Supermarket shoppers in the western German city of Aachen have stepped out of their comfort zone to sample insect burgers made from mealworms.

德国西部亚琛市的一家超市请顾客大胆试吃用黄粉虫制成的虫肉汉堡。

The mealworms, highly nutritious¹ thanks to their high protein content, are the larvae² of buffalo³ or mealworm beetles⁴ and are bred in the Netherlands.

这种蛋白质含量高的黄粉虫很有营养，是水牛甲虫的幼虫，在荷兰培育繁殖。

Served in rolls with lettuce⁵, onions and tomatoes, they are being offered to customers of the Rewe supermarket chain after proving successful in the Netherlands and Belgium.

这种虫子和生菜、洋葱、西红柿一起夹在面包中，面向雷弗连锁超市的顾客销售。这种虫肉汉堡已经在荷兰和比利时取得了成功。

One passerby⁶ who tried the burger, Manfred Roedder, said it was a good alternative to meat, adding: “I had reservations at first, but I got a second serving because it tasted so good.”

一名尝试过虫肉汉堡的路人曼弗雷德·罗德表示，这是一个不错的普通肉类替代品。他还说：“我一开始也有点疑虑，但后来因为它太美味了，我又要了第二个。”

Baris Özel, the co-founder of the Bugfoundation start-up that makes the burgers, said he spent four years working on the concept along with fellow co-founder Max Krämer. The pair got the idea after travelling together to south-east Asia, where it is not uncommon⁷ to eat insects.

制造虫肉汉堡的初创企业Bugfoundation公司的联合创始人巴里斯·约策尔说，他和另一位创始人麦克思·克雷默花了四年时间一起打磨这个创意。两人在一起去过东南亚后产生了这一想法。在东南亚，吃虫子并不罕见。

“It’s quite simple. You have to create an aesthetic⁸ product that looks good and doesn’t show any insects,” Özel said, adding that people were attracted by the smell of the burgers. But not everyone is sure about them.

约策尔说：“很简单。你要做的就是打造出一个卖相好的汉堡产品——外观好看、但不显露出任何昆虫。”他还表示，人们被虫肉汉堡的香气吸引了，但不是每个人都敢吃。

“We have people who are totally thrilled to find out about the whole thing and have been looking forward to it for days,” said supermarket manager Michael Reinartz. “And we have people who say, ‘you’re not seriously doing that?’”

超市经理迈克尔·赖纳茨说：“有人在得知虫肉汉堡的消息之后非常兴奋，并为此期待多日。也有人表示：你们不是认真的吧？”