Making sense of the wackiest food at the NRA Show

Around the Restaurant Business office I’ve earned a bit of a reputation. You see, I’m willing to try just about any food. I’m not asserting that Andrew Zimmern would bow in my presence, but I have eaten more than one kind of eyeball. News has spread of my love for trying new foods for kicks, and now strange gas station snacks and hangover cures tend to wind up on my desk. At the National Restaurant Association Show, I’ve decided to use my special powers of choking down even the most unsavory of foods for the good of restaurateurs everywhere. I scoured the show floor to find the strangest show bites with the best business legs, and here’s what I found.

Meeting at the nexus of high protein and gluten-free, chips made with cricket flour are not as crazy as they sound. They satiate a core base of health-conscious consumers and adventure-seeking young people. The demand is definitely there, as Wayback Burger proved last year. The chain originally announced cricket milkshakes as an April Fools joke last year and ended up rolling out the cricket-powder shakes due to customer demand.

From my perspective, offering an edible plate makes more sense than not. Of course sustainability and labor savings are the most obvious advantages. But as a millennial, the thought of a zero-clean up experience is just incredibly appealing. And I’m not alone in my appreciation for efficiency, or what others might call laziness. After all, my generation did cut ties with cereal because it’s too labor intensive.

As America’s insatiable craving for heat wages on, spicy peanut butter is an easy way to cross-utilize products already in-house. It’s a little familiar, a little dangerous and can be used for sweet or savory applications.

While old-fashioned sweets are certainly en vogue, adding alcohol and a fun delivery system to the mix makes this treat instantly fresh and interactive.