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closeIt's not on every trip that you find out that crickets taste surprisingly like potato chips.
But if you travel for cooking inspiration like Jessica and Mataio Gillis do, it's bound to come up sooner or later.
"Mataio is more adventurous as far as eating bugs in Thailand," Jessica says. "He said crickets taste like potato chips."
Insect-roasting recipes aren't the kind of thing they're looking to bring back to Bellingham and incorporate into their menus at Ciao Thyme catering. The couple tries everything from street food to four-star restaurants in search of stand-out flavors and new cooking techniques.
"I think part of the way we've built our company is by keeping ourselves fresh and not getting stagnant," says Jessica, 31, who co-owns Ciao Thyme with her husband, Mataio. "We're constantly looking for new spices and flavors and new ways to serve things, maybe new ingredients we haven't used before. That's what keeps us interested in our jobs."
In the past, they've traveled to Thailand and Mexico for gastronomical inspiration, and next year they will explore the tastes of Italy and the Dominican Republic.
"Wherever we go, we try to hook up with local folks," Jessica says. "Or we'll find great street food and see if we can hang out with them for a day."
In Mexico, they ate rotisserie pork with pineapple, sliced fresh into tacos.
"In watching that and eating 20 tacos each, (we decided) we had to bring something like that home," Jessica says of the al pastor, the drum in which the pork was cooked.
They scoured villages looking for the man who made the al pastor until they found him, bought a drum and brought it home.
Now that they have two young children, their travel has become more localized. This year, they visited San Francisco and Portland, Ore.
"We do a couple different kinds of travel," Jessica says. "Usually when we're traveling in this country, we travel to see what's happening in restaurants and the food scene. When we're traveling abroad, we're also looking at food, not just restaurants but street food, and taking cooking classes and getting into the cuisine."
Jessica is a particular fan of the saying, "If we eat together, we're a community."
"That resonates with me," she says. "I love being able to become part of other people's communities, with my food and my travel."
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