ALL HOPPED UP

Chapulines add crunch to Zocalito’s menu

Order guacamole with chapulines at Zocalito, and even if you’re fluent in Spanish, you might wonder about those crunchy little bits strewn over the top. Chapulines, it turns out, is a specifically Mexican word for grasshoppers.

In a town where the appearance of rabbit or deer on a menu evokes pained expressions from skittish diners, these oily, salty roasted insects are actually proving very popular, and not just with culinary daredevils.

“I brought back a couple of scoops of them (bottom) from Oaxaca last year as an experiment, and the reception was just crazy — my supply was gone in a few weeks,” says Michael Beary, owner-chef of the restaurant on the Hyman Avenue mall.  

He also incorporates them into a relleno of hoja santa leaf and mozzarella with corn and green chili salsas (top) and chicken crepes with green chile de agua salsa. He says roasted grasshoppers are extremely popular in Mexico and elsewhere. “In Oaxaca, they’re even sold in the stands at baseball games,” he says, adding that the United States is one of the few countries in the world whose citizens do not routinely eat insects. “They’re high in protein, not to mention organic and free-range.”