Bug Appetit! Insects as Ingredients

July 23, 2008— -- Standing in the kitchen of Vij's -- an Indian restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia, that's been hailed as one of the finest in North America -- is an unusual and mouth-watering privilege.

At least it was, until some of the newest ingredients showed up.

One of those ingredients is crickets -- little eyeballs, legs and all -- especially yucky when you look at them really close up.

But not yucky to eat, according to Meeru Dhalwala, the restaurant's co-owner and chef. She says that not only do they taste good, they're good for the environment.

"Raising bugs for human consumption is environmentally much, much friendlier than raising cattle, raising chicken, raising pigs," she said, adding that the bugs aren't a replacement for meat, but a supplement.

"I'm not going to be up here and say, you know, that this cricket tastes better than the beef tenderloin that I serve," she said.

Her husband, Vij, the man with the name on the restaurant, says, "Bugs are in."

Nightline visited the restaurant when the crickets were on the menu for the first time. Vij Dhalwala says that diners just need time to get used to the idea.

"Mutton kabobs were the same way," he explained. "People were like, Oh, mutton, I've never eaten mutton. We were the first ones to do it. I don't do it for the fear factor, I do it for the taste factor."

Still…bugs? Why bugs?

"These crickets happen to be way, way higher in iron than beef, chicken, pork, anything," said Meeru. "Much higher in iron. Much higher in calcium. They've got a fantastic amount of protein in them. Super low-fat."

And she says they're not as weird as you might think -- no more strange than prawns, for instance -- which is why fancy restaurants around the world are buying into bugs.