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Would you eat a grasshopper? In Oaxaca, it’s been a tasty tradition for thousands of years
Chapulines are toasted grasshoppers eaten in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they are a seasonal treat that follows the start of the rainy season. Sellers, mostly women called chapulineras, catch them in the early morning in alfalfa and maize fields, then boil them to a deep red and toast them on a comal with garlic, lemon, chile and a salt mix. Grasshoppers have been eaten there for thousands of years, and a Franciscan friar, Bernardino de Sahagún, described them in 1577 as a beloved seasonal food. Insects are high in protein, and they served as a reliable food during famines and in the Mexican Revolution. Today, tourists buy them, but local families who have eaten them for generations remain the main customers.
Grasshoppers are rich in protein and easy to gather in large numbers when they swarm in fields during the rainy season. Boiling them loosens the skin and fixes their red color, and toasting with lime, chile and salt gives them their crunch and flavor.
Chapulines show how an ancient food survived colonial disruption and modern tourism, and how an Indigenous food tradition still supports rural women's incomes in Oaxaca.
Oaxaca's chapulines have been recorded since the 16th century, when Sahagún described them.
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Chapulines, plural for chapulín (Spanish: [tʃapuˈlin] ), are grasshoppers of the genus Sphenarium that are commonly eaten in certain areas of Mexico. The term is specific to Mexico and Central America, and derives from the Nahuatl word chapolin [t͡ʃaˈpolin] (singular) or chapolimeh [t͡ʃapoˈlimeʔ] (plural).
They are collected only at certain times of year (from their hatching in early May through the late summer/early autumn). They are toasted on a comal. Often they are seasoned with garlic, lime juice, chilies and/or salt.
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 revived among foodies. There is one reference to grasshoppers that are eaten in early records of the Spanish conquest, in early to mid-16th century.
From Wikipedia: Chapulines (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗ · text CC BY-SA 4.0
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Illustrative photo · Nanahuatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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