Why Ant Egg Caviar Is So Expensive | So Expensive Food
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- Опубліковано 25 кві 2022
- Escamoles, sometimes called ant egg caviar, are a delicacy in Mexico. These ant larvae can cost over $50 per pound. And when they’re exported prices can double. But finding escamoles isn’t easy. Harvesters have to reach into nests with thousands of ants. Escamoles have been eaten for centuries but poaching and the climate crisis are threatening the supply. So what do these ant larvae taste like? And why are they so expensive?
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Why Ant Egg Caviar Is So Expensive | So Expensive Food
never would've expected "ant caviar", the more you know
@@kingsly3690 You look like a egg soup 🍜
I don't know but if I go somewhere and that's what they are serving, I am going home and having a tv dinner.
@@kingsly3690 ant egg soup?? In what part of the world do they eat this and were the ants crunchy or soft?? Definitely something I haven't heard of before!!
@@xbrandi12345x DD
"never would've expected "ant caviar" BECAUSE YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN REALLY HUNGRY ? Just saying.
Never would I think that ants could've go extinct...
If humans are involved I believe it.
Ant is sextillion population if billion of human eating their eggs still not come to effect
Maybe it's problematic in those places where they eat them. Not where I'm at 🤣🤣🤣
@@anaskhoiri3653 This may be a specific species of ant (which probably doesn't have the greatest population). If we do over-harvest the larvae, they could go extinct
Can't they just grow them on farms?
Love the last thing the chef said, that restaurants need to learn theres only so much, cant overwork and cant invent more... love that he's understands and is teaching this and ethical farming to others
just raise them on a farm or factory then
@@usersdksdfg ...
Unless I'm delusional they're already raising them on a farm.
You have no understanding of ecosystems and its showing.
YOU CANNOT TAKE 100% OF EGGS LAID. THAT IS HOW YOU KILL A COLONY AND THUS LOWER PROFIT
So many fisherman, farmers, hunters, etc forget this.
As someone who has ants go out of their way to bite them, I could never willingly put my arm into a nest and be swarmed..
after so many generations of human-ant interaction with this guy they probably see him as a benevolent God
I wonder if this works on Australian ants?
@@trogstar5691 pretty certain Aussie ants are all on the list of most-deadly things on the planet.
@@trogstar5691 I bet they'd make human caviar if we tried this with them.
@@n.ayisha Personally I feel our imported ants are harsher.. like the fire ant.. even though the bite isn't as harsh, they swarm you and you get stung like hundreds of times in a second. Though a single Australian bull ant can make someone go omfg.. as their bites are as bad as a wasp.
I’ve tried it here in Mexico, this food is a luxury. The flavor is different than other ant eggs in the world. Is the harsh conditions and the diet of this insects that makes them unique.
Disgusting
@@Nyle95
Have you tried it?
@@Nyle95 I mean, eating fried chicken is just batter that is fried with a heavy amount of weeks old oil. Now that is disgusting.
@@Chris-pm1ff 😎👌
Con que pareces ?
In Thailand, we also have Ant Caviar too but we harvest them from weaver ants. We use a very long stick with a basket to poke a hole in the nest on the tree.
Same in the Philippines 🙂
They're red, krub?
Hello there, my co-ASEAN!
Lots'a love, cheers, & Mabuhay, from tropical Philippines!
Saw Wah Dee Kop, Suddhinanta Takulkasmsuk!
@@matthewjay660 Yes. They are Red Ant In Thai (มดแดง( red ant)).
Serve me some of those ants. Don’t care if it’s tasty, I just need revenge.
revenge for ? 😄
@@jocelynchoice6348 they bit him when he was a kid, man is still searching for revenge
😂😂oh god
"Is the larva of future and queens..."
"Nests are getting less and less, dunno what's happenening... had more in the good old days!"
"erm..."
The experienced harvesters do understand. That's why they leave 40% of them behind.
I don't know how these ants work, but some ants all the larvae that are female start out with the ability to become queens and what they are fed and chemical signals they receive change them to be workers, soldiers and what not instead of queens. Other ants work more like bees where all the larvae are blank slates and what the nurse ants feed them turns them into what they become as adults, though idk if this kind has royal jelly or something equivalent. Point being if they ants they are harvesting are the first kind then all the females are potential queens until a certain point so "future queens" isn't that wrong.
@@howitzer551 Yeah. No expert myself. However arguably with both commercial and poacher stress - Responsible or otherwise - Something's going to give.
Tragedy of the commons thing.
Me : "Sir. Perhaps you started eating and selling them...?"
I don’t even want to imagine how it would feel to deal with hundreds of ants in your body, even thinking about it makes me scratch and itch. 🤢
😂😂😂
bruh that's a delicacy for other countries and u should respect it. so rude and ignorant, u don't even know what it tastes like 😒
Lol and that’s why that job is not for you 😂buuut you do get used to it so it’s not so bad. Makes your skin tough
@@HELMBREAKER47 Or you develop a deadly allergy 🤧
they won’t be alive when of inside you…
People eat these in the Philippines. They get the eggs from Asian Weaver Ant nests commonly found on Mango and Other Fruit trees. They shake and let thr net fall from the tree and collect all the fallen eggs.
Y las tortillas?
Have you ever had them before?
The ants are called antik/hantik. Their egg are delicacies to some regions. Haven't tried though..
@@mfloresc1715 Where exactly in the Philippines did you live?
Which part of the Philippines?
In Assam , India , we eat the ant larvae of the formic acid red ants during the celebrations of Bohag Bihu , held in the month of April . They taste a bit sour . However , I'm allergic to it and it sent me to the ER once 😂
Probably a shellfish allergy, I hear if you're allergic to shellfish you're also allergic to insects
I would absolutely love to this. I've had fire ants in the past. They taste like lemon.
I love trying order cultures foods. Tried, crickets, meal worms I think, and I really liked them. Here in Florida has nothing but fire ants but I've never seen anywhere sale them. I would love to try those too!
I thought they would have been spicy
formic acid makes ants taste like citrus
Sounds good
But they have that gross ant smell I really hate that smell
Its so delicious, i think I’ve had them like 3 or 4 times, usually in villages at peoples homes. Its a delicacy that will never become world food, there is just too little!
Keep doing what u doing lol
@@Anon-xz6hu You'll never know until you try. Maybe you'd rather eat it, than eating feces grown chickens.
@@typicalrockhound9887 dude even soya chunks is better than chicken
Can’t we just make huge ant farms for them?
Too little?? There are ants everywhere where I am lol
The collection of this particular delicacy is my PTSD nightmare. I’ve been bit by ants on a few different occasions so just watching this was haunting.
But it looks delicious, like little beans if you look at the eggs from far away of course.
Wuss
I tried these delicacy for the first time in Teotihuacan in a restaurant underground called La Gruta..
Payed $20 USD per serving, exceptionally Expensive and Exceptionally Delicious.
No Regret, pair with Mezcal from Oaxaca.
Could not be happier in Paradise.
That place is amazing! And yeah, prices can be extremely high, but for escamoles, it's worth it!
That's rough. $65 to $110 per kg, so $0.065 to $0.11 per gram. After all that work from the one nest, he had 80 grams. Assuming best case scenario, that was worth $8.80.
Although you should remember that $8.80 probably has a lot more value where he lives compared to, say, the US. Now, if he lived in a more expensive part of the world, he'd charge more.
That's how these things usually are. What seems like a low price to you is a high price for him. That's why by the time it gets to Europe the price has quadrupled. It's not just transporation charges, but that the cost of living is higher and therefore the price.
That’s only one nest though, he probably gathers from many nests throughout the day.
true. i wud just to the market and purchase than for that price.
Yeah that doesn't seem that expensive actually
The average pay for a Mexican is $5 US a day.
In Assam India we used to have red ant eggs which is found in tree during our Bohag BIHU festival. It is in the month of February-April
What do they taste like ? Are they different than the Mexican ones ?
@@sethlt9681 It tastes a bit tangy Hard to describe
Wait a damn min....
I am from Assam but I never heard about this nor did my mom
@@sethlt9681 it is tasty. The ant is little bit sour while the egg is juicy and pulpy. It pop inside your mouth. Sorry I can't explain properly as I don't know the taste of Mexican one
@@mochichim1234 I am from Assam and I have eaten this once. Maybe you should try out the tribal cuisines. You will miss out if you stick to the generic dishes
Omg literally screamed once i saw the title!!! Just finished eating some. My family collects them every year from where were from!!!! The flavor also differs depending on how you pick the escamoles by water or by hand.
ive been telling everyone ive met about when i had escamoles in mexico. i love it! it has the consistency of a salmon roe, but has a wonderful meaty/nutty taste. its great in tacos!
Me at first: not in a billion years
French chef: *introduces ant eggs with accent*
Me: sure!!!
Frenchies colonized you
Someone just has to hire a French guy to control u😁
Loving the new channel been waiting to see this series continued.
I would eat these without a second thought looks delicious especially how he prepared them,I love Authentic Mexican cuisine I used to live there and had a street Taco vendor outside my apartment and to this day it’s the best food I have ever eaten.
I dated a woman who was from Guadalajara. Still to this day, I miss her cooking. By far, the best authentic, Mexican cuisine I have ever had.
Any regional food made from what is locally available is going to be good.
It's real healthy food full of nutrients unlike the GMOs we have here in the USA.
Ants get that attack on titan trauma everytime someone digs their home.
I'm not eating bugs regardless of how bad of a food crisis is ahead, but I'll still watch.
You are missing out homes
No one asked you to in the first place.
Cheers for your input @@kaykay8087.
@@user-nu2it6kf2m and the petrol. Lifes in the shitter at the moment ay.
You're already eating bugs, or rather, bugs parts. You just don't know it. It's impossible to remove all bugs from mass produced foods. That's the reason why the FDA allows a certain percentage.
Very interesting method for harvesting…really very similar in many ways to beekeeping since there has to always be limits to what is taken to keep a hive or colony healthy. As has been mentioned, would be interesting to see if farming is an option but a few more technical challenges with ants being in the ground versus bees
Beekeeping or like certain kinds of shellfish that have limited range/population
I feel less weird about hunting for tasty ant eggs as a kid now 😂
😂❤️
In the Philippines, we called that "Abuos". One of the famous exotic food from the northern part of our country, Ilocos to be exact.
c.a.r.
I think "abuos" is the actual ant, right?
And also, in the philippines they eat chicken egg embryos. balut? That is also disgusting AF crap.
I accidentally tried these in Mexico. They told me it was like caviar at the restaurant… when they arrived I knew they were not caviar, but they weren’t horrible. I would say they taste a little like white beans.
I tried it in Mexico and I can see why people like the dish it is very unique and has a very interesting taste!
I have never heard of ant caviar but the ant caviar taco looks amazing! I would love to try it someday
I myself heard of it on the show "Galileo" but this video was quite informative too.
Hello I’m from Nagaland and I just had that today…we even eat the ants which has a tangy lemony taste to it …we find it on the trees and if nest is soaked in hot water ,harvesting becomes easier ..the ants here are bigger in size too
That’s pretty cool
as a mexico city girl i can not find all the words to describe how utterly incredible the taste is
I wonder if it’s possible to make sustainable ant farms so there could be more caviar and it would be easier for them to harvest and they could definitely make the money they deserve but they wouldn’t have to go through as much.
From my understanding ants are fairly territorial so I wonder if multiple nests in consentrated territory would work. (This video made me think about past experiences with European ants, dark, red and the big forest ones).
The Asian variety (from weaver ants) would probably be more sustainable but I don't think this would be. I saw a vid where they keep ants as pest control in mango plantations in Thailand so they probably also regularly harvest from those.
@@magnuskallas Colonies kill other colonies when they're too close. Nests can be huge (underground) and the ants walk long distances the day. There is no way, this can be manually set up in a farm.
@@petrescuework-difficultcas6581 That's what I'm saying. They are either underground (in my grandparents farms each picked their own stone to dig under) or in the forest they build them up to 0.5 metre castles out of crumbs.
All living beings deserve compassion.
You are sick
I haven’t tried it but shiiit if a professional Mexican chef cooks it, you ain’t gotta ask me twice, I’m for sure eating that. Provecho! 😂
love this series! nice reporting
In Brazil there’s a regional dish prepared with saúva ants. I never had the opportunity to try it, but people say it’s tasty and crunchy.
2:42 I once had an ant entering my ear and I panic so bad 😂
Hilarious
Imagine if someone could create a giant ant farm to harvest these things in mass
already loving this series
That's so fascinating. Ants are so ubiquitous it's almost hard to believe you could overharvest them when I can't even get rid of an infestation at home. Can you harvest other ant larvae too or is it really limited to this species?
In India they harvest Red Ants cavier.. Weaver ants in Thailand.. It's great!
It's a limited because it's all dependent upon the biosphere.
This looks suspiciously similiar to Hornet Larvae that we use as bait for fishes here in Indonesia.
Bees and ants are actually close relatives, believe it or not! How do the fish bite on hornet larvae? I'm in the US and have only used wax worms and butterworms, myself, but I'm always on the lookout for something new to try when they just won't hit!
im Thankful to this channel a new knowledge again♥️♥️
never thought of an egg Ant can be this luxury. 😗
Chef seems like a super legit guy. I like him
I have tried ants eggs and larvae like this, But different species, because we harvest them from tree branches and leaves. In Bali, this is usually used as bird food Or fishing bait, but sometimes consumed as a snack with added spices and stir-fried. Hard to find lately because of the climate changing
Im from bali and ive never tried it. Dimana belinya? Mo coba. Pasar dimana dijual? Halal g wkwkwkw
@@cameliasam4620 kalau untuk konsumsi biasanya panen sendiri, beli di pasar burung (gabisa dikonsumsi manusia) untuk perkara halalnya, maaf kurang tau 🙏, tapi pas aku makan ada kerabatku yg muslim ikut nyobain kok.
Here in Assam, India it is one of the most sought delicacy. It has many health benefits. Just had it yesterday.
Bhai taste kaisi rehti hai🤔?
@@evilghostman07 Mast rehta hai bhai... we cook it with chicken/duck egg etc and add tomato, onions etc basically a bhurji.
I remember watching secret squirrel as a kid and the water buffalo coveted chocolate covered ants.
My father's family in the Philippines has also the same dish that are egg larvae from ants but the ants that lived in trees and they usually make their nest out of leaves. They said, it's very nutritious and full of flavour that tastes none like it. They are local delicacy and are only often eaten whenever there some local ritual presentation going on or fiestas.
You’re thinking of weaver ants!! They’re a really cool species of ants and have been native to the Philippines for centuries.
They both seem healthy good 👍
I am Mexican and I love this dish, unfortunately I became allergic to it and now I can’t eat escamoles 😩
Great
Wait, how did you suddenly develop an allergy to it?
@@jt4369 It's possible to develop allergies as you grow older, unfortunately. And while IDK if this was the case for M, it is generally true that people who have shellfish allergies will also be allergic to insect foods, since crustaceans (shrimp, crabs, etc.) and insects are relatives. (Did you know that insects are more closely related to crabs than they are to spiders?)
I became allergic to nuts too as a kid after eating like a couple packs of sweets with nuts (ranging from Toffifi to Rafaello), but now that I completely cut off all processed foods from my diet and started fasting on a daily basis I am able to eat larger portions of Wallnuts and Almonds.
It's "Kroto" in my language.. and it used to feed my pet bird.. different ants have different size egg.. and what used to feed my pet bird is mostly smaller than the one on the video.. but sometimes we got the big ones
looking for this comment in the comment section and found 1 haha..
Looks amazing! Would love to try!
Not only did he lay down near a ant nest, he stuck his whole arm and hand in… ain’t no way. I am from fire ant nation tho 😑.
Long ago the four nation...
We have like that in Abra here in Philippines. And it's called "Abuos".
It's VERY cheap here and not that expensive
Unang kain ko niyan na ospital ako pero habang tumatanda nasanay na rin kasi seasonal lang yan at bihirangbihira minasan nasubukan ko kumuha ng ganyan sa farm pinapak ako ng kagat ng hantik
in Assam (Northeast India Region) it is our tradition to eat Red Ant Egg recipe according during Bohag Bihu (New Year of Assamese Calender/Spring season) to get medicinal health benefit rather than eating 101 leafs and veggies on the 1st day of the begining year. The easist method to extract the ant eggs is to use water and a cotton thread/cloth and all the ants will climb up to it. Leafs and bunches will float and rest of the part is very easy extract from mud. You can check any videos from Assam, it is nothing hard other than the bite of ants. It costs arround 400 INR (apprx. $5) only. The best remady to fast relief from ant bite pain is to grab some ants and apply crushing them with hands on the specific parts.
Also it is not harmfull to eat the ants too, if it is the red one that lives on trees. They will give you a tangy crunch while eating the eggs.
This is the best thing that the chef said at the end..we need to understand sustainability, the balance with nature..!
Many species of ants are quite edible and there is quite a variety here in Africa
I would love to try! I love so many cultures to try whatever I can! I've eaten crickets and fried meal worms. I'm a type that will try almost anything once! My family, in this order, Chippewa, Blackfoot, Nigerian and Irish! I would love to come there to visit..
@@Swnsasy You are certainly welcomed.
Yeah I feel like insects are eaten more in regions closer to the equator because there are more insects large/plentiful enough to be worth eating
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Was super shocked to know that something like any caviar existed
I want to try it!
Is there some reason why colonies can't be bred under a controlled environment in a more traditional farm sense?
Supplementing a food source vs time to harvest
They wont have the same flavor if the environment is not the same.
@@lep3984 it's probably possible to mimic the environment
The pungent, gross smell comes from a separate chamber the ants keep for their dead and garbage. It's amazing!
Do they make tacos from the garbage chamber too?
@@dspsblyuth ...no, that's an odd question. Mexicans don't eat garbage, neither do any other people.
@@woofawoof7616 anyone eating at McDonalds is eating garbage so.......
In Vietnam, we eat ant eggs (and even the ants) too. We also make different dishes with the eggs such as sticky rice or steam. The dishes' taste is sweet and flavoured.
How similar/different are they to red (tree) ant eggs? I remember as a child when we used to just throw sling-stone and play with them.
It’s running out due to the climate crisis but the escamole is made up of ant queen eggs!? I think I figured it out lol
There can only be one queen so it really doesn't matter
Ant colonies produce multiple ant queen eggs (as shown in the video, they also say they leave 30-40% so the colony can continue to thrive) the colony will eventually settle on a new queen
So it’s ten ant eggs or a rib eye steak? I think I know what I’m having
I look at these videos for inspiration for my final year project for electrical engineering final year project
This’s an amazing camera u guys are using. Shutter speed has gotta be like 23+
You know what, I saw the clove video, and they explaining why its so expensive, and yet here in Indo we use it for cigarretes (kretek, the most cheap one), and now this, an ant egg, which mostly used by farmer or hobbyist to feed their birds. So it feels strange to me to list them as expensive items, or maybe, is just my country's minimum wages are so damn low.
The thing is that it is expensive because high-end restaurants started offering it a few years ago. Per se, this is farmer's food, but when expensive places market it as an ancient Aztec delicacy (which indeed it is) the value goes up and the craving to eat it even more. They have created so many legends around it, some of them are true, some of them are for the tourists and rich Mexicans only.
@@yafetpalomeque75 ahh I see, thank you for the explanation. So it was marketing after all.
Everything that is abundant in nature is exploited by ppl for profits, good that your country is not doing any such thing.
@@sunnyjoy229 hmm yeah I'm not sure about that, my country is the biggest exporter of palm oil, and they destroyed the remaining forest in borneo for palm plantation.
And also the gold mining, its one of the biggest in the world apparently.
The ant eggs we use in SEA are from weaver ants which are easier to harvest so I suppose that's why it's cheaper
spending my inheritance money on ant eggs
This is so cool!!!, In the North and Northeast part of Thailand we have been eating it even before Thailand became a country. We harvest it from Big red ants nest the nest are hanging on at least 4-5 meters tall tree and we can only harvest it 1 season per year
It's good to see Hector adopt more legal business practices
Why are people hatin on this?
You never tried and yet, you are hating on it
Ignore them, its almost a cultural trend in the US and UK to say how much you would never eat (insert any unfamiliar food).
They will regret not having to do some food exploration
I'm going to do my part in preserving these ants by taking a hard pass on this "delicacy"
Similar to my country and (some ASEAN countries) people find red ant eggs from the nest on trees. The red ants use leaves on tree to make nests. Yummy
the amount of effort they make to scoop up just a few grams guarantees that the taste is really exotic.
Yeah I can’t get over the idea of just eating larvae as a luxury meal that makes me queasy, when they said it’s buttery and pops in your mouth. I’m not a fan of things like that. I’ll pass.
You guys are ridiculously unbelievable. 🤣🤣🤣
😂😂😂Ikr
I'm a little more curious about the aloe flowers. I didn't know you could eat them.
Its the most desired food item during Bihu in Assam , India . Its delicious but its not an easy affair getting thousands of red ants to abandon their nest and eggs . Moreover most red ant nests are on top of trees .
Taste good asf
I wouldn't be surprise if we started to eat "alien caviar from the moon" one day.
I've seen this in the Philippines and Thailand but we get it high in the trees.
yeah omgggg one of my favorite salsa is made with that 🤤🤤 damn can't wait to eat again
I think when ordering this at a restaurant, I musn't know these are ant eggs until i'm done eating or else I won't eat 😩😂
After eating, you will eventually remember and puke😂
then dont eat
They are not ant eggs, they are larvae.
😂😂
Is there anything humans WONT eat?
klo diinidonesia namanya kroto Mas telur dr semut rang rang biasanya banyak dipohon mangga atau rambutan disini biasanya digunakan untuk pakan burung harganya berkisar100rb sd150rb perkilonya
I learned something new today. 😮
Ok what's next? Spider eggs and lizards? 🤮
🤦🏻♂️Everything on earth is not for eating.
Why? It's all just nutritions in the end.
as someone born in village of India i can say that this not only in Mexico but also present in India . in my village we harvest it from mostly top of the mango trees and these are red ants not the black ones , also beside from the caviar we also make ant cutney/sauce and trust me this tatses delicious
This is similar to a local food here called kroto. But kroto is made from different species and is much cheaper.
I will try almost anything out of the ocean or part of a mammal - but bugs are that final frontier I just can’t cross. I absolutely respect the cultures that eat insects, definitely get that they are a good food source for many, and am aware that I’ve consumed many unwittingly as part of processed and grown foods, but I just can’t knowingly devour them. 🫢 That being said, loved the video and all the ones here that highlight these diverse cultures. This family possesses such pride and knowledge of their traditions. Beautiful.
Why is the egg bigger then the ants itself??? Damn respect to the antqueen for laying that big of eggs
its not the egg it is the larva after it goes into its pupa. so right before it comes out as an ant
If there is a shortage of boba pearls, they should use the ant egg caviar.
This food is very common in Assam, India (amloitup) and is consumed as a traditional dish too
its so super yummy and is a delicacy here in the Philippines
Everything on Business Insider has to be very rare, difficult, and risky otherwise it wouldn't be expensive would it? 😂😂
Im glad I am a fluent Spanish speaker because I don’t need subtitles to understand what he’s saying. 😅
In Cambodia, it was a great substitution for lemon in some special cuisine
Cool
I used to play with ants as a kid and saw the larvae