Mexico City snacks: chapulines, or toasted grasshoppers

Mexico City - Food, a photo by dharmabum90 on Flickr.

Chapulines, plural for chapulín, are grasshoppers of the genus Sphenarium, that are commonly eaten in certain areas of Mexico, says Wikipedia.

The term is specific to Mexico and derives from the Nahuatl word chapolin.

They are collected and after being thoroughly cleaned and washed, they are toasted on a comal (clay cooking surface) with garlic, lime juice and salt containing extract of agave worms, lending a sour-spicy-salty taste to the finished product.