DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — With so much buzz around cicadas lately, some customers decided to ask an Ohio restaurant to put the red-eyed bugs on their pizza.
The Pizza Bandit, in Dayton, agreed and went live on Facebook with what they said was an expert pizza panel to discuss all things cicada pizza and to test the “Spicy Thai Cicada Pie.”
“From a distance this pie looks delightful but once you get closer you realize those are no raisins…,” the restaurant wrote in a Facebook post.
The pizzeria said “blanched and sautéed locally foraged cicadas” top the 18-inch hand-tossed pizza, which includes miso hoisin sriracha sauce, mozzarella and provolone, mushroom, cabbage, green onion, mango and cilantro, with a spicy Thai sauce added after the bake.
It also has “a Cicada wing adorned crust!”
“These crunchy cicadas add a heck of a note to an otherwise wonderful Thai inspired pie,” the restaurant said, adding that “opinions of the pizza range from absolutely delicious to…well…uh…yeah…”
The Pizza Bandit said the pizza was only a one-time thing.
“You can NOT get this pizza by the slice or whole pie because we’re not even sure if we legally can sell you locally foraged Cicadas,” the pizzeria wrote on Facebook, adding that it has “tons of other delicious pizzas” available.
The Brood X cicadas awaken every 17 years, and they are emerging by the billions, if not trillions, in 15 states in the East and Midwest.
