Food, glorious food!

I've been to markets and large Mexican grocery stores. I love to cook and bought lots of exotic ingredients.  I've been asked, "What is that and what are you going to do with it?"  My reply? I'm not sure but there must be some answer on the web.  So I am cooking some but the restaurants are so fun and when we're out and about... we have to try them. Here's a sampling, a taste of Oaxaca!

We're not in jail- we're inside, away from the pesky pigeons. 

The two in the background are small botanas or appetizers- pickled carrots and spicy peanuts with a squirt of lime. Delicious.
The frothy drink is a virgin pina colada- very refreshing on a hot day.
And the soup was a wonderful classic tortilla soup with a large chili in the middle. I didn't eat the chili. 

This is an Oaxacan tamal.or Zapotec actually One tamale. They plaster the masa or ground corn on the banana leaf and add chicken and dark mole sauce.  It's not like a wonderful green corn tamale in Tucson. So far- my least favorite dish. 

Last but not least... a lovely dish of fresh lettuce ( I didn't eat that either- was it washed? Who knows?) But I did enjoy the fresh tomato so clearly I'm not a purist here. The frioles or beans were yummy. And the brown in the tortilla shell? Chapulines. Translation? Grasshoppers. Fried. Tastes like bacon with a slight aftertaste of...dirt?

They are collected only at certain times of year (from their hatching in early May through the late summer/early autumn). After being thoroughly cleaned and washed, they are toasted on a comal (broad flat cookware) with garlic, lime juice and salt containing extract of agave worms (more yum....), lending a sour-spicy-salty taste to the finished product. Sometimes the grasshoppers are also toasted with chili, although it can be used to cover up for stale chapulines.

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. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapulines#/media/File:Chapulines_de_Oaxaca.jpg

You see them all over the markets and I had to try them once. I've eaten worse things. 

And they are full of protein. 

Another adventure in the land of friendly people
and
tasty new food!