Chapulines! Are you missing your favorite delicacy?

In Oaxaca, upon entry to any market, no matter how small or large, you can’t avoid the little native ladies selling chapulines.  The delicacy (I assume for those who have an addicted taste for them) is piled into tall piles and come, apparently in different flavors and sizes.  What are they, you ask?  Fried grasshoppers, which have the appearance, as you might expect, of dead bugs.  The sales ladies are more than happy to offer you samples as you pass by, so that you will learn of their excellent taste and crunchy texture.

 

Today we were in the downtown Juarez Mercado and I realized that I had not mentioned chapulines in any of my articles, although the product is so persuasive in Oaxaca.  Have I tried them yet?  Are you crazy, I am a very bland and fearful eater.  I will stick with peanuts, which by the way, are very good in bulk here, although you sometimes get some that are very, very salty.  At the beginning of my blog I may have made a deprecating comment about the local coffee.  I was reading today about an excellent coffee shop named La Antigua on Reforma Street, behind the Santo Domingo church.  They grow and roast their own Oaxacan coffee and we now have a pound of their Pluma Oaxaca beans.  They must export it to the U.S. as it has a stamp on it saying “USDA Organic.”  Can’t beat that!  I will report down the line on how it turns out.

 Oh, by the way here is what is said about chapulines on Wikipedia:

They are collected only at certain times of year (from their hatching in early May through the late summer/early autumn). After being thoroughly cleaned and washed, they are toasted on a comal (clay cooking surface) with garlic, lime juice and salt containing extract of agave worms, lending a sour-spicy-salty taste to the finished product. Sometimes the grasshoppers are also toasted with chili, although it can be used to cover up for stale chapulines.

One of the regions of Mexico where chapulines are most widely consumed is Oaxaca, where they are sold as snacks at local sports events and are becoming a revival among foodies.  It's debated how long Chapulines have been a food source in Oaxaca. There is one reference to grasshoppers that are eaten in early records of the Spanish conquest, in early to mid 16th century.

I think I will let Bob White or Tom Boyd try them next week when they join us here at the casa.  They are surely more adventuresome eaters than I am.  One other event we experienced today was a walkthrough of the Quinta Real Hotel (formerly the Camino Real), which is one of the top hotels here in Oaxaca.  It is right behind the Santo Domingo church and is a converted and restored convent.  It is very beautiful and the pricing on TripAdvisor reflects that, with starting prices of $200+ per night.

 

Chapulines at Benito Juarez Mercado.

We did taste test them!

 

Quirky Living Note

 

School Kids – We see thousands of school children in Oaxaca, as the first session of the day ends about 1 p.m. when we are often moving about the city.  The thing that is amazing is not that they all wear uniforms with colors and logos depicting their school, but that they are so overdressed for the temperature here.  Girls are most often wearing blouses, wool sweaters, wool skirts, and white knee high stockiSngs.  They obviously are not bothered by the 90 degree heat.  The boys will often have jackets or sweaters over polo shirts and sweat pants or black wool trousers.