Saturday, March 4, 2017

Mexico: Juarez: Fourth Date: Grasshoppers and Cow Udders



Fried chapulines - grasshoppers - Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. February 2017.




This visit to Juarez was my time for adventurous eating. Chapulines and tacos de ubre.

As soon as I saw the shiny buckets of grasshoppers - crickets? - I knew I had to have some.


Fried chapulines - grasshoppers - Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. February 2017.

Fried chapulines - grasshoppers - Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. February 2017.


They cost 35 pesos, or about $1.50 USD, for about 2/3 cup.

Fried chapulines - grasshoppers - Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. February 2017.

Fried chapulines - grasshoppers - Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. February 2017.

You can have 'em with lime or with hot sauce. Or both, I guess. I chose lime, but I soon set that aside just to munch on the crispy crickets alone. Tasty.

Some more shots of the chapulines at the bottom of this post. And some info here and here and here on the delectables. It doesn't seem that chapulines are actually in season right now, so I don't know the story on these that I saw in February. Could be from last year's crop; could be some grasshopper species outside the traditional chapulin.

For lunch, I had four diminutive tacos. With the help of another customer, I noted my filling options included tripe (tripa), liver (hígado), steak (bistec), cow udder (ubre), and some other choices.

I went with liver and cow udder. The liver tasted like liver and the cow udder was surprisingly flavorful.

Ubre tacos (on left) and hígado (liver) tacos on right, Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. February 2017.


Lunch cost 28 pesos - 18 pesos for the tacos and 10 pesos for the bottle of Coke Light. 28 pesos is about $2.50 USD.

Apparently, cooked cow udders used to be quite commonplace in Great Britain a couple of generations ago. Here's someone who really went to town with cow udder. Here's a roasted cow udder recipe. 

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