Eat Insects for Charity at Faneuil Hall’s Pop-up ‘Pestaurant’

Image via Ehrlich

For perhaps the first time ever, people will dine at Faneuil Hall hoping to find bugs in their food.

Boston’s historic marketplace and tourist destination will host the second-annual Global Pestaurant Day on Wednesday, with similar events taking place around the world. The event is sponsored by Ehrlich Pest Control and benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank. For each person who eats an edible insect at the Pestaurant or the accompanying insect-eating contest, Ehrlich will make a donation to the GBFB, the largest hunger-relief organization in New England.

https://twitter.com/EhrlichPest/status/605408669275181056

But, why bugs?

“Aside from helping to raise pest awareness, Pestaurant aims to motivate participants to be more adventurous with their food as well as promoting the tremendous health benefits of an insect rich diet already enjoyed by billions across the world,” Ehrlich says on its website.

The first Global Pestaurant Day was held in Washington, D.C. last year, joined by cities in 11 other countries. This year’s offerings, served from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., include grasshopper turkey burgers, Boston “clorm chowda,” mealworm fried rice, and chocolate chirp cookies. You can watch the Pestaurant’s cringe-inducing promo below.