Typically Mexican: Creepy-Crawly Critters in Your Taco

Would you sink your teeth into a grasshopper? Stick a caterpillar on your fork? In Mexico, eating insects is perfectly normal. What’s on the menu, and what does it taste like?

Insects in your taco—that’s a Mexican tradition. Originally, enchiladas and tortillas weren’t filled only with vegetables, beef, or chicken, but often enough with fried maggots, ants, and larvae too. Dare to try?

Gusanos

According to experts, this is the insect for beginners. Will these gusanos help you get over the “ewwww” hurdle? This worm floats at the bottom of your mezcal bottle, which helps: after a few glasses of tequila, you might just be a little braver. Perhaps they used to end up in the mezcal by accident, because these worms eat the plants that mezcal is distilled from. The taste: somewhat earthy. According to some, this worm works like Spanish fly—you’d get pretty frisky from it. Sometimes the worms are dried and finely chopped, then mixed with salt and used as a seasoning. They’re also fried and served with a little guacamole.

Jumiles

Beetles that you eat alive—yes, really. They’re served in tacos, where the lime juice sprinkled over them makes them a little dizzy, and then they wriggle their way into your mouth. They even keep moving after you’ve bitten through them. They taste like fresh mint, but they don’t smell very nice: in English, these little creatures are called “stink bugs.” Protein, so super healthy!

Libelulas

Your Spanish is better than you thought: these are indeed dragonflies. Add a shot of tequila, and eating dragonflies is a tradition in Sonora, in northern Mexico.

Chicatanas

Once a year, these ants take flight; they’re about the size of a five-cent coin. This emergence is a culinary event: children try to catch as many ants as possible, while insect enthusiasts scoop them up in containers. Fry them briefly with a little lime, so those wings don’t prick quite so much. They’re often made into a mole with red chili, salt, and some garlic, which appears on the menu as salsa de chicatanas. It resembles tahini and comes highly recommended with a tortilla—according to experts.

Escamoles

The caviar of Mexico, especially famous in the city of Puebla. Escamoles are the larvae of a specific type of ant; they look like white beans and taste pleasantly nutty. They’re fried with some garlic, onion, and a little butter, and apparently the sensation of a larva popping open in your mouth is absolutely fantastic.

Cuchamás

Packed with protein, so incredibly healthy—these green caterpillars. Picking the caterpillars is a valuable tradition in Mexico, especially among the Indigenous Popoloca and Nahuatl communities. You eat them as a crunchy snack, and of course they can also go in tacos, but by now we’re getting the impression that pretty much anything in Mexico can be put in a taco.

Chapulines

Incredibly popular! Do you find insects a little gross? Team Grasshopper says: these chapulines jump from leaf to leaf and never touch the ground, so they’re very clean little creatures. Munching on a grasshopper with drinks is perfectly ordinary in Mexico—think of them as the equivalent of our bar snacks. With a little salt and chili powder, they’re deliciously crunchy.

Read also:

• Lidl sells crunchy insect snacks
• Strange eggs: can you really eat this?
• 11 remarkable facts about bananas you didn’t know yet

Source: Lonely Planet