SAN FRANCISCO – Monica Martinez arrived at a test kitchen in the Mission District one recent morning and placed her key ingredients gently on a metal table.

"I'm not one hundred percent satisfied with the crickets, so I'm going to try to push the recipe a little bit today," Martinez said, opening a small plastic container of the inch-long insects, which lay, deceased, on a paper towel.

Martinez, an artist and chef, has a permit to open what is perhaps the nation's first food cart specializing in edible insects. This year she has been serving her entomological creations at food fairs and underground foodie events, tweaking the dishes she plans to showcase at Don Bugito.

Even in San Francisco, a food mecca where carts offer fusion cuisine from every corner of the globe, Martinez's start-up is unusual. She envisions it not just as a way to introduce edible bugs to the public palate, but also as a device to teach about cultural history and a sustainable food ecosystem.

"I would like to see (insects) in stores eventually," said Martinez. "At first I was afraid it would be a novelty, but now it's clear it isn't. The audience is very open here."

Don Bugito was one of the most popular vendors at last summer's Street Food Festival, which featured food by aspiring chefs from Ethiopia, El Salvador, West Africa and Ireland. Customers lined up to sample her cricket salad, wax moth larvae tacos and toffee mealworms.

Although most people in the United States still consider insects something to eradicate rather than stir fry, a niche market has evolved. There are websites, blogs and books detailing how to procure, cook and clean them. Elsewhere in the world, bugs are a regular part of the diet, often by necessity and sometimes as a sought-after delicacy.

"European countries are the only ones that lack the cultural awareness and connection (to eat bugs)," said Lynn Kimsey, an entomology professor at UC Davis and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, who routinely tries local insects when she travels, though she draws the line at stinkbugs. ("I don't like the flavor," she says.)

Bugs are a good source of protein and healthy fat, Kimsey said. Pound for pound, they may require fewer resources than farm animals to produce.

"There's the old saw, 'you are what you eat,' so how could anything that only eats wood be bad?" she said. "People will eat crabs, and you know how they make a living. They are bottom feeders. But they won't eat mealworms that live on oatmeal. We live in such a sanitized world. People are uncomfortable eating anything out of the ordinary."

Martinez recalls eating certain varieties growing up in Mexico City, when she visited relatives in the countryside. But that's not her primary inspiration. She became interested in food architecture – spaces where food is grown and stored – after studying design and architecture in art school in Boston and later at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Architects have long been interested in how bees, ants and other bugs build their nests. Martinez's curiosity led her to build a series of beetle condos, the most successful divided into two parts, one for the bugs and the other for their larvae, which she harvested and cooked. Last year she gave a presentation on edible insects at an art salon named Critter run by artist Philip Ross, who is now her husband.

About the time she got serious about cooking insects, she discovered La Cocina, a nonprofit that helps low-income women and immigrants start food businesses. She is now one of 28 entrepreneurs at the incubator, which offers help with business plans and cooking techniques and rents low-cost kitchen space.

"Monica was one of the more unusual people we interviewed," said Matt Skov, kitchen and facilities manager at La Cocina. "There are a lot of people who want to learn about what she's doing."

In the kitchen, as Martinez roasted crickets, other chefs sliced ducks, mixed tamale filling and cut cookies. If the crickets had an aroma, it was overpowered by the smell of chili and paprika from across the room.

The flavors and spices she uses – tomatillos, pasilla peppers, jicama, prickly pear – are influenced by pre-Hispanic and Mexican cuisine. The bugs, except for those she uses for testing, come from insect farms in Southern California.

When the crickets were done, Martinez tossed them into a colander to remove the wings and legs.

"It's kind of like what they are doing over there," she said, pointing at a team processing ducks. "I don't have to remove organs, but I have to take off the legs. Well, I don't have to, but it looks better."

She popped one into her mouth. "These guys are pretty good," she said, offering them to her guests, as well to the duck chefs. They were crisp and nutty, for an insect.

"Delicious," said Gabriel Cole, a food consultant. "And nutritious. We should all be eating lower on the food chain. I hope it catches on."

If all goes as planned, Martinez will be in business early next year.

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Katherine Seligman is a San Francisco-based freelance writer.

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