There is a lovely restaurant nearby serving up Oaxacan foods and a wonderful variety of salads named after Mexicans of note. My favorite salad has fresh strawberries, blueberries, grilled shrimp and a tasty vinaigrette. We were there yesterday for lunch and I was faced with the restaurant dilemma. You know, get your favorite dish because it’s your favorite and you know you’ll enjoy it or get something new because who knows, it might become your new favorite.
Hmm, I see that salad with oaxacan cheese, cherry tomatoes and sunflower seeds, perfect. I’m sipping on a refreshing glass of agua de tamarindo when a salad drowned in little grasshoppers is placed in front of me. Should have paid better attention to that word chapulines.
So, I try to be culinarily open minded (or open mouthed) but Mexico has really put me to the test on several occasions. For example, I appreciate that people eat every part of an animal and let nothing go to waste but I really really don’t want to eat brain or lip tacos. I think it’s great that people eat insects, they are abundant, crunchy, salty, I’m sure very delicious but it requires fighting some “instincts” (probably learned) to eat a salad with spiky arthropod legs all over it. I didn’t have a camera but you can google chapulines to get an idea.
With closed eyes and some careful lettuce to grasshopper ratios I ate that salad. Can’t say it was always with pleasure but the chapulines are a great crispy, salty-lime addition to an otherwise totally unadventurous salad.
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