Street vendors selling deep-fried insects as snacks are a familiar sight in Bangkok, but a Thai entrepreneur is trying to give edible bugs a more upmarket appeal.
Panitan Tongsiri will launch his HiSo brand of seasoned insect snacks this month and plans to stock them in gourmet food markets around the capital.
Crunchy crickets and worms will be available in plain salt, cheese, seaweed and barbecue flavours at 25 baht a pack, the 29-year-old businessman said.
"I want to elevate their level from what is considered street food into something safe and modern," Mr Panitan said.
Many in the West shy away from fried worms and cicadas, but the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says eating insects has health benefits, and they could be a food source for the world's growing population.
"Insects are a highly nutritious and healthy food source with high fat, protein, vitamin, fibre and mineral content," it said in a 2013 report.
Bettina Lasbeck, 52, was one of the first to try the HiSo insect snacks at a tasting session in Bangkok recently.
"It tastes better than I thought," she said.
Crickets and worm snacks are sold outside bustling pubs and bars in Thailand and neighbouring countries, usually as an accompaniment to beer and whisky.
But the Southeast Asian working-class snack is slowly finding a place in gourmet European cuisine.
French culinary arts school Le Cordon Bleu held a seminar entitled "Edible Insects in a Gastronomic Context" in Bangkok last month.
"It's been a challenge to overcome our own prejudices about insects," said Christophe Mercier, an instructor at the Paris-based school.
"For most of the Westerners in the team including me, it took some courage to break the psychological barrier."
Mr Mercier said he was pleasantly surprised by the results, adding that extracting the flavours could lead to "infinite applications in cooking".
The market potential for HiSo delicacies is huge in terms of both taste and food security, Mr Panitan said.
But the insects can still be hard to swallow. "If you eat without looking, no problem," Ron Lavive said as he tried fried worms in Bangkok for the first time. "If I look, not good." REUTERS