Eating cicadas: Dayton pizza restaurant tests out crunchy new recipe

DAYTON — A Dayton restaurant tested out a new pizza recipe by adding a special ingredient that isn’t found on most menus. Cicadas.

The Pizza Bandit, located on 700 East 4th Street, held a Facebook live tasting panel to discuss all things related to cicadas on pizza.

The restaurant said they brought in a food scientist, and even a beer pairing expert to test out the “Spicy Thai Cicada Pie.”

The pizza was described as an 18″ hand-tossed dough with miso hoisin sriracha sauce, mozzarella and provolone, blanched and sautéed locally foraged cicadas, mushroom, cabbage, green onion, mango, cilantro, spicy Thai sauce, and a crunchy cicada wing crust.

“Opinions of the pizza range from absolutely delicious to...well...uh...yeah...” the restaurant said.

The restaurant said the spicy Thai cicada pie hasn’t been added to their menu, but customers can still enjoy many of their other bug-free pizzas.

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