RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences was crawling with excitement last weekend.

What You Need To Know

  • The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences held its annual BugFest celebration on Sept. 16

  • It’s their largest event of the year

  • To prepare for the event, they hosted a Critter Cook-off competition

  • BugFest had over 100 vendors, scientists and bug experts sharing the fascinating world of arthropods

BugFest featured over 100 vendors, scientists and bug experts sharing the fascinating world of arthropods.

To prepare for their biggest event of the year, the museum also hosted a Critter Cook-off to show off a different side of bugs — their edible side. The event showcased two food truck chefs in a three-course cooking competition, each using bugs as their special ingredient.

Tonga Ramseur, owner of Ethio-Indi Alkaline Cuisine, loves to cook. But at the Critter Cook-off, there were more than veggies in her pan.

“What I did was I let [the crickets] marinate in sauces for maybe six or seven hours on 200, so the flavor can go into the crickets and mealworms,” Ramseur said. “So on the burger, I’m gonna put the cricket on top because it's going to give it a crunch.”

At the Critter Cook-off, the dishes included crickets, mealworms and superworms. Tonga has owned her vegan food truck for the past four years.

“I have cooked since I was 9 years old,” Ramseur said. “But my background is chemical engineering and, you know, as a scientist, you know how to cook.”

Judges try a vegan burger with marinated crickets on top. (Spectrum News 1/Jenna Rae Gaertner)

Ramseur says as a vegan, she hasn’t eaten the insects, but she’s confident in her seasoning capabilities.

“But I’ll tell you this, I’ll eat the bugs before I eat meat,” Ramseur said.

In other countries, eating insects is normal and even considered a delicacy. Here in America, however, it seems strange.

Although Ramseur has never cooked with bugs before, she says she’s always down to try something new.

“I just love to cook,” Ramseur said. “It’s fascinating because everything is a chemical process. And I think that’s why I went into chemical engineering. So to actually create something, and it’s beautiful and to watch people enjoy it, that’s everything to me.”

The judges at the Critter Cook-off said the dishes tasted amazing. Ramseur won the competition, but only by one point.