Chapulines!
Feb 9th, 2008 by Neena
The delights of eating in Oaxaca – Fried Grasshoppers
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The way to eat Chapulines is to wrap them in a tortilla, fry it, cut it in small pieces and eat it with guacamole. |
At the End of a Long Drive
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We didn't make the decision, the decision made us. On October 20th, 2007, we left our comfortable city of San Francisco to follow a simple algorithm - go North till the road ends then turn around and then go as far South. In between those two points was the stage, the timeline, the space, where we made things happen and things happened to us.
The past is fleeting and the stories, the sights and the feelings are perishable. One sees what one wants to see, and perhaps we are not capable of more. We saw that people are kind and helpful even if they were not materially rich. Some we could understand even though we didn't speak the same language, the motivations of others were incomprehensible even though we did. In the end fragments remain - the smell of roasting chocolate, a flock of snow Ptarmigians on snow, the creaking of the rainforest, the rough feathers of penguins, and the intoxication of Curanto.
So these are our stories. Every time you visit the site you will see a random post below. Each starts with Lo que pasa es que...
They look yummy to me. I look forward to trying them sometime on a future trip. Enjoy!
Ada
Is there a way to describe what is the taste like? It likes like those shrimp from the lake to me, wonder if they taste similiar or not.
🙂
I hope the grasshoppers go really well with the tequila worms.
Did you eat ’em?
You can use that picture to hypnotize me anytime!
I have eaten one Chapulino so far. It was of the big variety, like the ones in the picture, and it was a bit too sour for my taste. It was a little chewy, but otherwise did not taste like muchof anything.
Our land-lady in Oaxaca says that one must remove the back legs first ortherwise they scratch the throat. I did not have that problem but the smaller ones are supposedly tastier. Some Chapuline tacos will be consumed soon…
The grasshoppers in the picture reminded me of the locust we ate in Africa (Dar-es-salaam). They were not spiced up but were simply roasted on the tin with the fire underneath. Although they tasted OK, I could eat more than a couple simply because of the thought that they were locust.
Do you remember about it Shreesh?
Aai
Aai-
I do remember that locust scene quite well. They were roasting them on the material normally used for roofing. Your Christan friend was with us (Dr. Sundar Rajan??) and she made a sign of the cross before popping one in her mouth.
I recall I removed the head, the wings, and the legs – consuming only the thorax of the beast. Tasted like chicken?
Dear Shreesh & Neena,
The smaller, crispier chapulines you can get at some of the restaurants in the Zocolo (with guacamole!) are more appetizing than the rather gross, squelchy spcimens that the Indian ladies sell on the street.
Bon appetito!