New Experience: Eating Grasshoppers

In southern Mexico it is common to find a species of grasshoppers known as "chapulines": being abundant there, eventually people figured out they could be used as food, and they became a typical dish of the region. Last weekend, Jenn and I went on a date on a very nice Mexican restaurant in Seattle named Poquitos, which was offering chapulines as an appetizer and, given that I hadn't tried them before, I decided to have some.

They are served in a small bowl with a slice of lime, which you should squeeze over them to add a little extra flavor. The bugs are throughly roasted, so there is no "goo" left in them: in fact, they are quite crunchy and have a nice texture as you chew them. They taste good too, especially with lime and salt, although there is an important note I should make: in this restaurant, the chapulines are offered in the traditional southern Mexican way, i.e., really spicy. Given that I'm not a big fan of spicy food, at the end of it my mouth was in flames.

Despite that, I actually liked them, to the point that I see myself ordering them again (but asking to be prepared with no pepper). Some years ago, I had tried roasted crickets, which are also good, but I came to the conclusion that roasted grasshoppers are better: they are bigger and crunchier. In all, I think you should give this a try too - once you overcome your imagination you may discover that they are quite good.




Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Popular posts from this blog

The Longest New Experience: Becoming a Backer on Kickstarter

Image
This is quite a new experience to talk about: from beginning to end it took four years. Let me explain. Most people have heard of Kickstarter , the crowdfunding site, but, for those who hasn't, it works like this: people that have an idea for some creative project (like a new electronic device, stage show, comic book, work of art, among many kinds of things) but don't have the money to actually implement said project can go to the website and register as a "creator". The creator, then, can start a "campaign": it tells all the people who go to the website that if he or she gets enough people to pledge to pay for the creation in advance, the project will get going and those who pledged in advance (which are the "backers") will get the creation first, plus possibly some additional goodies. For example: a comic book creator starts a campaign saying that he will create a brand new story if he gets enough backers to be able to print and publish the book ...
Read more

New Experience: Roller Skating!

Image
This was a very fun new experience: for the first time in my life I tried roller skating! In this case, I'm talking about the old school roller skates: the ones that look like a skate board on your foot, as you may have seen in movies set during the 70's and 80's. In fact, my experience resembled a lot what I've seen in the movies, with the lights and everybody going around having a great time. I had always wanted to try roller skating, and fortunately for me I found a perfect place for that:  Southgate Roller Rink  (by the way, it seems that their website hasn't changed since the 90's...), an old school roller skating rink in South Seattle. Honestly, the place felt like it was stuck in time in the 80's, but it was in good shape. I went there this afternoon, and I paid just sixteen dollars to enter the rink and get a pair of skates. During the afternoon the place has lots and lots of kids, and in fact there was a birthday party going on there. It made for a ...
Read more

New Experience: Sweet and Spicy Peeps

Image
Easter is coming and in the US that includes the tradition of eating Peeps. For those who don't know, Peeps are a candy made by a small company in the United States, which very simply consists of a piece of marshmallow shaped like a little chick with bright colors and two dots for "eyes". They are popular around Easter time and as the years passed, the company has tried variations of the candy. This year they are coming up with something brand new: chili-lime-mango flavored peeps. One of my friends saw that at the grocery store and her reaction was to write to me and dare me to try them. I obliged. I just had three of them, to be sure that I was having the full experience. However, the first one already left a very clear impression: it is a cacophony of flavors, many of which don't belong together, with only a barely noticeable hint of lime and I couldn't detect any mango flavor at all (and I had many mangoes in my life). I don't like spicy food in general, b...
Read more