste.

A few years ago, Rouda taught a class on knotweed at Root Wild Kombucha in Portland, and everyone went home with a jar of knotweed sauce. Rouda said none of his students had eaten knotweed previously.

“There were some people who knew off-hand that you could eat it, but had never done it. Then there were some people who had no idea what Japanese knotweed is.”

Rouda’s go-to preparation method involves harvesting the early shoots, removing the leaves and chopping the stems. He adds the chopped stems to a pot with water and sweetener, brings the mixture to a boil and simmers it until it cooks down like applesauce. He puts the sauce on yogurt or ice cream. Rouda also dehydrates knotweed to make fruit leathers.

“You can make a great knotweed pie by cooking it with sugar, the same as rhubarb,” Seymour said. “Also stewed knotweed, with sweetener, is delicious.”

But Seymour’s favorite way to eat it is as a vegetable, simmering the chopped knotweed shoots or tips for a few minutes in water until they turn tender and a lighter shade of green. After draining them, he serves the shoots simply – with butter, salt and pepper.

Avery Yale Kamila is a food writer who lives in Portland. She can be reached at [email protected]
Twitter: AveryYaleKamila

Jars of tangy Japanese knotweed sauce ready for eating. Photo courtesy of Rewild Maine

Knotweed Chutney

Reprinted with permission from Tom Seymour’s “Wild Plants of Maine,” and modified to be vegan by using maple syrup instead of honey. You’ll need canning jars and lids to make the chutney. Seymour describes the recipe as “a lot of work, but well worth it.”

Makes 7 (eight-ounce) jars

Gather together:
2 pounds Japanese knotweed stem tips, cut into inch-long sections. Use tender young shoots, or if using larger stems, peel them, discarding any stringy material.
2 lemons, grate the peels and retain the pulp
2 cloves crushed garlic
1- to 2-inch piece ginger root, peeled
3 cups maple syrup
1½ cups cider vinegar
2 teaspoons salt

Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan on the stovetop. Turn the heat to high. Bring to a boil, while stirring constantly. Continue boiling and stirring (this may take some time. If you have a helper, take turns stirring) until the mixture thickens.

Remove the ginger root and pour the chutney into sterilized canning jars. Seal with new tops and screw lids down tightly. The heat from the mixture suffices to seal the top. Allow the chutney to sit on a dark shelf for six weeks before using.

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Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And finally today, if you are on the East Coast, you already know. They seem to be everywhere. I'm talking about the cicadas of Brood 10, those red-eyed bugs that emerge from the ground every 17 years and whose song eventually builds into a deafening wall of sound that's impossible to ignore. Some parts of the Eastern U.S. are already experiencing that. Others have yet to get the full treatment. But what we want to talk about now is, what's the best way to eat them? Turns out, many people have been gathering cicadas and preparing them in a number of ways, from salad toppings to creature kabobs.

Who knows? This Memorial Day weekend, you're getting ready for your cookout, and you might be feeling adventurous. So we decided to hear from a chef who's been giving this some serious thought. That's why we called Xavier Deshayes. He is the executive chef at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here in Washington, D.C. And he has already prepared a number of cicada-based recipes that he is ready to share with us.

Chef, thank you so much for joining us.

XAVIER DESHAYES: Thank you, Michel, for having me. Really a pleasure to share that with you.

MARTIN: So I'm sure this isn't news to you, but I'm guessing that dining on any kind of bug is not something many of our listeners do regularly. So why would somebody want to cook with these creatures?

DESHAYES: Simple. If you cannot beat it, eat it, you know?

MARTIN: (Laughter).

DESHAYES: So they are here, and we need to do something with it, you know. I've always been using invasive species of one way or another. Then cicadas, here I am, 17 years waiting for you. And so, you know, me as a French, if we can eat snail and frog, I can try to eat cicadas, especially if I cook them.

MARTIN: Solid point. Just a point of clarification. They not an invasive species because they are actually native to this area.

DESHAYES: I do understand, but when you have trillions coming in one time, we can call that.

MARTIN: (Laughter) That is true. When you're, like, sitting on your deck, and one falls into your coffee cup, you might see it as invasive. So totally get that point. But you were telling us that there's an environmental advantage to getting your protein from insects as opposed to of meat, right?

DESHAYES: Of course.

MARTIN: Tell me a little bit more about that.

DESHAYES: Insect is going to be the protein of the future. You know, insect farming is very sustainable when you compare to cows or any other animal farming, you know - less fossil energy, less water, less space, less food, you know what I mean? So when you look at it on the end, insect farming has every way of being profitable.

MARTIN: I'm getting warmer. I'm not there yet, though (laughter).

DESHAYES: You will come. You will come. You need to eat some of the cicadas that I have prepared, you know what I mean? Maybe you will trust it even more.

MARTIN: It could be that. So let's talk about these other people who are more interested in eating these things than I am. So what's the first thing you do? Like, do you gather them at a particular stage, or how do you do it?

DESHAYES: You know, I don't eat insect. It's not something that I eat every day. So two weeks ago, I start to harvest them. And I say, OK, what you will be the good safety to eat them? So I blanched them on the boiling water for five minutes. And after that, I laid them on the sheet pan. And I roast them for 2 1/2 to three hours at 200 degrees.

MARTIN: Oh.

DESHAYES: So what I end up having is a very dry cicada. They look like a little snack.

MARTIN: Yeah.

DESHAYES: And with that, I made a powder, crushed them. And for one of the recipes that I did a couple days ago, I crust a flank steak for barbecue.

MARTIN: Oh, OK.

DESHAYES: So I grill my flank steak. And overnight, I put this crust of cicadas (unintelligible) with olive oil, with garlic powder, with parsley. And I rub my flank steak. And I leave that like that to marinate overnight before to finish it the next day. And it give a really a nice woody, nutty - it's very interesting.

MARTIN: What does it taste like on its own? Like, does it taste like chips or a nut or what does it taste like?

DESHAYES: OK. So for the dry ones, I try because after that I have a lot of people who came from work and said, chef, I would like to try. Give me the opportunity to try. So I give them the dry one, and it's like chips. It doesn't taste anything. I did this one with a nice sea salt, you know. And if you close your eyes - different type of snacks, you will not know that it's cicadas.

MARTIN: Let's say you're at a cookout this Memorial Day and somebody has taken the plunge and they've cooked up some cicada kebabs or something like that. Is there something you would recommend them to encourage people to try them? Would you say just lay it out there and put them in a bowl like some chips, or would you put it in something, or what would you do?

DESHAYES: Well, first, when you have somebody, you need to talk and to be very enthusiastic and show them. Then you eat them like a candy yourself, too, you know.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

DESHAYES: This is what I have done. You know, people who has been working with me really long time, know me, then I will not do that. But, you know, I proposed to them, and they have this kind of sort of face, oh, no, I don't want that. Look. I eat them like a candy. And you do that in front of them and say, wow OK, so what - who I am different, you know what I mean? Like, try it. And after, when they try, some of them, I said, can I have some more?

DESHAYES: And some of them are like, no, thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: OK, Chef, you've been a lot of fun. I just have to say, a lot of people are probably getting together maybe for the first time in a long time with family in some parts of the country, where people are finally getting vaccinated, and people are finally having get-togethers. I think it's going to be kind of an emotional experience for a lot of people. What else do you recommend?

DESHAYES: Of course, finally for the first time. You're exactly right, Michel. I think Memorial Day is going to be a great weekend, you know what I mean? Because you still pay attention. You protect yourself. But this is what we have been missing, you know. We've not been missing not going to work. We've been missing going to see our grandparents. We've been missing to see father and sister and mother and share this experience. And I'm sure with that, the level of relationship would be different. We're going to value more the time we spending with our families.

MARTIN: That was Xavier Deshayes. He is the executive chef at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center here in Washington, D.C. And he has been guiding us through cicada cooking (laughter). Chef, thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us.

DESHAYES: No, Michel. Thank you very much. And enjoy your great weekend. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Costco Says These 8 Items Are About To Get More Expensive | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

The pandemic has slowed down significantly (thank goodness), but its effects are still impacting the way you get your groceries. This is according to Richard Galanti, chief financial officer at Costco. This week, Galanti reported on Costco's latest earnings, blaming lags in the supply chain for impending price increases on eight of the everyday groceries you buy. We have the list.

According to CNBC, Galanti said that Costco's prices will soon rise because "inflationary factors abound." He continued: "These include higher labor costs, higher freight costs, higher transportation demand, along with the container shortage and port delays … increased demand in various product categories some shortages, various shortages of everything from chips to oils and chemical supplies by facilities hit by the Gulf freeze and storms and, in some cases, higher commodity prices."

In short, which common Costco items are about hit your wallet harder? Read through to find out—and don't miss 9 Summer Costco Items Members Are Stocking up on Big-Time Right Now.

David Tonelson/Shutterstock

This one has been generating big buzz on social media: Costco's paper products have been affected by a pulp shortage. The Seattle-based chain has even made some changes to the size of some popular paper products.

Shutterstock

Some Costco members know their aluminum foil lasts ages. Unfortunately, Galanti said Costco has "been seeing accelerating prices across a range of products," and aluminum foil was one of those he listed.

RELATED: Your Aluminum Foil Box Has A Mind-Blowing Secret Feature

Galanti reported that Costco meat prices have gone up 20% in recent weeks. (But check out the new burger Beyond Meat has just launched.)

Shutterstock

Costco has "cited price increases," states CNBC, "for an assortment of plastic products"—reportedly up to 8%. This may be a good time to try more sustainable types, like this list of 20.

Shutterstock

Soda buyers at Costco may notice a hike in these products, as well.

RELATED: Surprising Side Effects of Not Drinking Soda, Say Dietitians

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Costco is known for a great cheese selection, but this news could affect those burgers on the grill. Cheese was another product on Galanti's list of Costco groceries that are about to get more expensive. (The good news is, they've brought back a popular summer sweet treat.)

Costco Rotisserie Chicken/Facebook

There are lots of amazing facts about Costco's rotisserie chicken, as many customers know. Galanti said the popular item—currently at just $4.99 for an easy dinner—could soon increase in cost.

Shutterstock

Just as you're about to get thirsty this season, bottled water prices could balloon, Galanti said. If you're looking for creative ways to stay hydrated, don't miss One Major Effect of Eating Watermelon This Summer, Says Science.

Sign up for the Eat This, Not That! newsletter for breaking grocery news you need, and keep reading:

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