Sorry, did you say worm?” I practically splutter at Leonard Tanyag, executive chef at omakase bar Juno. He’s just casually mentioned that the piece of tuna nigiri in my mouth is garnished with ground mezcal-cured agave worm. Like it’s no more interesting than regular seasoning. I thought it took a lot for an ingredient to surprise me these days – clearly, I was wrong.

“抱歉，你剛才說的是蟲子嗎？” 當Juno懷石料理吧的行政主廚倫納德-塔尼亞格（Leonard Tanyag）提到我嘴里的這塊金槍魚握壽司是用墨西哥龍舌蘭蟲腌制磨碎后調(diào)味的時，我?guī)缀鯂婏埖卣f。他說得好隨意，好像這只是普通的調(diào)味料而已。我本以為現(xiàn)在很難再有什么食材能讓我感到驚訝——顯然，我錯了。
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The poster child of fussy eating growing up – I’d pick onions out of everything and performatively retch at the sight of broccoli – now I’m eating a dehydrated, powdered version of one of my least favourite creatures. My reformed eating habits have long been a source of amusement for my parents, siblings and long-suffering friends.

小時候我就是個挑食的典型——我會把洋蔥從任何菜里挑出來，看到西蘭花就假裝干嘔——而現(xiàn)在我卻在吃一種脫水后磨成粉的我最厭惡的生物。我改變了我挑食的習慣，這也成為我父母、兄弟姐妹和長期忍受我習慣的朋友們?nèi)⌒Φ脑慈?/b>
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But still, worms are on another level of the omnivore scale. In my defence, it wasn’t in the press release; in fact, not much at all is mentioned about the bug offering at Juno, the new-ish omakase bar hidden behind a curtain on the first floor of Mexican-Japanese restaurant Los Mochis in Notting Hill. That’s by design, Tanyag tells me. “You wouldn’t talk about salt and pepper and things like that. It’s just another ingredient, and we’re trying to normalise it a bit.”

但說實話，蟲子在雜食動物的飲食范圍中是另一個層次。為我自己辯解一下，這可沒在新聞稿里提到；事實上，在諾丁山的墨西哥-日本餐廳Los Mochis一樓簾幕后面新開的Juno懷石料理吧里，關(guān)于蟲子的介紹并不多。Tanyag告訴我這是有意為之的?！澳悴粫匾馓岬禁}和胡椒之類的東西。這只是另一種食材，我們只是試圖讓它變得更普遍一些?！?/b>
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I suppose that at an intimate six-seater counter – the smallest in London – they’d also like to be out of spitting range. Tanyag laughs mischievously; waiting until the last possible moment to divulge his secret ingredient is also deliberate. “I don’t tell people it’s bugs until they’ve eaten it because we don’t want to poison their minds, because they’ll immediately think it’s gross.”

我猜想在這間僅有六個座位的親密小吧臺——倫敦最小的吧臺——他們也不希望顧客當場吐出來。Tanyag頑皮地笑了笑；他故意等到最后一刻才透露他的秘密食材也是有原因的。“我不會在客人吃之前告訴他們這是蟲子，因為我們不想先給他們一個負面的印象，否則他們立刻就會覺得很惡心?！?/b>

In fact, it’s not gross at all. It’s subtler than you’d think; sweeter, too, with a bit of umami and plenty of smoke from the mezcal. The simplicity of sushi is the perfect vehicle to carry the complex flavours, albeit in small doses: Tanyag dabs a dusted pinky finger-sized amount on each piece before handing it over.

事實上，這一點也不惡心。 它的味道比你想象的更微妙，還有點甜。還有一點鮮味和大量來自龍舌蘭酒的煙熏味。簡單的壽司剛好能承載這些復(fù)雜的風味，盡管其中的分量很?。篢anyag在每塊壽司上抹上一小撮粉末，然后遞給顧客。

Gusano, the worms, are one of three ground insects you’ll find lined up on the bar at Juno, though you wouldn’t know it. They masquerade as innocent little pots of seasonings – right next to the salt. The others are chicatanas (flying ants) and chapuline (grasshoppers), and Tanyag mostly uses them on the nigiri. “It’s like a blank canvas. It has a very subtle flavour so I’ve chosen the bugs and the spices to just put a little bit of an accentuation on it, an emphasis, to enhance the flavour of the fish, rather than taking over.” True, a dab is preferable to a spoonful of the stuff; it packs a punch.

Gusano就是龍舌蘭蟲，是你在Juno吧臺上看到的三種磨碎的昆蟲之一，盡管你可能不會注意到它們。它們偽裝成無辜的小調(diào)料罐，就放在鹽的旁邊。其他兩種是chicatanas（飛蟻）和chapuline（螞蚱），Tanyag主要把它們用在握壽司上?！斑@就像一張空白畫布。握壽司的味道非常微妙，所以我選擇了這些昆蟲和香料來稍微增強一下魚的味道，而不是蓋過它?！贝_實，一點點粉末比一大勺更可取，因為它的味道很濃郁。

The bugs arrived on the counter as a natural evolution of the restaurant, which has always been focused on sustainability and whose menu reflects the cuisines Tanyag encounters on his travels.

這些昆蟲出現(xiàn)在吧臺上是餐廳自然發(fā)展的結(jié)果。餐廳一直專注于可持續(xù)發(fā)展，其菜單反映了Tanyag在旅行中遇到的各種美食。


He came across the bugs in Oaxaca, where they’ve been on the menu as far back as the 16th century when they’re a vital protein source before the Spanish introduced domesticated animals. “Chicatanas (flying ants) are very, very rare,” he tells me. “You can harvest them just one day a year. They come out early in the morning around 2 or 3am, and if the sun comes up, it becomes very difficult” to catch them. Last year, Tanyag travelled to Mexico for the harvest – which typically occurs after the first major rainstorm in spring floods the ants’ nests – because he “really wanted to experience what the farmers experience when catching these bugs. It’s very difficult because they are flying and they are biting you.” Some of the ants fall to the ground and are gathered by foragers, while more daring collectors stand in buckets of water to avoid getting bitten. They’re not easy to catch mid-flight, and they’re around for only a couple of days, so the harvest has to be swift. The trip gave him a full appreciation of the process. I, meanwhile, am horrified by the prospect and will be sticking to the eating part.

他在瓦哈卡發(fā)現(xiàn)了這些昆蟲，在那里它們早在16世紀就已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)在菜單上，當時它們是西班牙人引進家畜之前的重要蛋白質(zhì)來源?！癈hicatanas（飛蟻）非常非常稀有，”他告訴我?！澳阋荒曛荒苡幸惶炷懿杉剿鼈儭Ｋ鼈冊诹璩?、3點左右出現(xiàn)，如果太陽升起來，捕捉就變得非常困難。”去年，Tanyag前往墨西哥參加收集飛蟻——通常發(fā)生在春季第一次大暴雨沖刷蟻巢之后——因為他“真的很想親身體驗農(nóng)民捕捉這些昆蟲時的經(jīng)歷。這非常困難，因為它們會飛，還會咬人?！币恍┪浵伒舻降厣希徊杉邠炱饋?，而更勇敢的采集者則站在水桶里以避免被咬。要在它們飛行當中捕捉它們并不容易，而且它們只出現(xiàn)幾天，所以采集必須迅速。這次旅行讓他對這個過程有了充分的理解。而我呢，對這種前景感到恐懼，我還是專注于吃就好。

He also came across the mezcal-cured worms in Oaxaca, after spying them in a shop window. In the 1950s, a mezcal brewer discovered a larva in a batch and thought it improved the flavour. Other producers quickly jumped on the bandwagon. Today, you’ll often see shots served with a worm floating inside. It was long thought that eating the worm had hallucinogenic or aphrodisiac effects – easy to see how they drew that conclusion after downing a bottle of mezcal. In some parts of Mexico, it’s traditional for the maid of honour to eat the worm on a hen do. “I asked the guy if I could taste it,” says Tanyag. “It was unlike anything I’d had before. I had to use it in my work.”

他也在瓦哈卡發(fā)現(xiàn)了龍舌蘭腌制的蟲子，他是在一家商店的櫥窗里看到它們后發(fā)現(xiàn)的。在20世紀50年代，一位龍舌蘭釀酒師在一批龍舌蘭中發(fā)現(xiàn)了一只幼蟲，并認為它改善了味道。其他生產(chǎn)商迅速跟上了潮流。今天，你經(jīng)常會看到酒吧里供應(yīng)的龍舌蘭酒，里面漂浮著一只蟲子。長期以來，人們一直認為吃蟲子會產(chǎn)生幻覺或春藥效果——在喝了一瓶龍舌蘭之后很容易理解為什么他們得出了這個結(jié)論。在墨西哥的一些地方，新娘的伴娘在婚前派對上吃蟲子是一種傳統(tǒng)?！拔覇柲莻€人我能否嘗一嘗，” Tanyag說?！八臀乙郧皣L過的任何東西都不一樣。我必須把它用在我的工作中?！?/b>


Part of that work takes place in Mexico, where the bugs are heated over a flat griddle to dry and preserve them. Back in the UK, Tanyag grinds them into a powder with a texture not dissimilar to salt, and experiments with the flavour by adding different ingredients. “I don’t like it to be too strong a flavour for the nigiri because I have to deal with a delicate balance between smoky and sweetness and saltiness,” he explains. He adds arbol chilli to the chicatanas to give them more of a kick, and to the gusano, to balance out the smokiness. As he’s only using a dab here and there, a single trip to Mexico can supply the restaurant for a long time.

這項工作的一部分在墨西哥進行，那里的昆蟲會在平底鐵板上加熱以便晾干和保存它們?；氐接琓anyag將它們磨成粉末，質(zhì)地與鹽相似，并嘗試通過添加不同的配料來調(diào)整風味?！拔也幌Ｍ諌鬯镜奈兜捞珴?，因為我必須在煙熏、甜味和咸味之間保持微妙的平衡，”他解釋道。他給飛蟻加入了阿爾博爾辣椒，以增加它們的辣味，而給龍舌蘭蟲加入了阿爾博爾辣椒以平衡煙熏味。由于他只是零星使用，一次去墨西哥的旅行可以為餐廳提供很長一段時間的供應(yīng)。

But it’s the sustainability of edible bugs that first attracted Tanyag to the idea. Sustainability and seasonality have always been embedded in the concept at Los Mochis – they source the best possible ingredients from the best possible, mostly local, suppliers – so introducing insects never felt outlandish. “Insects are very sustainable because they don’t use up any resources. They don’t need any facilities or big spaces with water and things like that,” he says. They’re often harvested, not farmed, in the wild where they’re considered pests. “And they’re also a very high source of protein and they have natural amino acids, which are good for the body.” So you can guzzle down that gusano guilt-free.

但吸引 Tanyag 的首先是食用昆蟲的可持續(xù)性。可持續(xù)發(fā)展和季節(jié)性一直是 Los Mochis 餐廳的理念--他們從最好的供應(yīng)商那里采購最好的食材，而且大部分都是當?shù)毓?yīng)商--因此引進昆蟲并不覺得離奇。昆蟲的可持續(xù)性非常好，因為它們不消耗任何資源。它們不需要任何設(shè)施或大面積的水源之類的東西，”他說。它們經(jīng)常是在野外收獲而非飼養(yǎng)，在那里被視為害蟲?！八鼈冞€是非常高含量的蛋白質(zhì)來源，而且它們含有天然氨基酸，對身體有益。”所以你可以毫無負罪感地享用那個龍舌蘭蟲。