Renotkil’s Pestaurant

To celebrate 85 years in the pest-control business, Rentokil has taken the unusual step of touring around some UK cities with a pop-up “pestaurant”, showcasing pigeon burgers and unusual insects. I popped along to their stall in the Grassmarket, last week, to check it out, after being assured that these were not products of their local pest control activity, in any way.

Quite what their motivation for doing this, aside from a little publicity for their services, wasn’t entirely clear to me. They’re quite interested in the idea that insects could provide us with a potentially under-valued source of protein, once we get past our initial squeamishness. That aside, I think this can just be filed under “a bit of fun”.

The pigeon burger (pigeon, venison and streaky bacon, to be entirely accurate) was tasty, but the insects were where the real action was happening. The plain roasted locusts, crickets and mealworms were much of a muchness, with a decent crunch and light nuttiness, but nothing likely to particularly tempt your palette.

The barbecued mealworms had something a little more interesting going on, but the salt and vinegar crickets were the standout item. I could see myself swapping them for my regular bar snack, wasabi peas, and being every bit as content.

So, I’m glad that Rentokil gave me, and the other souls who braved the weather on a very dreich day, the opportunity to try some crunchy insect goodness. Certainly, I’d be happy to crunch my way through some of the crickets again, in the future. If you get an opportunity to catch the Pestaurant, on its travels, it’s well worth popping along for a visit.