Sun Min, 18, smiles broadly as he holds up his favourite everyday side-dish, silkworm pupae, to his mouth.

Canned silkworm pupae, which are easily accessible in Korean supermarkets all around Sydney, have been Sun Min’s best friend since he was a ten-year old.

“Silkworm pupae are what helped me grow so tall. I am 173 centimetres tall, which might not be much, but I am the tallest in my family,” Sun claims.

His parents thought their own heights—160 and 162 centimetres—will reflect on their child’s growth and looked for anything that would enhance the growth for their little “picky eater.”

“I never liked anything that was too salty or too sweet and never finished my own small dish. But when I first tried silkworm pupae in Busan eight years ago, I immediately fell in love with it.”

Busan, the second largest city in South Korea, has beaches where most boiled pupae street venders are located.

“When my parents saw how much I, the very picky eater, could eat boiled silkworm pupae, they decided to put that on the side dish for every meal—just for me.”

Sun says his sister, Yun Min, 15, would never eat “such a thing.” While his parents do not mind the smell of pupae and sometimes eat them as well, his sister could never tolerate the smell and sight of it.

“She had to get used to it because I wouldn’t eat without my ‘pupa delight.’ But one thing that made my sister say good-bye to me with a smile when I moved to Australia was the fact that she will never see pupae on the dinner table again.”

He adds that pupa is the most delicious thing that tastes only slightly salty and mostly crispy. “The best part of eating it is when you first crush the thing and the soup inside bursts out, spreading in your mouth.”

Not only has it been the source to promote Sun’s growth and happiness, it has also been his beauty secret: he explains that the much abundant proteins in pupae have prevented his face from becoming overcome with pimples.

“The pimples started ‘blooming’ in my face a few months before I’ve first tasted pupae. After a month of eating pupae at every meal, the face cleared, like magic.”

The Korean restaurant in Pitt Street used to have pupae-cooked dishes, but to Sun’s disappointment, they changed their entire menu and excluded them.

Such event, according to Sun, was the biggest mistake the restaurant owner has ever made. “It made me feel as though I have lost my long best friend. Now I just have to stick with the canned pupae, but that’s alright.”

Sun is optimistic with being able to purchase them in Sydney at all and declares that he will never stop having them every meal until he feels he has had enough of it, if that ever happens.