Brooklyn Bugs

Sharing the impact of edible insects on global food systems & the UN’s SDGs • Chef, Edible Insect Ambassador, Explorer, Speaker, Artist - Joseph Yoon 🇰🇷🇺🇸

Edible Insect Ambassador—featured in global media, normalizing insect protein, demonstrating how, and making it fun & delicious!

08/24/2026

I was a little tired after traveling last week, and had a delightful weekend with friends, but also realized that my garden was exploding full of peppers and felt compelled to cook them on Sunday. This was one of my preparations with the Korean 고추 (gochu or pepper), that I ferment with a cricket kimchi sauce and cicada nymphs.

I love this type of preparation as I can eat this over a long period, enjoy the deepening flavors of the fermentation, and appreciate the labor from my gardening throughout the year. Hopefully I’ll get to share some of this with you at a dinner party in the coming months.

Happy Monday, xox Joseph

08/21/2026

I love the feeling of being entirely exhausted - physically, mentally, emotionally - when it’s juxtaposed with the jubilation of not just hosting a successful event, but when the stakeholders from the event have a mutual glow-up and desire to continue building off the success towards larger and more impactful initiatives.

We just returned from University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Nebraska Entomology, Nebraska Innovation Campus as one of the Keynote Speakers for their Arthropodium 2026, and hosted the “Bugeaters” (the former mascot for UNL) canapé reception. There are so many people to acknowledge and thank for making this all possible, but we initially wanted to focus on the MCC Institute of Culinary Arts team who donated the food and volunteered chefs and students to make an incredible spread of ten dishes for the event. Special thanks to NE Food Science & Technology for allowing us to prepare all the food out of your space as well.

And last but not least, thanks to our sponsors for providing us with their high-quality and delicious edible insects - 3 Cricketeers, ThailandUnique for the event.

08/14/2026

What an incredible journey it’s been to share our work across six continents with these incredible institutions over the past nine years. We are now actively booking from the Fall of 2026 to the end of 2027, and would love to discuss meaningful ways we can bring our programming to your university, museum, conference, or institution.

Please feel free to contact us for more information, and we will also share more info in the coming weeks of the customizable programming we can offer to you.

A truly heartfelt thank you to all the organizations who have been a part of our growing work and metamorphosis.

08/12/2026

I typically eat insects multiple times a day when I’m home, and just try to cook vegetarian dishes bolstered by the flavor, texture, and nutrition of edible insects. After many months of delay, we’re finally preparing to launch some initiatives that will allow for you to learn and bring this ento-culinary experience to your home kitchens soon. We look forward to sharing these upcoming opportunities with you.

This is a black bean sauce, a derivative of the Korean 짜장면 (jjajangmyeon) that I make from scratch and enhance with the nutty umami of 3 Cricketeers cricket powder. I also rehydrated a bean mix, and have aromatics and veggies like onions, carrots, garlic, and kale in the bean sauce.

I almost always make extra cricket cheese sauce when I make my Mac n Cheese, and I add it to virtually everything—it was a delightful addition (my first time doing so) to this dish. Finished with a garden fresh hot pepper.

Using up the last of my CSA veggies from Delano Farms at Kalamazoo Nature Center | Michigan Hiking Trails and thinking nostalgically of my time there, and the many new friendships formed in SW Michigan over the course of my residency.

08/11/2026

Nothing fancy, but really hit the spot to eat this delicious lunch last week only utilizing the produce I got from Delano Farms CSA at Kalamazoo Nature Center | Michigan Hiking Trails. Made a Mac n Cheese with roasted leeks, garlic, zucchini, and cricket powder in the cheese sauce, and finished with seasoned roasted crickets from 3 Cricketeers, and a massaged kale salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots.

The funny thing about this lunch was that none of the people eating had ever tried massaged kale salad! I guess they missed the craze when it became trendy ten years ago…maybe we can try making crickets trendy like kale this year?! What do you think? 😉🤓🤩😋😘

08/07/2026

I’m honored to share this presentation that I gave for The Explorers Club, “Dispatches from the Field,” that brings members together to share about our work and inspiration as members of the club. The greatest challenge I probably had was shortening this lecture to just twenty minutes! Haha.

Beyond a broad intro to edible insects, and the responsibility we should carry to show dignity and respect to other people’s cultures and practices, I took this opportunity to discuss what exploration means to me and the responsibility I feel as a member of the prestigious club.

Two hours prior to the presentation, I had a momentary panic attack questioning why I was talking about what exploration and being a member means to me—to a group of truly remarkable explorers…I was thankfully able to quiet the inner critic, and have conviction on why I was invited to share this presentation—“How Six Continents of Bugs Changed What I Know About Exploration.”

Special thanks to Brandi De Carli for putting the Dispatches program together at the club, and including me on the list of the amazing alumni 🦗🐜🪲🦂🦗

https://youtu.be/lGu0d79uBVQ?is=Fkqlvfa9V48Qq-zY

08/06/2026

A fun video we recorded a few years ago—seems like another lifetime actually! Please enjoy 🦋🦋

08/05/2026

Food is among the best reminders of people and places for me, so I loved bringing home produce from the Delano Farm CSA at Kalamazoo Nature Center | Michigan Hiking Trails. I bought some extra garlic since they’ll keep well, and have steadily been working my way through this delicious share. I love that you get to walk through their fields and pick your own larger produce, in addition to having an area where you can pick up the smaller produce already harvested. Oh, and picking your flowers from their garden was so dreamy!

The day after I went to the CSA, I invited the KNC Conservation Steward Team over for lunch, and loved utilizing some of the fresh produce to create an ento-tasting menu for them that included a cricket curry (with their potatoes, onions, and kale), Brood XIX tempura cicadas, cricket tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes with their kale), cricket brown rice, watermelon-kale-feta-mint-black ant salad, cricket black bean tostadas and guacamole, cricket hummus and crudités, roasted potatoes and zucchini, cricket gochujang, and cricket aji sauce.

Now I’m hungry 😉😋

07/31/2026

What an incredibly rewarding and beautiful experience as the Terry Todd Keynote Speaker at Kalamazoo Nature Center | Michigan Hiking Trails. Truly magical to stay at their amazing Heronwood Field Station over the past two weeks and integrate myself into the southwestern Michigan community. Couldn’t decide which pic to include from the tasting dinner we held at Heronwood so I included both 🤗🤩

I’ll share more pics from our programming and the food we prepared next week. A big, squishy heartfelt thanks to everyone at The Nature Center, and everyone who took part in our programming.

07/27/2026

I was gifted some fresh corn and made myself these delicious elote-inspired corn dishes: black ants with cricket gochujang-mayo; grasshoppers with cricket aji-mayo; and silkworm pupae with cricket gochujang-mayo. Finished them off with a squeeze of fresh lime, grated cheese, and cilantro.

I ate one ear of boiled corn plain to taste the deliciousness of my first fresh corn of the summer, and then devoured these with aplomb. Enjoying the last few days here in Kalamazoooo!

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